Aircheck UK - Hampshire 

UPDATED: 19/02/2005

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ENGLAND

BBC LOCAL RADIOBBC RADIO SOLENT broadcasts on 96.1 FM, 999 and 1359 AM and came on-air 31st December 1970.  AIRCHECK holds no further historical data.  Contributions are welcome via e-mail  It's 96.1 service is specifically for Hampshire with an additional service for Dorset on 103.8.

COMMERCIAL:  LOCAL (ILR) 

OVERVIEW: In June 1998, the Radio Authority announced that a total of 14 groups had applied for radio licences for the Solent & Mid Hants region.  The successful applicants would be classed as 'SALLIES' or 'small-scale local licences'.  Central Hampshire Radio Ltd proposed a service with a broad mix of music for the people of Winchester, Eastleigh, Chandlers Ford and the neighbouring localities, Harbour Radio targetted the 25-44 age group in the Portsmouth, Gosport and Havant area,  Hope FM focused on a Christian and community format for Bournemouth, Poole, Christchurch and surrounding areas, Max FM proposed a 70s to 90s and today format for Hythe, Totton, Chandlers Ford, Hedge End and Eastleigh, The NRG was to be a dance and soul station for Poole, Bournemouth, Wimborne, Christchurch and Ferndown, Poole FM was another broad music mix station for Poole, SouthCity Radio would be a broad appeal station for Southampton, Mix FM focussed on a younger audience around Southampton, Eastleigh and the Waterside, Splash FM offered a family service for the same locality, V107 (Vanguard Radio) would take a 'past 35 years format for the Havant area, Verwood Radio was to be a classic rock station with a community slant, Victory FM for Greater Portsmouth was again a broad appeal station, Voyager FM for Southampton was to be a community and music led youth service, and finally, Win 107 for Winchester was to be a strong mix of local news, info and popular music.  The RA selected The NRG, Win 107, SouthCity FM and Victory FM as suitable for licences.  

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RADIO VICTORY: Radio Victory originally started broadcasting in the UK to Hampshire, West Sussex and the Isle of Wight on the 14th October 1975.  The station was based in Portsmouth and transmitted on 257 metres MW (1170 kHz, originally promoted as 1169) and 95.0 MHz VHF. Victory lost the area franchise when it was renewed around 1986.  Ocean Sound's application suggested coverage of a wider area, incorporating Southampton in addition to Portsmouth. Victory made a return in the Solent area but in a very different guise to the original format.  Again, based in Portsmouth, initially an RSL on various occasions and later finding a permanent home on Cable on 95.6.  In the Summer of 1999, the frequency was dropped and the station moved to a conventional FM transmitter on 107.4 and has now been re-branded as...

107.4 THE QUAY: This is the ILR station for Portsmouth, Fareham, Havant and Gosport, providing 'all time favourites' from 19th September 1999.  It is owned and operated by RIL, Radio Investments Ltd from Flagship Studios in Portsmouth. The station's logo follows the standard RIL blue, white & yellow, incorporating the arch of yellow circs which decrease in circles around the arch.  

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2-TEN FM: Originally both FM & AM hence the name Radio 210 originally - the station dates back to pre-FM times - 210kHz being it's old frequency or 1431kHz in old money.  Here we playfully glance back at the station's launch 8th March 1976, now licenced until 31st December 2004.  Three frequencies spread the station into this page as well as Berkshire: 103.4, 97.0 & 102.9 across Reading, Basingstoke, (the station serves North Hampshire), Newbury & Andover.  Radio 210 began broadcasting in the UK to the Thames Valley and North Hampshire on the 8th March 1976. It was originally heard on 210 metres MW (1431 kHz) and 97.0 FM. In those days the radio tuning scale on MW was marked in metres so it seemed like a good idea to call the station Radio 210.  'Closer to you'.

January 1st 1987 saw the switch on of a new transmitter for a clearer reception in North Hampshire. Based at Hannington, the station transmits to Newbury and Andover on 102.9 FM.  During the 90's a third FM transmitter was set up to serve Henley on Thames on 103.4.

