Sam FM (South Coast)

Sam FM South Coast

Broadcast area	Dorset, Hampshire, Isle of Wight and West Sussex
Slogan	"We're In Charge"
Frequency	106.0 MHz and 106.6 MHz FM
First air date	1 October 2006 (Original 106) 30 October 2008 (The Coast 106) 4 July 2011 (106 Jack FM) 1 April 2015 (Sam FM South Coast)
Format	Classic and Contemporary Hits
Owner	Celador Radio Broadcasting
Website	Sam FM

Sam FM South Coast is an adult hits format radio station broadcasting to a stretch of the English South Coast on 106 MHz & 106.6 MHz FM and on DAB Digital (on NOW South Hampshire). It broadcasts from its Roman Landing studios in Kingsway, Southampton alongside its sister station The Breeze which is also housed in the same building.

History

Original 106 & The Coast

The station was originally launched in 2006 as Original 106 (Solent), owned by Canwest, which then sold the station to Celador in August 2008.^[1] It was replaced by The Coast 106 in October 2008, and while initial RAJAR results were encouraging with a healthy increase over those posted by Original, the weekly reach stagnated at around 115,000 by early 2011.

Jack FM

Celador then rebranded the station as Jack FM,^[2] to bring it in line with its sister station in Bristol, from 4 July 2011. All prior presenters except Robin Caddy were removed from the station, which switched to a format also used by Celador's other Jack stations - a presenter-led breakfast show (hosted by Bam Bam),^[3] a Saturday morning "World Of Sport" show presented by Robin Caddy and automated music interspersed with topical one-liners in between songs voiced by actor Paul Darrow at other times.

Sam FM

On 1 April 2015, the station was rebranded again as Sam FM, which runs with a strapline of "We're In Charge" - the station controls the music and doesn't play requests - interspersed with topical one-liners in between songs by actor and comedian Gareth Hale of Hale and Pace, who is referred to as the voice of Sam FM.^[4]

Transmitters

Analogue (FM)

Transmitter Site	Frequency	Power	RDS Name	PI Code	Area
Chillerton Down	106 MHz	4000W	Sam FM	C385 (C485 Switched)	Isle of Wight, South Hampshire, West Sussex and Dorset
Crabwood Farm	106.6 MHz	20W	Sam FM	C385 (C485 Switched)	Winchester
Mannings Heath	106.6 MHz	310W	Sam FM	C385 (C585 Switched)	Bournemouth & Poole

Following the station's previous launch, Coast 106 made use of a restricted service licence from Ofcom to re-broadcast the station to Guernsey. This was done to promote the station to Guernsey residents for when they travelled to England.

Digital (DAB)

Multiplex Name	Bitrate	Short Label	Long Label	SID
NOW South Hampshire	64kbit/s	Sam FM	Sam FM	C485	Mono

References

External links

Official website

Radio stations in Hampshire

Major stations	The Breeze Andover The Breeze Basingstoke The Breeze South & East Hampshire BBC Radio Solent 103.2 Capital FM South Coast Smooth Radio Heart Solent Sam FM South Coast Wave 105

Community radio	Skyline Community Radio (Hedge End) Unity 101 (Southampton) 103.9 Voice FM (Southampton)

Student radio	Echo Radio (Farnborough) Pure FM (Portsmouth) Radio Sonar (Solent) Surge (Southampton)

Online stations	Bizz Radio Basingstoke

DAB multiplexes	NOW South Hampshire NOW Berkshire & North Hampshire

Coordinates: 50°54′20″N 1°23′50″W / 50.90556°N 1.39722°W / 50.90556; -1.39722

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