Heart Solent Explained

Heart Solent
City:Fareham, (Segensworth)
Branding:This is Heart
Airdate:30 July 2010 (Regional)
Last Airdate:3 June 2019
Frequency:FM

96.7 MHz
97.5 MHz
102.3 MHz
DAB: 220.352 (11C)
218.64 (11B)

Format:Adult Contemporary
Erp:450W 850W 2kW
Owner:Global
Website:Heart Solent

Heart Solent was a local radio station owned and operated by Global Radio as part of the Heart network. It broadcast to southern and western parts of Hampshire, West Sussex, Dorset and Isle of Wight.

The station launched on 30 July 2010 as a result of a merger between Heart Hampshire (formerly Ocean Sound) and Heart Dorset & New Forest (formerly 2CR).

History

The regional station originally broadcast as two separate stations – Two Counties Radio (2CR) began broadcasting to East Dorset and West Hampshire in September 1980. Ocean Sound served South Hampshire, West Sussex and Isle of Wight from October 1986 onwards.

At first, Ocean broadcast two distinct services for the east and west of its service area with a further service for the Winchester area launching in December 1987. The West service was relaunched as Power FM (later Capital South Coast) a year later while the north and east services (The Light FM and Ocean Sound) merged in 1992.

Both 2CR and Ocean underwent various ownership changes until its current owners Global Radio rebranded the stations as Heart on 22 June 2009.

On 21 June 2010, Global Radio announced it would merge both stations as part of plans to reduce the Heart network of stations from 33 to 16.[1] The new station began broadcasting from Segensworth, near Whiteley on Friday 30 July 2010, leading to the closure of studios in Bournemouth.[2]

Station merger

On 26 February 2019, Global announced Heart Solent would be merged with three sister stations in Kent, Sussex & Surrey and the Thames Valley.[3]

From 3 June 2019, local output will consist of a three-hour regional Drivetime show on weekdays, alongside localised news bulletins, traffic updates and advertising.[4] Local breakfast and weekend shows were replaced with network programming from London.

Heart South began broadcasting regional programming from the Fareham studios on 3 June 2019.[4]

Former presenters

Availability and transmitters

Analogue (FM)

Transmitter Site Frequency Power RDS Name PI Code Area County
Crabwood 96.7 MHz 450W Heart___ C365 (C565 Switched) Hampshire
Fort 97.5 MHz 850W Heart___ C365 (C465 Switched) Hampshire and West Sussex
Nine 102.3 MHz 2000W HEART___ C365 (C665 Switched)Dorset and Hampshire

Digital (DAB)

Multiplex Name Bitrate Short Label Long Label SID
128kbit/s Heart Heart Dorset C665
112kbit/s Heart Hs Heart Hampshire C365

External links

50.8543°N -1.1884°W

Notes and References

  1. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2010/jun/21/global-radio-restructure Global Radio to halve number of local Heart stations
  2. http://radiotoday.co.uk/news.php?extend.6025 Heart slims but strengthens
  3. https://radiotoday.co.uk/2019/02/global-to-network-capital-heart-and-smooth-breakfast-shows/ Global to network Capital, Heart and Smooth breakfast shows
  4. https://radiotoday.co.uk/2019/04/amanda-holden-to-join-jamie-theakston-for-heart-uk-breakfast/ Amanda Holden to join Jamie Theakston for Heart UK Breakfast