Radio 210 and Bournemouth's 2CR were part of a group called "Consolidated Radio Holdings". To start, 1431 AM was used solely as a split service during Saturday afternoons for the Sports slot.  1990 saw both stations, the former known then as 210FM become part of the GWR group.  At that time, TM Century jingles were used and the AM service was named Classic Gold, a name which GWR had already used on it's other AM services.

Major changes were made to the FM service with the revolving door spinning outwards for Dave Nelson and Brian Pithers. Jeff Brown took on both shows and in came  a "better music mix" on Saturday and Sunday evenings.  A torrent of abusive phone calls from irate listeners followed - they were not at all happy with the programme changes!   Eddie Shaw was another presenter to go at around this time - but off he went to Lincs-FM!  

A little known fact is that Radio 210 was once the home of David Hamilton, Steve Wright, Mike Read & Bob Harris!   (Why on earth don't many people know that I wonder...Ed)

CLASSIC GOLD: ...was automated live input from Reading between 6:00am & 10:00am.  Graham Ledger presented during weekdays and Jeff Brown at weekends. Occasionally, Jeff would present on the FM service until 1:00am, sleep in the studio and present the breakfast show the next morning on Classic Gold!  The Overnight Express was relayed while Jeff was counting sheep!   The decision to have a live breakfast on Classic Gold was so sudden that someone had to go into Reading to buy some CDs for the show!  (..that'll be about five CDs then...Ed)  Also, some were even loaned by presenters.

Around 1993, 210 FM was renamed 2-Ten FM (...the difference being audibly what?  Ed) and remains with that name today. An additional AM transmitter is now operating in the North Hampshire area on 1485 AM (Classic Gold 1431/1485).

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OCEANSOUND/OCEAN FM: This station replaced Radio Victory on 12th October 1986 after the licence battle as detailed above.  Ocean Sound's application suggested coverage of a wider area, incorporating Southampton in addition to Portsmouth.  To start, there were two Ocean Sound services: The East service (serving Portsmouth and surrounding areas) on 1170 kHz MW / 97.5 FM and the West service (serving Southampton and surrounding areas) on 1557 kHz MW / 103.2 FM.

At 10am on Sunday the 6th December 1987, the service was extended to Winchester and the surrounding areas. This was called The Light FM and could be heard on 96.7. It had separate programmes from 6am-2pm and then carried the same output as the East service. The 5-9pm show was also separate at a later date,  

Later, in 1990, the Southern Radio Group (Southern Sound Brighton) took over and transformed the FM services (Ocean Sound & The Light FM) to Ocean Sound Classic Hits. The programming was the same as Southern Sound FM except for breakfast. Southern Sound and Ocean Sound later became Southern FM and Ocean FM.  The Southern Radio Group was taken over by Capital Radio plc.  

THE GOLD AM/ FIRST GOLD RADIO / SOUTH COAST RADIO: This was Ocean Sound's AM frequency and became The Gold AM from 9am on December 4th 1988.  However, this was not without controversy.  A dispute over who had the right to use the name erupted between Ocean Sound and County SoundCounty Sound won the fight and The Gold AM became First Gold Radio.  This service became South Coast Radio under Southern Radio's tenure which broadcast from Southern Sound Studios in Brighton.  Southern Radio was then purchased by Capital Radio plc and became part of ..

CAPITAL GOLD 1170 & 1557: South Hampshire's Capital Gold franchise.  Studios are based at Radio House, Whittle Avenue, Segensworth in West Fareham.

