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BBC Southern Counties Radio is the BBC Local Radio service for the English counties of Surrey and Sussex. The station also covers a large part of North-East Hampshire. It broadcasts from its studios in Brighton and Guildford on FM, AM and on DAB on NOW Sussex Coast.

Contents 1 History 2 Brighton Festival and Fringe 3 Frequencies 4 Split programming 5 Schedule 5.1 Saturdays 5.2 Sundays 5.3 Weekdays: 6 References 7 External links

History

The station was formed by the merger of BBC Radio Sussex and BBC Radio Surrey. It began on 1 August 1994, having been known as BBC Radio Sussex and Surrey since January of that year. In turn, BBC Radio Sussex had originally been founded on 14 February 1968 as BBC Radio Brighton, broadcasting from studios in Marlborough Place. Des Lynam was one of the original presenters on here. It expanded to cover the whole of Sussex in October 1983.

BBC Radio Surrey launched on 14 November 1991 as a limited opt-out service of Radio Sussex, broadcasting from newly-built studios on the campus of the University of Surrey. However it was never able to build a substantial audience over its two years on air.

In September 1994, one month after launch, Southern Counties Radio substantially revamped its schedule and became the first BBC Local Radio station to broadcast 'all talk all the time'. New presenters included Gordon Astley, Tommy Boyd and Al Clarke, however there were to be numerous presenter and schedule changes over the next three years. The next revamp occurred in September 1997, when the station reverted to a more traditional mix of talk and music, and introduced new presenters such as Chris Ashley, Giles Dilnot, Bill Buckley and Simon Bates, who presented the Sunday morning show.

In 2005, The Brighton Breakfast Show Presenter Joanne Good left to work at BBC London 94.9 and was replaced by Sarah Gorrell. Joanne also left her Saturday morning show in the autumn of 2005 and was replaced by Brighton comedian Stephen Grant.

The station was relaunched in April 2006, when its headquarters relocated from Guildford to Brighton. Due to continuing low audience figures in Surrey, it was decided that the station should become more 'Sussex-focused'. Four of the presenters, Bill Buckley, John Radford, Ed Douglas and Dominic Busby left the station. Gordon Astley and Tommy Boyd were recruited to present daily shows, just as they did in 1994, and one-time Radio Sussex sports reporter Richard Lindfield also rejoined.

Brighton Festival and Fringe

Increasingly, in recent years, BBC Southern Counties Radio has worked to provide extensive and interactive coverage of the Brighton Festival and Fringe. Aside from dedicating a daily hour-long show to Brighton's Festivals, it also provided in-depth internet coverage, including reviews, features and video clips.

Frequencies

• Analogue VHF FM
  • 95.0 MHz - Newhaven (Newhaven Transmitter)
  • 95.1 MHz - Horsham (Horsham Transmitter)
  • 95.3 MHz - Brighton and Worthing (Whitehawk Hill Transmitter)
  • 104.0 MHz - Reigate & Crawley (Reigate Transmitter}
  • 104.5 MHz - East and West Sussex, including Eastbourne (Heathfield Transmitter)
  • 104.6 MHz - Guildford (Guildford Transmitter)
  • 104.8 MHz - Chichester (Burton Down Transmitter)

• Analogue Mediumwave AM
  • 1161 kHz - East Sussex (Bexhill Transmitter)
  • 1368 kHz - Reigate & Crawley (Duxhurst Transmitter)
  • 1485 kHz - Southern West Sussex (Brighton Transmitter)

• DAB Digital Radio: Block 11B 218.64 MHz
  • Worthing (Findon Transmitter)
  • Newhaven (Beddingham Transmitter)
  • Hastings (Hastings Transmitter}
  • Eastbourne (Eastbourne Transmitter}
  • Chichester (Burton Down Transmitter)
  • Brighton (Whitehawk Hill Transmitter)

