This article is about the former Mercury FM in Crawley and Horsham. For the former Mercury FM in Hertfordshire, see Heart Hertfordshire; for the former Mercury FM in Medway, see KMFM Medway, and for the former Mercury FM in West Kent, see KMFM West Kent.
| Broadcast area | Reigate and Crawley |
|---|---|
| Frequency | 102.7 MHz, 97.5 MHz |
| First air date | 20 October 1984 |
| Format | CHR/Pop |
| Audience share | 7.4% (December 2009, [1]) |
| Owner | Global Radio |
| Website | www.mercuryfm.co.uk |
Mercury FM was a radio station in the Surrey and Sussex area of the United Kingdom that was founded on 20 October 1984 and closed on 25 July 2010. The station broadcast on FM 102.7 MHz to Reigate and Crawley, and 97.5 MHz around Horsham and later merged with Heart Sussex to form Heart Sussex and Surrey.
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Radio Mercury began airing on 20 October, 1984, on 103.6 FM and 1521 AM. A year later, the FM frequency changed to 102.7 and 97.5 in Horsham. In 1991 the station merged with County Sound Radio in Guildford to form the Allied Radio Group.[1] Mercury then went from playing a broad mix of music to being mainly a Top 40 station, County Sound was later renamed "Extra AM" and then again was shortly renamed to "Mercury Extra AM" to make the connection between the two stations better known. It also became known as The Breeze, until the Classic Gold Network took over the AM licence of 1521 kHz. 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 96.4fm transmitter, and County Sound returned to 1476am. 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 have been or are in the process of being rebranded and reformatted under the "Heart" network. However it was decided that given the proximity of Mercury's coverage area to the existing Heart 106.2 station, it would retain its identity and be formatted as a "Hit Music" station.
It was announced [2], that Mercury FM would become part of the Heart Network. The newly merged Heart Sussex and Surrey launched on Monday 26 July 2010 with the very last Mercury FM programme broadcast the day beforehand. Currently, sales operations continue to be run from Crawley.
The station had (over the years) employed some of the top personalities in British radio. These include Pat Sharp, Ed Stewart, Russ Williams, Ian Davidson, Geoff Aspel, Jon Scragg, John Calvert, Steve Hyland and Tony Myatt. More recently presenters have included Paul Bunker, Steve Knight (now BBC), Steve Allen (Hertbeat), Adam O'Neill (now Capital FM) Mark Dodson (now 107 Meridian FM)
Presenters which broadcast shows right up until the closure included Gary Wilson (Breakfast), Chris Oxlade (Saturday Breakfast), Luke Smith (Weekday Drive - now at Capital) and Simon Hardwick (Sunday Breakfast).