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DELTA FM serves the Hampshire areas of Alton & Haslemere - this service was the next to launch in the area on 22nd November 1992 - it uses three frequencies - 97.1 (Holy Cross Hospital, Haslemere)), 101.6 (Four Marks, Hindhead relay added July 9th 2001 to provide better coverage of Grayshott & Beacon Hill) & 102FM (Alton) supplied with programme feed from studios at Prospect Place, Mill Lane, in Alton, Hants.  It is now part of the UKRD group of stations.  Originally Delta FM 102 Wey Valley, then County Sound Delta FM 97.1, and owned by Radio Mercury, it's launch day was hectic - just one hour after the local Mayor opened the station, strong winds hit Haslemere but the station remained on-air.  Mercury closed the station in 1994 - former management of County Sound then applied for the licence promising to bring back Delta as part of it.  It's application was accepted by the Radio Authority in 1995 and the station returned to air on 9th May 1996 from Weyhill studios.  Amongst the presenters on duty at this time was the legendary Tony Brandon.  It's broadcast area ranges from Bramley, Elstead & Bentley in the North, Midhurst in the South and Greatham in the West.  Interestingly, locals are given the opportunity to present community programmes which are broadcast during some weekday evenings.  The station considers itself to serve South West Surrey and North West Sussex as well as North East Hampshire 

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96.4 THE EAGLE is branded as a a hot adult contemporary radio station broadcasting to Surrey and North East Hampshire. The licence commenced 4th April 1996, primarily targeted at the 25-44 age group, and playing music with a broad appeal from the 80’s, 90’s and the current decade.  It also carries regular local news and travel information. Features, competitions and on air promotions reflect the contemporary nature of the station.  The station is also owned by UKRD

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ISLE OF WIGHT RADIO: Broadcasting from their Dodnor Park, in Newport, Isle Of Wight Radio uses two frequencies and four transmitters to cover the island - this is due to the general lie of the land.  Three transmitters operate on 102FM and are situated at Ventor, Cowes and Ryde, with a general mainland transmitter as used by other broadcasters, on Chillerton Down, 200 meters above sea level, using 107FM.  The station launched on 15th April 1990 as a 1kw 200w AM station on 1242kHz due to their being no FM frequency available at the time. The transmitter was based at Briddlesford Farm.  

The station is currently part of the Radio Investments Group family, but this hasn't always been the case.  It was back in 1989 that the Radio Authority's predecessor, The IBA (Indepedent Broadcasting Authority) awarded the licence for the island to Isle Of Wight Radio.  It was founded by a group of local business people thus providing a secure basis from which to build.  The station has gone down in the history of commercial radio, as it was the first small-scale commercial radio station - referred to as a SALLIE (Small-scale alternative local licence) or 'incremental' - meaning 'to increase'.  

Having become established, the station fell into the hands of GWR - and it was the Bristol-based outfit that turned the station around from some early financial difficulties.  Another radio group - The Local Radio Company (TLRC) saw the company move into the black in 1996 - they also took the station in the FM world in when the Radio Authority granted a licence to change bands two years later.  

The credits continued with a nomination in the 'Station Of The Year' category at the Commercial Radio & Sony Radio Awards ceremonies.  The change over to Radio Investments Group came in the Millennium year - audience research (RAJAR/IPSOS/RSL) has shown that the station has been able to boast the highest average audience based on the amount of people listening for half and hour at breakfast, in England.   The station aims at a 25 to 55 age and this means a mix of songs per hour, a couple from the 70s, a few more from the 80s & 90s and a couple of ex-chart or chart hits.  Off the Isle Of Wight, the station can be heard on the mainland  just outside of Chichester, Winchester and Bournemouth, dependent on where you are geographically in relation to the island.  Local presenters form a backbone of the programme schedule.  

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107.6 KESTREL FM: Now part of the Fusion Radio Group, this is the ILR station for Basingstoke and North Hampshire, playing the best music from the past thirty years, plus local news and information.  The station commenced broadcasting 18th May 1998 from studios at Paddington House, The Walks, Basingstoke to an estimated potential 130,000 people.    Audience figures from May 2002 showed Kestrel FM had a 27% reach in the area, or almost 37,000 of the potential audience - this is commendable for a station in a competitive local radio market which includes a lot of outer London stations.  