Split programming

Since September 1997 there have been separate news services for Sussex and Surrey, and separate breakfast shows for both counties, using a split frequency system. Until the April 2006 changes a separate service for Brighton, Hove and Worthing was also provided. A one-hour Drivetime programme and Saturday breakfast show for Surrey were introduced at this point - however the Surrey output was now only available to listeners in the west of the county, on 104.6 FM. The 104.0 FM frequency, which covers parts of both East Surrey and the north of West Sussex and previously carried the Surrey programming, was switched to carry the Sussex output. The reasoning behind this was to give listeners in Crawley and East Grinstead a more relevant service, at the expense of the those in East Surrey where audience figures have been in decline, but from 16th October 2006, 104.0 FM reverted to the Surrey output. In addition, to reaffirm its commitment to Surrey listeners, the Surrey Drivetime programme was increased from one to three hours.

There are also separate sports shows on Saturday afternoon. This means that listeners in north-east Hampshire and Surrey can listen to excellent live commentaries from the local Conference teams, Aldershot Town, Woking and Crawley Town, whilst those in Sussex can listen to Brighton's games.

Schedule

This article or section contains a current television or radio schedule. Please convert this schedule to prose. Schedules which have been copied and pasted from an external source may possibly be in violation of copyright. Please remove this template after editing. This article has been tagged since October 2007.

The station's current schedule:

Saturdays

• 6.00am Allison Ferns - Sussex Breakfast and Fred Marden - Surrey Breakfast
• 9.00 Stephen Grant's Saturday Mid-Morning Show - with Stephen Grant (Comedian & Presenter), Stephen Cranford & Nic Ayling
• 1.00pm Simon Furber - Rewind
• 2.00 Sussex Sport in Sussex and Saturday Sport in Surrey
• 6.00 Non-League Round-up with Simon Levinson
• 6.30 Dave Cash
• 9.00 David Miller
• 1.00am as BBC Radio 5 Live

Sundays

• 6.00am Allison Ferns - Faith & Ethics
• 10.00 Gordon Astley - Sunday Mid-Morning Music & Chat including "The Other Side of..a local personality
• 1.00pm Sylvie Blackmore - Sunday Afternoon including Peter Mills' Gardening Hours between 1 and 3pm
• 5.00 Alina Jenkins - Love songs
• 7.00 Phil Jackson - South: Live
• 9.00 David Allen
• 12.00am Joe Talbot - Through the Night

Weekdays:

• 6.00am Neil Pringle - Sussex Breakfast and Fred Marden - Surrey Breakfast
• 9.00 Gordon Astley - Mid-Morning Music & Chat
• 1.00pm Tommy Boyd
• 4.00 Richard Lindfield - Sussex Drivetime and Mark Carter - Surrey Drivetime
• 7.00 Roger Day
• 10.00 Paul Miller
• 1.00am Joe Talbot - Through the Night (Monday - Friday mornings)
• 1.00am as BBC Radio 5 Live (Saturday morning)

Newsreaders:

• Fiona McCarthy
• Simon Jenkins
• Justin Stacey
• Emily Jeffery
• Clare Dutton

Reporters:

• Paul Jenner (Surrey, NE Hampshire and Crawley)
• Steve Dale (Sussex)
• Max Callum (BBC Bus)

Travel News:

• Sylvie Blackmore (Surrey & Sussex)
• Mims Lovelock (Surrey)
• Ben Kerrigan (Surrey)
• Stephen Cranford (Sussex)
• Nic Ayling (Sussex)

Guest Presenters:

• Jeremy Clarkson^[1]
• James May^[1]
• Richard Hammond^[1]

Addresses:

• Broadcasting House, 40-42 Queens Road, BRIGHTON, East Sussex. BN1 3XB
• Broadcasting Centre, GUILDFORD, Surrey. GU2 7AP

Former Address (1968 - 2002)

• The Brighton Broadcasting Centre, No 1 Marlborough Place, BRIGHTON, East Sussex. BN1 1TU

References

External links

• BBC Southern Counties Radio
• Media UK - BBC Southern Counties Radio
• BBC Southern Counties Radio Appreciation Society
• BBC Southern Counties Discussion Forum
• TV & Radio Bits - BBC Southern Counties Radio
• Brighton Festival and Fringe coverage
• Brighton Festival Fringe

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