Heart East Anglia

Heart East Anglia
City of license Norwich
Broadcast area Norfolk and Suffolk
Branding This is East Anglia's Heart
Slogan More Music Variety
Frequency 96.4, 97.1 & 102.4 MHz
Format Hot AC
Audience share 8.8% (December 2012, )
Owner Global Radio

Heart East Anglia is a local radio station owned and operated by Global Radio as part of the Heart network. It broadcasts to Norfolk and Suffolk from studios in Norwich. The station began launched on Friday 3 September 2010 as a result of a merger between Heart Norwich (formerly Radio Broadland) and Heart Ipswich (formerly Radio Orwell and Saxon Radio, latterly SGR FM).

History

Further information: Heart Norwich and Heart Ipswich

The regional station originally broadcast as three separate stations - Radio Orwell served Ipswich and surrounding areas since October 1975. In November 1982, Saxon Radio launched in west Suffolk from studios in Bury St. Edmonds, acting as an effective opt-out service to Orwell. Meanwhile, Radio Broadland began broadcasting to Norfolk and north Suffolk in October 1984.

In 1990, Broadland bought out Suffolk Group Radio (the owners of Radio Orwell and Saxon Radio) and formed the East Anglian Radio Group. Two years later, Orwell and Saxon were merged into SGR FM - which launched a sister station in Essex, SGR Colchester, in October 1993.

By 1996, the GWR Group had bought out the East Anglian Radio Group. In January 2009, both Broadland and SGR were among the first stations to rebranded under the Heart moniker after GCap Media's takeover by Global Radio the year before.

On 21 June 2010, Global Radio announced it would merge the five stations as part of plans to reduce the Heart network of stations from 33 to 18.[1] The new station began broadcasting on Friday 3 September 2010 from studios in Norwich, leading to the closure of studios in Ipswich.[2]

Notable current presenters

Heart News

Heart East Anglia broadcasts local news bulletins each day. National news updates are from Global's London headquarters.

References

  1. Global Radio to halve number of local Heart stations, mediaguardian.co.uk, 21 June 2010 Archived 1 January 2011 at WebCite
  2. Heart slims but strengthens, RadioToday, 21 June 2010 Archived 1 January 2011 at WebCite

External links