Amongst it's accolades, the station's first MD, Ian Smith was named 'Basingstoke Business Person of the Year', and it is also the first radio station in the UK to have a weekly newspaper 'The Basingstoke Observer' launched in association with it.  The paper is a free weekly publication, and offers a challenge to the local papers which have an arguable monopoly.  It is delivered to around 51,000 homes and gives advertisers the chance to buy 'Sight and Sound together' for a more competitive advertising strategy.

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103.2 POWER FM: Licenced from 4th December 1988, and formerly known as 103.2 The Power, this is the current ILR station for South Hampshire.  It was created following the splitting of Ocean Sound's East and West services, with the West service becoming Power FM from 10am that day.  Studios are based at Radio House, Whittle Avenue, Segensworth in West Fareham, with the station offering contemporary hits, entertainment and information.   It is now under the ownership of Capital Radio plc.

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107.8 SOUTHCITY FM / THE SAINT: First came to air on 5th September 1999 and this is actually an independent local radio station all by itself!  It broadcasts from it's City Studios at Marsh Lane in Southampton.  The station features 'Southampton's local news, views, information and entertainment, mixed with great music, tailored to the tastes of the city.'

Once a station under the now defunct digital radio group Radio First, (which included Derby County's Rampage Radio, Chelsea's Big Blue, and Aston Villa's The Villan), in May 2004, Southampton Football Club's radio station The Saint, both owned by holding company Southampton Leisure Holdings PLC purchased local analogue radio station SouthCity FM for a figure rumoured to be £2m.    Immediately after purchase, SouthCity changed name to become The Saint.  All of Radio First's SKY Digital based radio stations assets were acquired by their respective football clubs.  All stations bar Rampage continued under their new owners - Derby County's station closed down, the club bought the assets, but despite rumours of a relaunch, are now understood to be stripping the premises ready to be used for club commercial opportunities. The Saint operates the SKY Digital service from the St. Mary's Stadium of Southampton FC and shared the local DAB capacity with SouthCity prior to the acquisition.

The Saint broadcasts 24 hours a day on 107.8FM, SKY Digital Channel 899 locally, and DAB for South Hampshire.   Southampton FC fans can listen on line from 4-8pm everyday at www.saintsfc.co.uk/ram/live2.ram to keep up to date with club news.    Interestingly, the radio station web page, viewed through the football club's domain, includes a set of sponsors which include commercial radio rival, Capital Radio owned 103.2 Power FM!

As you would expect, with the acquisition of South City by The Saint, there is commentary on every Southampton FC game, including League and Cup matches.  Programming is themed completely different to normal radio stations who use 'Breakfast' & 'Drivetime' in programming names. At The Saint, there's 'Early Doors Brekky', from 12-4 it's 'Half-Time', 4-8pm is 'Full Time', with 'Extra Time' from 8-11pm weekdays.

The station's licence remit is to provide information and features of particular local interest on a frequent, and regular, including daily charitable information, sailing shipping, tidal reports, weekday daily news for the area's ethnic communities and a local topical feature such as an advice line, Sunday morning religious programming, and in term time, a weekly programme of at least 2 hours looking at the views, issues, and musical tastes of the area's student population.  Local news is broadcast every hour during weekday daytime, including one extended bulletin, and also at peaktime weekends.  There's also a weekday daily news magazine programme lasting 30 minutes, or at least two at 15 minutes.  National news is heard at other times.   Musically, The Saint plays a broad spread of hits from the last three decades with no more than 30% of current hits, at least 25% of the music will be 21 years old or older.  Outside of daytime programming, the station's licence remit allows a more contemporary style to appeal to a younger audience.  The licence also allows themed or feature programmes providing that they complement the main music output.  The service must be based within the licence area.  Automated output, i.e. that driven by a computer, is only permitted up to 3 hours day.   www.saintsfc.co.uk  

