Heart Ipswich (formerly SGR 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 that evolved from Suffolk Group Radio, which was the parent company for two

Independent radio Independent radio indicates a radio station that are run in a manner,different from usual from the countries it broadcasts in. Conversely, in places such as the United States, where commercial broadcasters are the norm, independent radio is some ...

stations serving the county of

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

in England.

Overview

The older of the radio stations was Radio Orwell, which began transmissions in

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Suffolk, England. It is the county town, and largest in Suffolk, followed by Lowestoft and Bury St Edmunds, and the third-largest population centre in East Anglia, ...

on 28 October 1975 on 257m MW. It was one of the original group of ILR stations set up by the

Independent Broadcasting Authority The Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) was the regulatory body in the United Kingdom for commercial television ( ITV and Channel 4 and limited satellite television regulation – cable television was the responsibility of the Cable Author ...

following relaxation of the rules governing broadcasting in Britain. Other stations that were included in the original 19 were LBC and

Capital Radio Capital London is an Independent Local Radio station owned and operated by Global Media & Entertainment as part of its national Capital (radio network), Capital Network. As Capital Radio it was launched in the London area in 1973 as one of Bri ...

in London and BRMB in Birmingham. The western side of Suffolk got its own radio station in the form of Saxon Radio on 240m MW, which began broadcasting in

Bury St Edmunds Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as ''Bury,'' is a cathedral as well as market town and civil parish in the West Suffolk District, West Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St. Edmunds an ...

in November 1982. The two stations operated separate breakfast shows, and then programmes were networked from either site to both transmitters. Most of the programmes came from the studios at Electric House, Ipswich, and a few from the Bury St Edmunds' Long Brackland studios. In 1984-85, the stations experimented with a drive-time news and current affairs programme ("The Home Run") which had presenters in both studios - Allan Lee in Ipswich and Adrienne Rosen in Bury. This proved too expensive to continue for long and the programme was cut back to one presenter in the Ipswich studio. Ipswich Town FC was sponsored by Radio Orwell and had the station's logo on the front of the team's shirts in the mid-1980s. In 1990, the stations were taken over by the successful Norwich-based Radio Broadland to form the East Anglian Radio group, run by the Broadland management team. EAR re-launched Orwell and Saxon as one station under the SGR-FM banner in 1992 and also won the licence to start SGR Colchester in Essex the following year. The group launched a new service in 1995 called Amber Radio, with studios in Ipswich and Norwich, on the AM transmitters previously used to simulcast the SGR stations; these, some years later, became Classic Gold Amber and then Gold. In 1996, EAR was bought by 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 ...

network, which continued to run the stations for about 10 years until it was taken over by Global Radio.

Heart rebrand

On 5 January 2009, SGR-FM was renamed as ''Heart'', as part of a major re-brand involving 29 One Network stations. By that time, local programming was restricted to daily breakfast and weekday afternoon drivetime shows with all other output networked from London. As part of the re-brand, the station pulled out of a contract to broadcast live commentary on Ipswich Town FC games after just one season.

Network restructuring

On 21 June 2010, Global Radio announced plans to close Heart Ipswich and merge the station with Heart Norwich as part of plans to reduce the Heart network of stations from 33 to 16. The new station, ''Heart East Anglia'', began broadcasting from Norwich on 3 September 2010.Heart slims but strengthens
, RadioToday, 21 June 2010.

References

{{coord missing, Suffolk Radio stations established in 1975 Radio stations disestablished in 2010 Defunct radio stations in the United Kingdom Ispwich Radio stations in Suffolk

Overview

Heart rebrand

Network restructuring

See also

References