Heart Sussex (previously Southern FM, also operating as Heart Sussex for Crawley & Surrey in Crawley and Surrey) was 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 which was owned by Global Radio (formerly

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. O ...

) and played commercial, chart-oriented popular music. Broadcast and managed from studios and offices in

Portslade Portslade is a western suburb of the city of Brighton and Hove, England. Portslade Village, the original settlement a mile inland to the north, was built up in the 16th century. The arrival of the railway from Brighton in 1840 encouraged rapid de ...

, Brighton and Crawley, the station played a mix of pop, rock and RnB with the overall tag line being 'The station for Sussex and Surrey' – replacing Mercury FM. On 17 September 2008, it was announced that Southern FM was one of 30 local radio stations to face a re-brand to

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 ...

within the next 18 months. Southern FM was rebranded as ''Heart Sussex'' on 22 June 2009. Mercury FM also merged with

in July 2010 to be re branded and re-launched as a sub-section of ''Heart Sussex'' operating as ''Heart Sussex for Crawley & Surrey'' or simply ''Heart Crawley & Surrey'' – sharing the same programming output.

History

The station launched as Southern Sound from the converted Rothbury Cinema in Franklin Road, Portslade. Under the leadership of managing director Keith Belcher and programme director

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, early presenters included Sean Bolger, Louis Robinson, Stewart Macintosh, Vince Geddes, John Mann, Russ Williams and Becky Manesseh. The head of news at launch was Paul Woodley with a reporting team including Andy Steggall, Andrew Winter and Cornelius Lysaght.

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joined the station, initially as a fill-in for Timbo (Tim Lloyd) and was subsequently hired to present a regular Sunday evening show with a team of assistants including Nicky Keig-Shevlin. At the launch of the station, Southern Sound broadcast only to Brighton and parts of West Sussex. In 1987, transmissions were extended to Lewes, Newhaven and Seaford. Then on 5 February 1989, the station won a new licence for East Sussex too. Initially running split programming for East and West Sussex, the station now only splits for commercial breaks. In 1994 the Radio Authority merged the two licences to become one official ILR licence. Whitehawk Hill Transmitting Station (December 2012)

Whitehawk Hill Transmitting Station (December 2012)

The station broadcasts to the following areas: * Analogue VHF FM ** 96.9

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 ...

- Newhaven Transmitter ** 102.0 MHz – Hastings Transmitter ** 102.4 MHz – East and West Sussex, including Eastbourne (

Heathfield Transmitter The Heathfield transmitting station is a facility for FM and television transmission at Heathfield, East Sussex, UK (grid reference TQ566220). Opened in 1969, its antenna mast is a tall guyed structure, giving the transmitter a height of above ...

) ** 103.5 MHz – Brighton and Worthing ( Whitehawk Hill Transmitter) * DAB Digital Radio: Block 10B 211.648 MHz **

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 Ho ...

(Findon Transmitter) ** Newhaven (Newhaven Transmitter) **

Hastings Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...

(Hastings Transmitter) **

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 ...

(Eastbourne Transmitter) **

Chichester Chichester () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publi ...

(Burton Down Transmitter) ** Brighton ( Whitehawk Hill Transmitter) ** Crawley (Little Prestwood Farm Transmitter) ** East Sussex (

) ** Central Sussex (Truleigh Hill Transmitter) * Heart Crawley & Surrey broadcast to the following areas on FM: ** 97.5 MHz – Horsham Transmitter ** 102.7 MHz – Reigate Transmitter Since Heart and Mercury FM merged. Heart Sussex has taken over Mercury's frequencies, on both the

Reigate Reigate ( ) is a town in Surrey, England, around south of central London. The settlement is recorded in Domesday Book in 1086 as ''Cherchefelle'' and first appears with its modern name in the 1190s. The earliest archaeological evidence for huma ...

and Horsham transmitters.

Network restructuring

On 21 June 2010, Global Radio announced plans to merge Heart Sussex with the station Mercury FM as part of plans to reduce the Heart network of stations from 33 to 16. The newly merged ''Heart Sussex and Surrey'' station began broadcasting from Brighton on 26 July 2010. The merged Heart brought the addition of an additional sub-station, Heart Crawley & Surrey operates operationally separately. Sales are dealt with by a separate team (based in Crawley) – they may be based in Brighton in the near future though. In addition, to this Heart Crawley & Surrey also has a different website. On air though, both stations broadcast/simulcast the same core coverage with the exception of adverts (and select news features). Mercury FM and Heart have now completed the switchover and for the time being are operating out of both addresses. Radio House, Portslade, the previous home of Southern FM and recently a broadcasting station for Heart Sussex, was put on the market in 2019. Heart Sussex was to be merged with Capital Brighton radio station. The website is now called ''Heart'', with a page for Sussex.

References

External links

Official site - Heart Sussex

Official site - Heart Sussex for Crawley & Surrey
{{Brighton and Hove Companies based in East Sussex Companies based in West Sussex Radio stations in Sussex Radio stations in Surrey Radio stations established in 1983 Sussex Defunct radio stations in the United Kingdom