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SPIRE FM: Providing a commercial radio service for the Salisbury area, this station takes it's name from the spire of Salisbury Cathedral.  It came to air on 5th September 1992 and broadcasts from City Hall Studios in Malthouse Lane. Salisbury.  Originally part of 'The Local Radio Company', the station is considered to be flagship of the stations which operate under the umbrella of Radio Investments Limited.  It was the first station in the group to launch, and being part of it, has now adopted the corporate 'mothership' colour scheme of blue, white & yellow, consisting of a blue background, white and yellow text and the familiar varyingly sized yellow roundels.  However, back in July 1992, GWR bought a forty percent share in Spire FM.  It is not known whether they still own any share in the station today.  Amongst Spire FM's accolades since launch, it was the Station of the Year in the Sony Awards of 1994, 1997, 2001 and 2003, it received a BT Press Award for local news coverage in 1995 and 1996, a KPMG Award for Marketing Excellence in 1997 and the station was also proud to receive a 1999 award from the management team of Salisbury City Centre - the rather long award title being 'The Business that made the biggest contribution to Salisbury' in 1999.  Interestingly, as of 2003, the station had it's very own motor rallying team with Gareth and Emma Hurford Jones racing a classic 1977 Toyota Celica 2-Litre GT on their behalf.  The tie-in becomes more obvious when you note that the station manager is Ceri Hurford Jones, who broadcasts as Ceri Jones, not to be confused with Keri Jones who is a completely different radio person.  Spire FM's news coverage includes 15 minute bulletins at 6am, 1pm & 6pm with hourly local news throughout the day.  Sports coverage includes regular bulletins in peak programming and a featured Saturday sports show from 2pm.  The brand very nearly made it into another area renowned for it's spire - that being the Derbyshire town of Chesterfield - it entered the running in 1997, but along with other bidders lost out to Peak 107.   Spire FM promotes itself as covering South Wiltshire and West Hampshire.  The station's transmitter is based at Camp Hill.                    www.spirefm.co.uk  

COMMERCIAL:  REGIONAL

WAVE 105.2 is the regional station for the Solent operating on two frequencies, 105.8 & 105.2FM, with the South's best variety of hits, essential news and information.  The licence began on 14th June 1998 with programmes transmitted from Manor Court studios, Barnes Wallis Road, Segensworth, East Fareham.  Amongst it's presenters is the man who launched Radio West in October 1981, Nino Firetto.   The station is run by Scottish Radio Holdings (SRH) - who took control of the station from TWG (The Wireless Group) for £18million in November 2001.  The sale allowed TWG to deal with other financial banking matters.

Wave 105 serves as a regional commercial radio station, from Winchester and Salisbury in the north to the major centres of Southampton and Portsmouth, Chichester in the east and Bournemouth and Poole in the west.  Wave 105 prides itself on playing a very broad range of music with an unusually low repetition rate.  Its music policy aims to set the station apart from the many others within the region, mixing the usual mainstream pop and adult contemporary with classics from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s – favourite tunes which everybody loves to hear but which are rarely played on other stations.

The station makes efforts to retains an upmarket listenership profile by emphasizing it's news coverage and entertainment.  Intelligent discussions amongst presenters focus on pertinent issues, whilst numerous celebrity interviews are limited to those with something to say!  Wave 105 makes every effort to endorse the “feel good factor” of the 'prosperous, leisurely south coast.'  Originally using a strapline of 'Better Music, Great Talk', it is now using 'Best Variety Of Hits' - a line it has used since March 16th 2001.   

During the Radio Authority's third quarter of 2002, the station received a formal warning from the RA after the station carried a 'wind-up' call.  Wave 105 had contacted a competitors breakfast show crew to joke about the latest RAJAR audience figures.  The call was later broadcast by the station as being live, without the knowledge or approval of the competitor.  

