More Radio Eastbourne, formerly Sovereign FM, is an

Independent Local Radio Independent Local Radio is the collective name given to commercial radio stations in the United Kingdom. As a result of the buyouts and mergers permitted by the Broadcasting Act 1990, and deregulation resulting from the Communications Act 2003, ...

station serving

Eastbourne Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. Eastbourne is immediately east of Beachy Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in Great Britain and part of the la ...

Hailsham Hailsham is a town, a civil parish and the administrative centre of the Wealden district of East Sussex, England.OS Explorer map Eastbourne and Beachy Head Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publishing Dat ...

Polegate Polegate is a town and civil parish in the Wealden District of East Sussex, England, United Kingdom.OS Explorer map Eastbourne and Beachy Head Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publishing Date:2009. It ...

and surrounding areas. It is owned and operated by Total Sense Media and broadcasts from studios in

Worthing Worthing () is a seaside town in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of Chichester. With a population of 111,400 and an area of , the borough is the second largest component of the Brighton and Hov ...

, as part of a network of stations across

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

History

A completely unrelated 'temporary' radio station ''Sovereign Radio'' was founded in Eastbourne in 1992 by local radio enthusiasts Mark Briggs and Matthew Wheeler, who established RSL trial broadcasts in December 1992 and the summer of 1993. The second RSL was based on board an old ferry from the

Shetland Islands Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the no ...

called the Earl of Zetland, which was temporarily moored in Sovereign Harbour. Some of the station's original presenters included Gavin Lawrence, Paul Martin, Terry James and Zora Suleman. The broadcasts were part of a campaign to demonstrate viability to the Radio Authority (a legacy regulator now part of

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 advertise a full licence. The full licence for the Eastbourne and Hailsham area was eventually awarded in 1994 to another, unconnected, group which later included several members of the team from the previous temporary station. Sovereign Radio (later 107.5 Sovereign FM) began broadcasting in 1997 from studios at St Mary's Walk in Hailsham. The station was later acquired by

The Local Radio Company The Local Radio Company was a British media company, based in Redruth, Cornwall, that owned ten independent local radio stations in the UK. After takeover talks with UTV Media, UKRD Group and Hallwood Financial, UKRD acquired the majority shar ...

in 2000 and for a year, was once again managed by co-founder of the original (1992) RSL station Mark Briggs, who also managed neighbouring sister stations

Arrow FM More Radio Hastings, formerly Arrow FM, is an Independent Local Radio station serving Hastings, Bexhill, Battle and surrounding areas. It is owned and operated by Total Sense Media and broadcasts from studios in Worthing, as part of a network ...

in Hastings and

Neptune Radio KMFM Shepway and White Cliffs Country is an Independent Local Radio station serving the districts of Dover and Folkestone and Hythe (previously known as Shepway) and the surrounding areas in Kent, South East England. It is the South Kent region ...

(now KMFM in Dover and Folkestone). Media Sound Holdings acquired the station from

in June 2009 along with Hastings-based

, with both stations were operating at a loss. The group already owned Splash FM and

Bright FM More Radio Mid-Sussex, formerly Bright FM, is an Independent Local Radio station serving Burgess Hill, Haywards Heath, Lewes and surrounding areas. It is owned and operated by Total Sense Media and broadcasts from studios in Worthing, as part of ...

which were acquired in April 2008. In November 2010,

approved

Media Sound Holdings Total Sense Media (formerly Media Sound Holdings) is a company which was incorporated in 2005 and is based in Burgess Hill, East Sussex in the United Kingdom. As of 2015 it operates five radio stations in the South of England, and publishes two ma ...

's application to share all programmes across their four stations

, Sovereign FM and Splash FM, given that the stations "already share all programming outside of breakfast, so these changes will not substantially alter the character of the service." On 11 April 2016, Sovereign FM changed its name to More Radio.

Programming

All programming on the station is produced from Total Sense's Worthing studios and shared with

and Splash FM with opt-outs for local news and advertising. Local news airs every hour from 6am to 6pm on weekdays and from 8am to 12pm on Saturdays with headlines on the half hour during weekday breakfast and drivetime shows. National news bulletins from

Sky News Radio Sky News Radio is the radio arm of Sky News, owned by Sky UK. It has been operating since June 1999, providing a news bulletin service for UK commercial radio stations operators across the UK and for a number of English-speaking radio stations ar ...

are carried hourly at all other times.

References

External links

Official web site
{{DEFAULTSORT:More Radio Eastbourne Eastbourne Radio stations established in 1997 Radio stations in Sussex