Greatest Hits Radio Norfolk & North Suffolk (Norwich) (formerly Radio Norwich 99.9) is 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 owned and operated by Bauer, broadcasting to Norwich and the surrounding area. The station was merged with

North Norfolk Radio North Norfolk Radio was an Independent Local Radio station in North Norfolk, England, owned and operated by Bauer Radio as part of the Greatest Hits Radio network. It was closed on 1 September 2020 and merged with Greatest Hits Radio Norfolk & ...

and The Beach and became Greatest Hits Radio Norfolk and North Suffolk.

History

The station was part of

Tindle Radio Group Tindle Radio is a media company which owns commercial radio stations and a DAB multiplex business in the Channel Islands and Ireland. It has its head office in Farnham, Surrey, shared with Tindle Newspapers. History Sir Ray Tindle acquire ...

, former owners of neighbouring

and 103.4 The Beach. The station was known as Crown FM during its 28-day trial RSL broadcasts. Crown FM began broadcasting trials on 3 July 1999 using a

restricted service licence A UK Restricted Service Licence (often called an RSL) is typically granted to radio stations and television stations broadcasting within the UK to serve a local community or a special event. Licences are granted by the broadcasting authority Ofcom ...

on 107.3 MHz FM via a mast at Mousehold Heath. Further RSLs took place in the 28 days leading up to Christmas in 1999, 2000 and 2001, and from 26 April to 23 May 2003. The British communications regulator,

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, internet, telecommunications and mail, postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-rang ...

, advertised a permanent licence for the area on 8 December 2004. On the closing date of 9 March 2005, Crown FM was one of five bidders, with Lite FM Norwich (from

Forward Media Forward Media was a media company based in Stockport, Merseyside which operated radio stations. History Forward Media Ltd was established in 1998 primarily to acquire and operate Lite FM in Peterborough and Connect FM in Kettering. Forward Media ...

), Norwich 99.9 FM (from

Wireless Group News broadcasting is the medium of broadcasting various news events and other information via television, radio, or the internet in the field of broadcast journalism. The content is usually either produced locally in a radio studio or telev ...

), NRG fm (from local interests, including Archant Regional) and Today FM (from

UKRD Group The UKRD Group Ltd was a British media company that owned 15 commercial radio stations in the United Kingdom. The name originates from UK Radio Developments. Since its acquisition in March 2019, it has been run as a subsidiary of Bauer Radio. H ...

). Ofcom announced on 9 June 2005 that Crown FM had won the licence for 12 years. The station began test transmissions on 31 May 2006 for four weeks from a transmitter at

Stoke Holy Cross Stoke Holy Cross is a village in South Norfolk which lies approximately south of Norwich. Geography Stoke sits on the River Tas. It covers an area of and had a population of 1,568 in 674 households at the 2001 census. The village is access ...

near

Poringland Poringland is a village in the South Norfolk district of Norfolk, England. It lies south of Norwich city centre and north of Bungay. Its population has rapidly grown in the past 50 years. It covers an area of and had a population of 3,261 l ...

in Norfolk, using 500

Watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...

s ERP. It opened on 29 June 2006 under the name 99.9 Radio Norwich with the slogan ''The New Number For Norwich''. On 31 January 2017, it was confirmed that

Celador CPL Productions (formerly Celador) is an independent television and radio production company run by Danielle Lux, Murray Boland and Janet Oakes. It was formed in the United Kingdom in 1981 as an independent television production company. It cr ...

had completed the purchase of

Anglian Radio Tindle Radio is a media company which owns commercial radio stations and a DAB multiplex business in the Channel Islands and Ireland. It has its head office in Farnham, Surrey, shared with Tindle Newspapers. History Sir Ray Tindle acquir ...

group.

Station rebrand

On 8 February 2019, 99.9 Radio Norwich and Celador's local radio stations were sold to Bauer. The sale was ratified in March 2020 following an inquiry by the

Competition and Markets Authority The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is the principal competition regulator in the United Kingdom. It is a non-ministerial government department in the United Kingdom, responsible for promoting competitive markets and tackling unfair beh ...

. On 27 May 2020, it was announced that 99.9 Radio Norwich will join Bauer's

Greatest Hits Radio Greatest Hits Radio (GHR) is a classic hits radio network in the United Kingdom, owned and operated by Bauer Media Audio UK. It currently includes 18 local and regional radio stations operating over 50 FM and DAB licences in England, Scotl ...

network. On 13 July 2020, local programming outside weekday breakfast was replaced by networked output from the GHR network, with 99.9 Radio Norwich retaining its own branding.Bauer starts to roll out Hits and Greatest Hits to new radio stations
Stuart Clarkson, Radio Today, 9 July 2020 On 1 September 2020, the station rebranded as Greatest Hits Radio and merged with its sister stations in the East. The station's local breakfast show was replaced by a regional drivetime show, which later became an afternoon show to make way for the new flagship show

Simon Mayo Drivetime ''Simon Mayo Drivetime'', is the incarnation of the drivetime show on BBC Radio 2 between 11 January 2010 and 4 May 2018, being revived briefly for Mayo's final show with the station on 21 December that year, and then fully from 15 March 2021 o ...

. Localised news bulletins, traffic updates and advertising were retained.Most of acquired Bauer stations to become Greatest Hits Radio
Stuart Clarkson, Radio Today, 27 May 2020

Programming

From 9 January 2017, all programming was shared between

, Radio Norwich 99.9 and 103.4 The Beach, although the three stations kept separate branding (particularly for local Travel, Events, News, Adverts and Commercials) with programmes broadcast from the studio in Norwich.

References

External links

Official website {{Greatest Hits Radio Mass media in Norwich Radio stations in Norfolk Bauer Radio Greatest Hits Radio Radio stations established in 2006