HOSPITAL RADIO:  

Hospital Radio Haslar: Submitted by Chris PearceHospital Radio Haslar is a relatively new comer, as we started broadcasting in March 1993.  However, my Hospital Radio career began when I was 15 back in 1987 at PHB – Portsmouth Hospital Broadcasting, hence the idea for Hospital Radio Haslar.    We broadcast to patients at Gosport War Memorial & Royal Hospital Haslar in Gosport near Portsmouth .  Our transmission times are generally 12 noon to 10pm weekdays, Saturday 9am – 7pm and Sunday 8am – 10pm .  This includes separate daily request shows for both hospitals as well as separate programmes for both hospitals at different times of the day, 7 days a week.  We currently have 53 on-air members.  Our studios are based at Haslar, where we operate a separate service to patients at the War Memorial, playing more light & easy, big band style music programming and at Haslar a more general MOR music policy.  We broadcast from a 3 storey house which we call Radio House.  This houses 2 on-air studios, reception, kitchen, record library, office and technical area.  More info available form our website at www.radiohaslar.co.uk

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Southampton Hospital Radio: Southampton Hospital Radio has been broadcasting to listeners in local hospitals since 1952, starting with football commentaries and later adding music programmes in 1963, first on tape, and from January 2nd 1966, live by landline.  Previously, 10 hospitals in Southampton & Winchester received the service, but Winchester now has its own service provided by Winchester Hospital RadioProgrammes now air 24 hours a day 365 days a year.
Southampton Hospital Broadcasting Association is a member of the National Association of Hospital Broadcasting Organisations (NAHBO) which now trades as HBA  SHR moved into a new purpose designed building at Tebourba Way, Southampton in December 1993.  The building has 5 "Studios", along with a record library, kitchen, and conference room.

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Portsmouth Hospital Broadcasting:  Back in the early 1950's Portsmouth FC's gates at Fratton Park had to be closed early because of a capacity crowd.  A police sergeant, Brian Morrissey was asked to provide a commentary on the match to the crowds locked outside.  Without knowing it, Brian had begun a new role.  Afterwards it was realised that there were many patients in hospitals that were fans of Portsmouth Football Club.  

On 27th October 1951 the first commentary specifically for hospital patients was relayed from Fratton Park.  This broadcast so impressed one of the Club's Directors, Vernon Stokes, that he lost no opportunity to put forward the idea to the Directors of other league clubs.  Mr Stokes' enthusiasm and the commentaries themselves were to act a springboard for the rapid expansion of sports broadcasting to patients in hospitals and to the development of Hospital Broadcasting in general.  Portsmouth became a role model in the development of such services throughout the rest of the United Kingdom.

The football commentary service had been operating since 1951 but, it wasn't until 1968 that the idea for a complete radio station began.  It was during 1968/69 that Paul Robbins, together with fellow Portsmouth Grammar School pupil Richard Skinner, developed an interest in radio.  They made programmes on homespun equipment and sent a sample to Radio One Disc Jockey Johnnie Walker, who suggested that they contact their local hospital radio service and apply their "talents" to that.  It was then that they discovered that Portsmouth did not have a service of this kind.

With the help and blessing of the Hospital's Management Committee, who gave them the go-ahead and space to use as a studio.  PHB was born.  They refurbished and decorated an underground operating theatre beneath St. Mary's and went on the air in April 1970.  The number of broadcasting hours were gradually increased to take in music programmes as well as football commentaries.

The service began to expand rapidly, but the old studios suffered from frequent flooding due to the underground location so finally in 1986 PHB moved to its present location in the Queen Alexandra Hospital, Cosham.  The opening night was featured live on prime time television on the BBC's Hospital Watch programme just prior to the 6 O'clock news - seen by millions on TV.

It now broadcasts seven days a week from 3.00pm until 11.00pm on weekdays and from 8.00am until 11.00pm at the weekend.  PHB is constantly striving to increase the number of broadcasting hours with the eventual aim of making it a 24 hour service.  Broadcasts are on 945 Khz and 317 metres on the medium wave band and channels 1,3 &5 on the hospital handsets.

PHB is a registered charity (Charity Number - 261548), has 40 presenters and 110 other members.  Not only are all who work at the station volunteers but they pay an annual subscription to be a member of the charity.  It costs approximately £3,000 a year to run the station and all our funds come from donations and fund raising events.

The main fund raising event each year is the Southsea Show.  From the Common PHB present a variety of programmes including professional acts each day.  The entire three days of activity is recorded and selected highlights are played on Portsmouth Hospital Broadcasting.

