Mercury FM was an

Independent Local Radio Independent Local Radio is the collective name given to commercial radio stations in the United Kingdom. As a result of the buyouts and mergers permitted by the Broadcasting Act 1990, and deregulation resulting from the Communications Act 2 ...

station in the

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

and

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

area of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

that was founded on 20 October 1984 and closed on 25 July 2010. The station broadcast on FM 97.5 MHz in

Horsham Horsham () is a market town on the upper reaches of the River Arun on the fringe of the Weald in West Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Nearby to ...

and 102.7 MHz in East Surrey and North Sussex and later merged with

Heart Sussex Heart Sussex (previously Southern FM, also operating as Heart Sussex for Crawley & Surrey in Crawley and Surrey) was an Independent Local Radio station which was owned by Global Radio (formerly GCap Media) and played commercial, chart-oriented ...

to form Heart Sussex and Surrey.

History

Radio Mercury was founded by John Aumonier and began airing on 20 October 1984, on 103.6 FM and 1521 AM focusing on Crawley but serving much of East Surrey and North Sussex. Two years later, the FM frequency changed to 102.7 as part of the UK-wide re-organisation of the VHF/FM band. 1985 saw a relay of the station added for the town of Horsham on 97.5. In 1991 the station took over most of County Sound Radio in Guildford to form the

Allied Radio plc Allied Radio plc was a publicly listed radio company that operated, or held an interest in, several Independent Local Radio contractors in the UK during the 1990s. History Allied Radio plc was created when the Crawley-based Independent Local ...

. Mercury then, having played a broad mix of music, became a mainly

Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is a list of the 40 currently most popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "To ...

hits station. County Sound's AM frequency was later renamed "Extra AM" and then again was shortly renamed "Mercury Extra AM" to make the connection between the two AM frequencies of both stations better known. It also became known as The Breeze, until the Classic Gold Network took over the AM licence of 1521

kHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base uni ...

. On 102.7 FM Mercury was renamed "Mercury FM" after the takeover of the group by GWR, later GCap Media. Before that Mercury lost the County Sound region again, and Eagle Radio took the Surrey 96.4 FM transmitter, and County Sound returned to 1476 AM. The station was incorporated into GCap's "One Network" of stations, until the merger between GCap and Chrysalis Radio, forming Global Radio. As part of this merger, many of the former One Network stations were rebranded and reformatted under the "Heart" network which still stands today. As the merger took place and the One Network was being disbanded, Mercury FM was incorporated into the now-defunct Hit Music Network along with a number of other stations, which retained their heritage brands due to a neighbouring Heart station overlapping into their broadcast area. The station was part of the network until its rebrand on 25 July 2010 as Heart.

Closure

In July 2010, Mercury FM became part of the

Heart Network Heart is a network of thirteen independent adult contemporary radio stations in the United Kingdom, broadcasting a mix of local and networked programming, although only the stations in Scotland and Wales still have their own shows. Ten of the s ...

. The final Mercury FM programme was broadcast on Sunday 25 July 2010, with the newly merged Heart Sussex and Surrey launching the next day. As of 2024, Radio Mercury remains a listed business with

companies house Companies House is the executive agency of the British Government that maintains the Company register, register of companies, employs the company registrars and is responsible for Incorporation (business), incorporating all forms of Company, co ...

at the address for Global studios in London.

References

External links

{{coord missing, West Sussex The Hit Music Network Radio stations in Surrey Radio stations in Sussex Radio stations established in 1984 Radio stations disestablished in 2010 Contemporary hit radio stations in the United Kingdom Defunct radio stations in the United Kingdom