Suffolk Group Radio was the parent company for two Independent Local Radio stations serving the county of

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

in England.

The Stations

Radio Orwell began transmissions from

Electric House Electric House may refer to: * The Electric House ''The Electric House'' is a 1922 American short comedy film co-directed by and starring Buster Keaton. Plot Three graduating students drop their degree certificates, but each picks up the wron ...

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...

on 28 October 1975. It was one of the original group of ILR stations set up by the

Independent Broadcasting Authority The Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) was the regulatory body in the United Kingdom for commercial television (ITV and Channel 4 and limited satellite television regulation – cable television was the responsibility of the Cable Authorit ...

following a relaxation of the rules governing broadcasting in Britain. Other stations that were included in the original 19 were

LBC LBC (originally the London Broadcasting Company) is a British phone-in and talk radio station owned and operated by Global and based in its headquarters in London. It was the UK's first licensed commercial radio station, and began to broadcast ...

Capital Radio Capital London is a radio station owned and operated by the Global media company as part of its national Capital FM Network. As Capital Radio it was launched in the London area in 1973 as one of Britain's first two commercial radio stations. I ...

and

BRMB Free Radio Birmingham is an Independent Local Radio station based in Birmingham, England, owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Hits Radio network. It broadcasts to Birmingham and the West Midlands. As of September 2022, the station has a ...

. The western side of Suffolk got its own radio station in the form of Saxon Radio, which began broadcasting in

Bury St Edmunds Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as Bury, is a historic market town, market, cathedral town and civil parish in Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – ...

on 6 November 1982.

Programmes

The two stations operated with separate breakfast shows and other programmes were networked from either site to both transmitters. Most of the programmes came from the Electric House studios in Ipswich and a few came from Bury St Edmunds' Long Brackland studios. In 1984-85, the stations experimented with a drive-time news and current affairs programme ("The Home Run") which had presenters in both studios - Allan Lee in Ipswich and Adrienne Rosen in Bury. This proved too expensive to continue for long and the programme was cut back to one presenter in the Ipswich studio.

Take overs

In 1990, Norwich-based station Radio Broadland took over Orwell and Saxon and to reflect the addition of these new stations, the company became

East Anglian Radio East Anglian Radio was a company based in Norwich that operated radio stations in the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex in the UK. The stations owned by the group were: *Radio Broadland in Norwich. *SGR FM in Ipswich & Bury St Edmunds (origi ...

. The new group re-launched Orwell and Saxon as one station under the name of

SGR FM Heart Ipswich (formerly SGR FM) was a radio station that evolved from Suffolk Group Radio, which was the parent company for two Independent radio stations serving the county of Suffolk in England. Overview The older of the radio stations was Radi ...

in 1992 and the following year, the station moved from its original studios in the centre of Ipswich to a brand new base on the outskirts of the town. The studio and offices in Bury St Edmunds were then closed. EAR also launched a sister station to SGR in 1993 named

SGR Colchester Heart Colchester (formerly SGR Colchester) was a radio station broadcasting to Colchester and the surrounding areas. The station was launched in 1993 as SGR Colchester by the East Anglian Radio group, which also operated the Ipswich-based SGR-FM, ...

after successfully applying for the broadcast licence. The Ipswich station provided programmes which were shared during offpeak times with SGR Colchester. In 1995, the decision was made by East Anglian Radio to make better use of its AM frequencies and

Amber Radio Amber Radio was a classic hits/gold radio station operating from studios in both Norwich and Ipswich, in the region of East Anglia in the United Kingdom. It was the AM sister station of Radio Broadland and SGR and served Norfolk and Suffolk, ...

was created to play 60s and 70s music from its studios in Ipswich and also Norwich. Amber operated on the AM transmitters previously used by the SGR stations to simulcast. Then in 1996, the East Anglian Radio was bought by the

GWR Group GCap Media was a British commercial radio company formed from the merger of the Capital Radio Group and GWR Group. The merger was completed in May 2005. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. ...

, which later became

GCap Media GCap Media was a British commercial radio company formed from the merger of the Capital Radio Group and GWR Group. The merger was completed in May 2005. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. ...

and then

Global Radio Global Media & Entertainment Limited, trading as Global, is a British media company formed in 2007. It is the owner of the largest commercial radio company in Europe having expanded through a number of historical acquisitions, including Chrysa ...

References

{{reflist

External links

Further reading on Orwell, Saxon and SGR

Former British radio networks Radio broadcasting companies of the United Kingdom Radio stations in Suffolk