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Winchester Hospital Radio: Until September 1984, the patients in the Winchester Hospitals received programmes from Southampton Hospital Radio. Two events led to the commissioning of WHR.  Carol Line, a Southampton Hospital Radio member who lived in Winchester was approached by the Royal Hampshire County Hospital administration with a view of improving the patient contact between Southampton Hospital Radio and the wards.  SHR was in some financial difficulties with costs of landlines from Southampton to Winchester weighing heavy.  

As a result, a small group of Winchester based SHR members, put together a proposal that a new Hospital Radio station should be set up in Winchester. The idea was presented to the Executive Committee at SHR, who gave the project their blessing.  The group of now ex-SHR members became WHR's first executive committee.

Work then began on finding a studio site, and raising money for it. Hospital management helped by providing rooms on the 2nd floor of a building at the rear of one of the smaller hospitals in Winchester.  Sadly, financial help could not be offered by them, so the new committee set about raising the money needed.

WHR took over from SHR on 24th September 1984.  But space was cramped into one studio, which restricted training capabilities to off air hours and if any major technical glitches appeared, the station would be off-air anyway.  Maintenance also had to happen after 11pm or whenever broadcasting had ended for the day.  The studios were also about a mile from the main hospital site, making ward walking difficult.  After many meetings with the hospital management, new, on site accommodation was found in an old pre-fabricated building, which had previously been the nurses' changing rooms for the adjacent, and recently demolished, pre-fabricated operating theatres.   After 2 years of fund-raising and building, new studios came into service in May 1992, with the official opening on 6th June 1992.

In 1996, a new network of land-lines from studios to most of the wards in the hospital was put in place, enabling live ward broadcasts, and the use of equipment built into a flight-case that is easily plugged-in to the socket in the ward with radio mics and radio headphones to avoid trailing cables all around the ward.

There are over 15,000 music tracks in the library and a big collection of vinyl but there is technology to cope in the form of DAT recording equipment, and a computerised editing system.  More progress came in 2000 with the arrival of a 48MHz radio link for outside broadcasts, followed by a dedicated 24-hour service to patients using P Squared's "Myriad" system.  24hour broadcasting went live in early 2002. 

In September 2001, the hospital's PatientLine bedside entertainment system was commissioned, and WHR is now available in hi-fi stereo quality to virtually all the beds in the hospital.  In addition, patients can now call the station studios free of charge to request a song or participate in a quiz or discussion, simply by pressing a single button on the telephone keypad.

RSL:  

ISLE OF WIGHT: COWES RADIO: One of the biggest events on the UK Shipping and Boating calendar is Cowes Week.  Cowes Radio provides information, announcements and entertainment - the station was one of the first Restricted Service Licences issued back in the 1980s for such closed site events.  Cowes Radio was founded in 1986 by boating journalists Dick Johnson and Steve Ansell, who, having picked up on the availability of the newly formed and available RSLs, decided to create a special service for both sailors and spectators at the Cowes Regatta.  At the time, the licences were only designed for 'closed site events', i.e. football, golf and shows - Cowes Radio was the first, and remains the only RSL for an open site - it is also amongst the longest running continuous RSLs in the British Isles.  

In it's early days, it aired from a caravan, manned by just three broadcasters, using a few broadcast spec bits, a turntable and a transmitter.  Dick Johnson commentated from a position alongside the Royal Yacht Squadron guns, peering through binoculars, whilst Steve controlled things back in the caravan.  Today, the station has around ten staff, a live commentator from the water based broadcast boat and of course, appropriate links to shore.  There's also a commentator on the Royal Yacht Squadron race officer's platform, and a studio in the Yacht Haven beaming programming to the transmitter positioned on top of Northwood House.  

