Heart North Wales Coast (formerly Coast 96.3 and originally Marcher Coast FM) was an independent local

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 ...

broadcast along the

North Wales North Wales ( cy, Gogledd Cymru) is a regions of Wales, region of Wales, encompassing its northernmost areas. It borders Mid Wales to the south, England to the east, and the Irish Sea to the north and west. The area is highly mountainous and rural, ...

coast, and owned & operated by

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 Chrys ...

. The station, which broadcast from studios in

Colwyn Bay Colwyn Bay ( cy, Bae Colwyn) is a town, community and seaside resort in Conwy County Borough on the north coast of Wales overlooking the Irish Sea. It lies within the historic county of Denbighshire. Eight neighbouring communities are incorpo ...

& latterly, Bangor and transmitted from Great Ormes Head,

Llandudno Llandudno (, ) is a seaside resort, town and community in Conwy County Borough, Wales, located on the Creuddyn peninsula, which protrudes into the Irish Sea. In the 2011 UK census, the community – which includes Gogarth, Penrhyn Bay, Craig ...

, officially served an area stretching from Amlwch in the west to Holywell in the east, but could be heard as far away as

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...

and

The Fylde The Fylde () is a coastal plain in western Lancashire, England. It is roughly a square-shaped peninsula, bounded by Morecambe Bay to the north, the Ribble estuary to the south, the Irish Sea to the west, and the foot of the Bowland hi ...

. Heart North Wales Coast, along with the nearby Heart Wrexham (formerly Marcher Sound) and Heart Cymru (Champion 103), were part of the Marcher Radio Group of radio stations, which were bought by the GWR Group (now GCap). GCap put the Marcher Group stations up for sale in 2005, but in March 2006 the sale was called off. Coast 96.3 won a Gold Sony Award at the Sony Radio Awards 2006 for stations with a TSA of under 300,000. The first voices heard on Heart North Wales Coast were those of presenter Carl Hughes and newsreader Mair Thomas with Heart Breakfast at 6 am on Monday 22 June 2009. On 21 June 2010, Global Radio announced plans to close Heart North Wales Coast and merge the station with Heart Cheshire and North East Wales and Heart Wirral as part of plans to reduce the Heart network of stations from 33 to 15, leading to the closure of the Bangor studios. ''

Heart North West and Wales Capital North West and Wales is a regional radio station owned and operated by Global as part of the Capital network. It broadcasts to Cheshire, the Wirral Peninsula & North Wales. The station broadcasts from its studios in Gwersyllt, Wrexha ...

'' is broadcast from Wrexham but 96.3 FM retains an opt-out for Welsh language news bulletins and programming during early mornings.Heart slims but strengthens
, RadioToday, 21 June 2010 The station was rebranded as part of the Capital FM network on Tuesday 6 May 2014.

Former presenters

Al Murray Alastair James Hay Murray (born 10 May 1968) is an English comedian, actor, musician and writer from Hammersmith. In 2003, he was listed in ''The Observer'' as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy, and in 2007 he was voted the 16th gre ...

References

Radio stations in Wales Radio stations established in 1993 Radio stations disestablished in 2010 Marcher Radio Group Bangor, Gwynedd North Wales Coast Defunct radio stations in the United Kingdom 1993 establishments in Wales 2010 disestablishments in Wales {{Wales-radio-station-stub