The Breeze (formerly ''Kick FM'' and ''Newbury Sound'') 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 serving Newbury and

West Berkshire West Berkshire is a local government district in Berkshire, England, administered from Newbury by West Berkshire Council. History The district of Newbury was formed on 1 April 1974, as a merger of the borough of Newbury, Bradfield Rural Dist ...

. The station was owned & operated by

Bauer Radio Bauer Media Audio UK is a UK-based radio division of the Bauer Media Group. History In early 2008, German magazine publisher Bauer bought the radio division of British company Emap, which had been established as East Midland Allied Press in ...

and was part of The Breeze network of stations. It broadcasts from studios at Eastgate House in

Andover Andover may refer to: Places Australia *Andover, Tasmania Canada * Andover Parish, New Brunswick * Perth-Andover, New Brunswick United Kingdom * Andover, Hampshire, England ** RAF Andover, a former Royal Air Force station United States * Andove ...

History

Originally known as ''Kick FM'', the station began broadcasting full-time on 29 May 2000, although several RSL broadcasts were run beforehand under the 'Kick FM' brand. Another station, NBC FM, run by

Bruno Brookes Trevor Neil "Bruno" Brookes (born 1959 in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire) is an English former radio presenter who became prominent on British radio in the 1980s. He was CEO of in-store radio company Immedia from 2000–2020. Early life and care ...

and

Keith Chegwin Keith Chegwin (17 January 1957 – 11 December 2017) was an English television presenter and actor, appearing in several children's entertainment shows in the 1970s and 1980s, including '' Multi-Coloured Swap Shop'' and ''Cheggers Plays Pop''. ...

, made a rival application to the

Radio Authority Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitt ...

to become a full-time station in West Berkshire. The station has two transmitters serving the area – one on 105.6 MHz at Wash Common Water Tower above Newbury and a smaller fill-in unit on 107.4 MHz at the John o'Gaunt School in Hungerford. Kick FM was bought by Tindle Radio in 2006, and sold again in August 2009 to Andover Sound. At 7am on Monday 5 October 2009, Kick FM was rebranded as Newbury Sound. In August 2011, both Andover and Newbury stations were sold to Celador Radio. Newbury Sound was named the South Station of the Year at the 2011 Radio Academy Nations and Regions awards. A month later, programming ended from the station's studios at Bone Lane in Newbury and moved to Andover. On 12 March 2012, Celador announced Newbury Sound and Andover Sound would be rebranded as ''The Breeze'', falling in line with an existing network of stations serving

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 the West of England (Bristol, Somerset and West Wiltshire). Both stations rebranded at midnight on Monday 2 April 2012. The Newbury, Andover & Basingstoke stations now share the same presenters and programming with separate links, news bulletins, station identification and adverts for all three areas. Breakfast and weekday drivetime programming is presented from Basingstoke with networked output from Southampton broadcast during off-peak hours. In 2020, this radio station became

Greatest Hits Radio Greatest Hits Radio is a classic hits radio network in the United Kingdom, owned and operated by Bauer. Overview The network launched on 5 January 2015 as the "Bauer City 2 Network", and rebranded on 7 January 2019 due to the success of Rad ...

References

External links

Official website
Radio stations in Berkshire Organisations based in Berkshire Radio stations established in 2000 Newbury, Berkshire {{UK-radio-station-stub