County Sound Radio (1566 AM)

County Sound Radio (1566 AM)
County Sound Radio
CountySoundRadio logo.png
City of license Guildford
Broadcast area Guildford
Slogan Great music, good company.
Frequency 1566 kHz
First air date 4 April 1983
Format Contemporary
Audience share 0.5% (December 2009, [1])
Owner UKRD Group
Website http://www.countysound.co.uk/

County Sound Radio is a commercial radio station covering Surrey and north-east Hampshire. Currently broadcasting on 1566 MW and 91.5 FM (on cable) and on the internet via the website.

History

County Sound Radio was launched on 4 April 1983 by Frank Muir on 203 MW and 96.6 FM, broadcasting from "The Friary" shopping centre in Guildford. In 1986 the FM frequency was changed to 96.4 FM.

The FM transmitter is on the Hog's Back, while the AM transmitter, shared with Absolute Radio, is next to the railway line in Farncombe, opposite Broadwater School.

County Sound was originally only on air (weekdays) 6am until 9pm, then midnight, with future extensions to 5am and 1am, before going 24 hours.

The original line-up included Phil Miles at Breakfast, Paul Owens, Sarah Lucas "after lunch" and Simon Cummings during the afternoon. Norman Cunningham was the company Chairman, David Lucas was the launch Managing Director and Mike Powell was the first Head of News. The following year Powell became Programme Director. When Lucas left in 1986 to become Managing Director of Ocean Sound, Powell became Managing Director.

County Sound was noted for its long news programmes called "County World" at lunchtime and 6pm.

The County Sound Radio theme was written by board member Les Reed (who also wrote Delilah, The Last Waltz and many other hits) with the slogan "The One and Only One for You". The lyrics to the County Sound song were:

Here comes the morning, it's a brand new day (Alt. lyrics for afternoon and evening: We are your music, and your news each day). Turn on the sunshine. The County Sound way. Open up your heart, and you will let a little sunshine through, with County Sound, the one and only one for you. We'll always be here, each and every day. Where ever you're going, we're going your way. Come with us and ride the airwaves discover something new, on County Sound - the one and only one for you. County Sound, the one and only one for you.

County Sound's mascot was Brewster the Mouse, often seen at fetes, fairs and shows in Surrey and North East Hampshire.

On 1 June 1988 County Sound Radio became the first UK station to split its FM and MW frequencies to create two stations, 96.4 became "Premier Radio" and 203 MW was re-branded "County Sound Gold", which was later renamed First Gold Radio. As part of a major property deal, the station moved most of its departments from its purpose-built studios on top of Guildford's "Friary Shopping Centre" to a new building in nearby Woking. However, a small facility remained in the Friary's food court where shoppers could look directly in to the on-air studio.

In 1991 the group merged with Radio Mercury to form the listed plc, Allied Radio.

FM frequencies 102.7 & 96.4 broadcast Radio Mercury. The West Surrey (96.4) Mercury included programming made from a studio at County Sound's original home - the Friary shopping centre in Guildford. West Surrey had its own dedicated programming on Monday to Friday from 6am till 7pm. All other programming was networked from Mercury's Crawley HQ. Haslemere also had its own breakfast show, on 97.1FM. This, strangely, ran from 7am-11am, meaning listeners in Haslemere heard the first hour of the Guildford breakfast show, then had a four hour Haslemere programme, then joined the Guildford mid morning show an hour late.

"County Sound" became the name of the AM service on 1476 and 1521 (1521 carried Radio Mercury until then), but it wasn't like the County Sound listeners knew and County Sound changed names once more in 1993 to become Mercury Extra. 1521 eventually became part of the Gold network until Global Media handed the licence back to OFCOM in early 2011.

In 1995 the link between the Guildford and Crawley stations was broken, as Allied lost the Guildford licence. UKRD won the franchise - and were originally to go on air in April 1996 - but Allied were keen to get out and sold the remaining seven months of their licence to the new franchisee.

UKRD - with Mike Powell at the helm - wanted to bring County Sound back to Surrey - and from 1 September 1995 "County Sound Radio" was, albeit temporarily, once again broadcasting on 96.4FM and 1476 AM. This was a temporary service while the new owners prepared to launch properly.

On Friday 29 December 1995 the station moved into Dolphin House on North Street in Guildford - ending twelve years of broadcasting from the Friary - and on the 4 January 1996 the new UKRD stations launched, once again splitting frequencies. "County Sound" remained broadcasting on 1476, while the FM channel became 96.4 Eagle Radio. In 1999 County Sound moved to its current frequency of 1566 MW.

Original presenter Simon Cummings died in December 1996 after suffering a long illness.

Current Presenters

  • Dave Johns - Programme Controller
  • Stuart Provan
  • David Seal
  • Rob Mansell
  • Saffron da Silva - Head of News
  • Anthony Zahra - Journalist

Further reading

Coordinates: 51°14′26.26″N 0°34′53.8″W / 51.2406278°N 0.581611°W / 51.2406278; -0.581611


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • County Sound Radio 1566 AM — Infobox Radio station | name = County Sound Radio 1566 AM city = Guildford area = Guildford branding = slogan = Great music, good company. airdate = 4 April 1983 frequency = 1566 kHz share = 1.3% share as of = September 2007 share source =… …   Wikipedia

  • UKRD Group — The UKRD Group Ltd is a British media company which owns the license to 13 commercial radio stations in the United Kingdom. The name originates from UK Radio Developments.Formed on August 22nd 1990 as a company to invest in commercial stations… …   Wikipedia

  • Guildford — For the larger local government district, see Guildford (borough). This article is about the county town of Surrey. For other uses, see Guildford (disambiguation). Coordinates: 51°14′12″N 0°34′13″W /  …   Wikipedia

  • Guildford — 51° 14′ 07″ N 0° 34′ 29″ W / 51.2354, 0.5746 …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Andrea Benfield — Infobox journalist name = Andrea Benfield | caption = birthname = Andrea Benfield birth date = birth year and age|1978 birth place = Guildford, Surrey age = death date = death place = education = occupation = Journalist, Newsreader alias = gender …   Wikipedia

  • MuxCo Sussex & Surrey — MuxCo (Sussex Surrey) Licensed area Surrey North Sussex Frequency 10B (211.648 MHz) / 10C (213.360 MHz) Air date Yet to Launch (Delayed) Owner MuxCo / UKRD Website www.muxco.com MuxCo (Sussex Surrey), as the name suggests, is the name of the …   Wikipedia

  • china — /chuy neuh/, n. 1. a translucent ceramic material, biscuit fired at a high temperature, its glaze fired at a low temperature. 2. any porcelain ware. 3. plates, cups, saucers, etc., collectively. 4. figurines made of porcelain or ceramic material …   Universalium

  • China — /chuy neuh/, n. 1. People s Republic of, a country in E Asia. 1,221,591,778; 3,691,502 sq. mi. (9,560,990 sq. km). Cap.: Beijing. 2. Republic of. Also called Nationalist China. a republic consisting mainly of the island of Taiwan off the SE coast …   Universalium

  • Miami — This article is about the city in Florida. For other uses, see Miami (disambiguation). Miami   City   …   Wikipedia

  • BBC Somerset — Infobox Radio Station name = BBC Somerset city = Taunton area = Somerset branding = slogan = airdate = 11 April 1988 frequency = 95.5 MHz, 1566 kHz share = 3.0% share as of = March 2008 share source = [http://www.rajar.co.uk/listening/quarterly… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”