The Breeze was the name of two easy listening radio stations in Essex and Surrey. The stations are today part of the

Gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

network.

History

Breeze Essex

Starting life as the

medium wave Medium wave (MW) is a part of the medium frequency (MF) radio band used mainly for AM radio broadcasting. The spectrum provides about 120 channels with more limited sound quality than FM stations on the FM broadcast band. During the daytim ...

frequencies of

Essex Radio Heart Essex (formerly Essex Radio and then Essex FM) was an Independent Local Radio station, serving the county of Essex and parts of East Hertfordshire. It was launched on 12 September 1981, broadcasting from Southend-on-Sea and since 27 Octobe ...

, the frequencies split in July 1989, when Breeze AM was born. It later changed name to simply Breeze, then The Breeze. In 2000, the

GWR Group GCap Media was a British commercial radio company formed from the merger of the Capital Radio Group and GWR Group. The merger was completed on 9 May 2005. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Inde ...

bought Essex Radio and Breeze became Classic Gold Breeze despite petitioning by locals. The word Breeze was later dropped as it became part of the

Classic Gold Digital network Classic Gold Digital Network was one of the biggest 'gold' (oldies) formatted radio networks in the United Kingdom, with a potential audience of 47 million. Classic Gold was broadcast on analogue and DAB digital platforms, as well as Sky channel ...

Breeze Surrey

Breeze 1521 was formerly known as Fame 1521, Mercury Xtra and Extra AM. It came about when

Radio Mercury Mercury FM was an Independent Local Radio station in the Surrey and Sussex area of the United Kingdom that was founded on 20 October 1984 and closed on 25 July 2010. The station broadcast on FM 97.5 MHz in Horsham and 102.7 MHz in ...

split its AM and FM frequencies to form two services. Just like its sister station in Essex it became Classic Gold Breeze then it became part of the

Today

Since August 2007 after another take over by

Global Radio Global Media & Entertainment Limited, trading as Global, is a British media company formed in 2007. It is the owner of the largest commercial radio company in Europe having expanded through a number of historical acquisitions, including Chrysal ...

, both services have become

and offer very few local programmes. At present Breeze AM is an online station with a music policy of love songs and easy listening.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Breeze (radio station), The Defunct radio stations in the United Kingdom Radio stations established in 1989 Radio stations disestablished in 2007 Radio stations in Surrey Radio stations in Essex