Heart Solent was a 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 radi ...

owned and operated by Global Radio as part of the

Heart The heart is a muscular organ in most animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels of the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrients to the body, while carrying metabolic waste such as carbon dioxide to t ...

network. It broadcast to southern and western parts of

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...

and

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a Counties of England, county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the List of islands of England#Largest islands, largest and List of islands of England#Mo ...

. The station launched on 30 July 2010 as a result of a merger between

Heart Hampshire Heart Hampshire (formerly Ocean FM and Ocean Sound) was a British independent local radio station serving South Hampshire, West Sussex and Isle of Wight primarily for Portsmouth, Southampton, Winchester and Chichester. The station served an are ...

(formerly Ocean Sound) and

Heart Dorset & New Forest Heart Dorset (formerly 2CR – Two Counties Radio) was a British Independent Local Radio station, broadcast from studios at a former branch of MFI on Southcote Road in Bournemouth. Its original name was derived from the fact that its broadcas ...

(formerly 2CR).

History

The regional station originally broadcast as two separate stations – Two Counties Radio (2CR) began broadcasting to

East Dorset East Dorset was a local government district in Dorset, England. Its council met in Wimborne Minster between 2016 and 2019. The district (as Wimborne) was formed on 1 April 1974 by merging Wimborne Minster Urban District with Wimborne and Cran ...

and West Hampshire in September 1980. Ocean Sound served

South Hampshire South Hampshire is a term used mainly to refer to the conurbation formed by the city of Portsmouth, city of Southampton and the non-metropolitan boroughs of Gosport, Fareham, Havant and Eastleigh in southern Hampshire, South East England. The ...

and

from October 1986 onwards. At first, Ocean broadcast two distinct services for the east and west of its service area with a further service for the Winchester area launching in December 1987. The West service was relaunched as Power FM (later

Capital South Coast Capital South Coast was a regional radio station owned by operated by Global Radio as part of the Capital radio network. It broadcast to Hampshire from studios in Segensworth, Fareham. In 2019, Capital South Coast was replaced by Capital South ...

) a year later while the north and east services (The Light FM and Ocean Sound) merged in 1992. Both 2CR and Ocean underwent various ownership changes until its current owners Global Radio rebranded the stations as Heart on 22 June 2009. On 21 June 2010, Global Radio announced it would merge both stations as part of plans to reduce the Heart network of stations from 33 to 16. The new station began broadcasting from Segensworth, near

Whiteley Whiteley is a community in the county of Hampshire, England, near Fareham. The development straddles the boundary between two council districts: the Borough of Fareham to the south and east, and the city of Winchester to the north and west. L ...

on Friday 30 July 2010, leading to the closure of studios in Bournemouth.

Station merger

On 26 February 2019, Global announced Heart Solent would be merged with three sister stations in

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, Sussex & Surrey and the Thames Valley. From 3 June 2019, local output will consist of a three-hour regional Drivetime show on weekdays, alongside localised news bulletins, traffic updates and advertising. Local breakfast and weekend shows were replaced with network programming from London.

Heart South Heart South is a regional radio station owned and operated by Global as part of the Heart network. It broadcasts to the south and south east of England from studios in Fareham, Hampshire. The station launched on 3 June 2019 as a result of a me ...

began broadcasting regional programming from the Fareham studios on 3 June 2019.

Former presenters

* Lucy Horobin (Now at

Heart Dance The heart is a muscular organ in most animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels of the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrients to the body, while carrying metabolic waste such as carbon dioxide ...

) * Jason King (Now at

Heart London History Heart London is a regional radio station owned and operated by Global Radio as part of the Heart network. It broadcasts a hot adult contemporary radio format. Across London and its neighbouring counties, it can be heard on 106.2 MHz. ...

) *

Michael Underwood Michael Paul Underwood (born 26 October 1975) is an English television presenter, best known as a children's TV presenter on CBBC and CITV. He can be seen as a fifteen-year-old in an episode of '' The Crystal Maze'', then presented by Richa ...

Availability and transmitters

Analogue (FM)

Digital (DAB)

References

External links

Heart Radio
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Solent The Solent ( ) is a strait between the Isle of Wight and Great Britain. It is about long and varies in width between , although the Hurst Spit which projects into the Solent narrows the sea crossing between Hurst Castle and Colwell Bay t ...

Radio stations in Hampshire Radio stations in Dorset Radio stations in the Isle of Wight Radio stations established in 2010 Defunct radio stations in the United Kingdom