Mercury FM was a radio station in the Surrey and Sussex area of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

that was founded on 20 October 1984 and closed on 25 July 2010. The station broadcast on FM 97.5 MHz in Horsham and 102.7 MHz in East Surrey and North Sussex and later merged with

Heart Sussex Heart Sussex (previously Southern FM, also operating as Heart Sussex for Crawley & Surrey in Crawley and Surrey) was an Independent Local Radio station which was owned by Global Radio (formerly GCap Media) and played commercial, chart-orient ...

to form Heart Sussex and Surrey.

History

Radio Mercury was founded by John Aumonier and began airing on 20 October 1984, on 103.6 FM and 1521 AM focusing on Crawley but serving much of East Surrey and North Sussex. Two years later, the FM frequency changed to 102.7 as part of the UK-wide re-organisation of the VHF/FM band. 1985 saw a relay of the station added for the town of Horsham on 97.5. In 1991 the station took over most of County Sound Radio in Guildford to form the Allied Radio plc. Mercury then, having played a broad mix of music, became a mainly

Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or "cont ...

hits station. County Sound's AM frequency was later renamed "Extra AM" and then again was shortly renamed to "Mercury Extra AM" to make the connection between the two AM frequencies of both stations better known. It also became known as The Breeze, until the Classic Gold Network took over the AM licence of 1521 kHz. On 102.7 FM Mercury was renamed "Mercury FM" after the takeover of the group by GWR, later GCap Media. Before that Mercury lost the County Sound region again, and Eagle Radio took the Surrey 96.4 FM transmitter, and County Sound returned to 1476 AM. The station was incorporated into GCap's "One Network" of stations, until the merger between GCap and Chrysalis Radio, forming Global Radio. As part of this merger, many of the former One Network stations were rebranded and reformatted under the "Heart" network which still stands today.

Closure

In July 2010 Mercury FM became part of the Heart Network. The final Mercury FM programme was broadcast on Sunday 25 July 2010, with the newly merged Heart Sussex and Surrey launching the next day.

References

External links

{{coord missing, West Sussex The Hit Music Network Radio stations in Surrey Radio stations in Sussex Radio stations established in 1984