The station first started coverage over a kilometre radius, but can now be heard across much of the central Solent area, from Newtown in the West to Wooton Creek in the East, and can also be heard northwards to Southampton.  The station is officially recognised by competitors - a 2002 survey found that every one of the competitors asked actually knew about and listened to the station.  Programming is also relayed through loudspeakers on the Green and the Parade plus locals and visitors who take along personal radios.  Many spectators are said to know little about yacht racing and so Cowes Radio works to provide informative programming to the lay-man, as well as meaningful details to sailors on the water.  

The station is also available whilst on-air, through the internet, with BT Openworld providing live access at www.btopenworld.com/sailing.  An e-mail service allows messages to be sent back for transmission during the week.  Communications have been received from New Zealand, Tokyo, Japan, Canada, Australia and a listener in Bolton once won a competition by identifying a location in Cowes where the station had hidden a cardboard cut out of a giant Pimms bottle!

Broadcasters with the station include radio and TV newsreader Simon Vigar, commercial radio manager and broadcaster Roger Price, the widely known Chris Carnegy, BBC, Classic FM and Wave 105  broadcaster Cheryl Buggy, with engineering support provided by Chief Engineer Russ Tollerfield, known for his work with Radio Caroline and the Ocean Radio Group.  The station also uses the support of media students - the likes of which have previously gone on to work on BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 4, plus TV and other media work.  Cowes Radio broadcasts at 25 watts using 106.2FM and RDS.  

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UNITY 24: This is Southampton's multicultural community radio station.  The station, which is aiming for a full-time licence, operates on the allocated short-term licence frequency of 87.7FM as well as on the web, with music and reflections of culture of the ethnic minorities by opening the airwaves to those with skills to assist with local initiatives and enterprises.  The station focuses on topical issues such as employment, health, training, immigration and more, with an element of children's programming, local what's on sections, a wide variety of music and the popular live panel show 'Community Hour'.  

Output includes speech content in Urdu, Punjabi, Hindi, Bengali and Gujerati as well as English.  Staff, both on and off-air, are local volunteers, as well as professional broadcasters and experts in the field.  The local POSH restaurant was the scene for an awards ceremony held in 2003, attended by the Southampton Mayor, council and media representatives, and others to reward the efforts of staff in the station's fourth broadcast, which included a staggering 7,000 requests. www.unity24.org

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DIGITAL:  The local digital radio multiplex service licence for the South Hampshire area, including the cities of Southampton, Portsmouth and Winchester and the Isle of Wight, was awarded to Capital Radio Digital Ltd. on Thursday 9 May 2002, to run for twelve years from the date the service commenced broadcasting.  The loser in the battle was Solent Digital Radio Ltd, backed by EMAP and Scottish Radio.  

The commercial programme services proposed by the successful applicant are analogue services, Ocean FM (provider: Ocean Radio Group Ltd.) 103.2 Power FM (provider: Ocean Radio Group Ltd.), Capital Gold (provider: Ocean RadioGroup Ltd.), all of these being Capital Radio plc stations, soft rock, AC and speech regional analogue service Wave 105.2 (provider: SRH plc), and digital exclusive stations Saga Radio (provider: Saga Regional Digital Radio Ltd.) GWR's rock station The Storm, world music and speech digi-station Passion and a shared service between SBN student radio 6pm-6am each day, Southampton's local analogue service SouthCity FM from 6:00am-11:00am weekdays, children's radio station ABRACADABRA 12:00noon-6:00pm weekdays, 6:00am-6:00pm weekdays and Southampton Hospital Radio from 11:00am-12:00noon weekdays. 

THE SAINT: Updated profile to follow soon.

THE FUTURE: February 2005 saw the second Solent radio licence, for 12 years, advertised, for an area covering most of South Hampshire, East Dorset and the Isle Of Wight, plus the South-West Corner of West Sussex.  This marketplace is estimated to have one and quarter million residents aged 15 or over, and the exact coverage will be determined by the position of the transmission sites.   Two frequencies are proposed for this service, again subject to international agreement on radio spectrum usage, these being 106.0 & 106.6 FM.  The closing date for applications for this licence is 3:00pm on Thursday 5th May, but this licence commands a £12,000 non-refundable application fee.  

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