Nation Radio South Coast is a

classic hits Classic hits is a radio format which generally includes songs from the top 40 music charts from the late 1960s to the early 2000s, with music from the 1980s serving as the core of the format. Music that was popularized by MTV in the early 1980s ...

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

broadcasting on 106

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one he ...

& 106.6

FM, on DAB on the South Hampshire multiplex across the

South Coast South Coast is a name often given to coastal areas to the south of a geographical region or major metropolitan area. Geographical Australia *South Coast (New South Wales), the coast of New South Wales, Australia, south of Sydney * South Coast (Q ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and on

DAB+ DAB, dab, dabs, or dabbing may refer to: Dictionaries * ''Dictionary of American Biography'', published under the auspices of the American Council of Learned Societies * ''Dictionary of Australian Biography'', published since 1949 Places * Dąb, ...

across a limited area on the Portsmouth small scale trial multiplex. The station is owned by

Nation Broadcasting Nation Broadcasting is a British media company headquartered in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales. It currently owns and operates twelve Independent Local Radio stations across the United Kingdom. History Originally known as Town and Country Broa ...

which was under a licensing agreement with operator

Bauer Radio Bauer Media Audio UK is a UK-based radio division of the Bauer Media Group. History In early 2008, German magazine publisher Bauer bought the radio division of British company Emap, which had been established as East Midland Allied Press in ...

. In September 2022, the agreement ended and the station has become part of the Nation Radio network. As of September 2022, the station broadcasts to a weekly audience of 245,000, according to RAJAR.

History

Original 106 & The Coast

The station was originally launched in 2006 as

Original 106 (Solent) Original 106fm was formerly a radio station broadcasting to the Solent region of southern England, centred on the towns and cities of Portsmouth, Southampton and Bournemouth, from its transmitters at Chillerton Down, Mannings Heath (Poole) and ...

, owned by

Canwest Canwest Global Communications Corporation, which operated under the corporate name Canwest, was a major Canadian media conglomerate based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, with its head offices at Canwest Place. It held radio, television broadcasting an ...

, which then sold the station to

Celador CPL Productions (formerly Celador) is a British entertainment company originally formed in the United Kingdom in 1981 as an independent television production company. It created and produced a number of popular light entertainment shows and is ...

in August 2008. It was replaced by ''The Coast 106'' on 30 October 2008, and while initial

RAJAR Radio Joint Audience Research Limited (RAJAR) was established in 1992 to operate a single audience measurement system for the radio industry in the United Kingdom. RAJAR is jointly owned by the BBC and RadioCentre. RAJAR's predecessor was calle ...

results were encouraging with a healthy increase over those posted by Original, the weekly reach stagnated at around 115,000 by early 2011.

Jack FM

Celador then rebranded the station as

Jack FM Jack FM is a radio network brand, licensed by Sparknet Communications, with the exception of the European Union where it is licensed by Oxis Media. It plays an adult hits radio format, format, in most cases not using disc jockey, DJs. Format c ...

, to bring it in line with its sister station in Bristol, from 4 July 2011. All prior presenters except Robin Caddy were removed from the station, which switched to a format also used by Celador's other Jack stations - a presenter-led breakfast show (hosted by Bam Bam), a Saturday morning "World Of Sport" show presented by Robin Caddy and automated music interspersed with topical one-liners in between songs voiced by actor

Paul Darrow Paul Darrow (born Paul Valentine Birkby; 2 May 1941 – 3 June 2019) was an English actor. He became best known for playing Kerr Avon in the BBC science fiction television series ''Blake's 7'' between 1978 and 1981. His many television rol ...

at other times.

Sam FM

On 1 April 2015, the station was rebranded again as Sam FM, which runs with a strapline of ''We're In Charge'' - the station controls the music and doesn't play requests - interspersed with topical one-liners in between songs by

Gareth Hale Gareth Irvin Hale is an English comedian and actor, who is best known as one half of the comedy duo Hale and Pace, with his friend and comic partner Norman Pace. Biography Hale and his comedy partners were both former teachers, their come ...

who is referred to as The Voice of Sam FM. However, as of the end of 2019 these one-liners have long since been withdrawn. In March 2019, Sam FM South Coast was taken over by Nation Broadcasting following the sale of Celador Radio to Bauer Radio. On 1 December 2019, Sam FM no longer shared programming with its sister stations in Bristol and Swindon and took the tagline ''The South's Greatest Hits''. This appears to have had an effect on the playlist, with less

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

and more pop tracks being played than previously.

Greatest Hits Radio

It was announced that from 27 May 2020, Sam FM will become

Greatest Hits Radio Greatest Hits Radio is a classic hits radio network in the United Kingdom, owned and operated by Bauer. Overview The network launched on 5 January 2015 as the "Bauer City 2 Network", and rebranded on 7 January 2019 due to the success of Ra ...

in early September after

agreed a licensing agreement with

. From 1 September 2020 Greatest Hits Radio was launched at 6am.

Nation Radio

On 19 September 2022, the station relaunched as Nation Radio South.

Transmitters

Analogue (FM)

Following the station's previous launch, Coast 106 made use of a

restricted service licence A UK Restricted Service Licence (often called an RSL), is typically granted to radio stations and television stations broadcasting within the UK to serve a local community or a special event. Licences are granted by the broadcasting authority Ofc ...

from

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...

to re-broadcast the station to

Guernsey Guernsey (; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; french: Guernesey) is an island in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy that is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown Dependency. It is the second largest of the Channel Islands ...

. This was done to promote the station to Guernsey residents for when they travelled to England.

Digital (DAB)

References

External links

Official website
{{coord , 50, 54, 20, N, 1, 23, 50, W, type:landmark_region:GB-HAM, display=title Radio stations established in 2011 Radio stations in Dorset Radio stations in Hampshire Radio stations in the Isle of Wight Jack FM stations Nation Broadcasting