Heart Gloucestershire (formerly Severn Sound) was a British

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

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 ...

as part of the

Heart The heart is a muscular Organ (biology), organ found in humans and other animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels. The heart and blood vessels together make the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrie ...

network. It broadcast to

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

from studios in

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city, non-metropolitan district and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West England, South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean ...

. The transmitter, shared with Radio Gloucestershire, is at Churchdown Hill, just west of the M5.

History

Severn Sound started transmissions on 23 October 1980, from its first

studio A studio is a space set aside for creative work of any kind, including art, dance, music and theater. The word ''studio'' is derived from the , from , from ''studere'', meaning to study or zeal. Types Art The studio of any artist, esp ...

at the "Old Talbot"

pub A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the late 17th century, to differentiate private ho ...

in Southgate Street,

. The pub had been bought by local businessmen including Clive Lindley, chairman of the Roadchef motorway service stations and of Severn Sound. The station's first employee was Chief Engineer Quentin Howard, who converted the pub into the radio station. The original presenters were Alan Roberts, Head of Music, on Breakfast, Christopher Musk on mid-mornings, Eddie Vickers, Programme Controller, on the Lunchtime News and Topical programme, Laura de Vere on the Afternoon Show and Steve Ellis on Drivetime. There was a Sunday lunchtime show in which the presenter would go to various areas of Gloucester and share Sunday lunch with the residents of a house. One notable director was the writer

Dennis Potter Dennis Christopher George Potter (17 May 1935 – 7 June 1994) was an English television dramatist, screenwriter and journalist. He is best known for his BBC television serials '' Pennies from Heaven'' (1978) and '' The Singing Detective'' ...

, who played an active role in the station's early years and lived in

Ross on Wye Ross-on-Wye is a market town and civil parish in Herefordshire, England, near the border with Wales. It had a population estimated at 10,978 in 2021. It lies in the south-east of the county, on the River Wye and on the northern edge of the Fore ...

. Potter's '' Pennies from Heaven'' producer,

Kenith Trodd Kenith Trodd (born 1936) is a British television producer best known for his professional association with television playwright Dennis Potter. Early life The son of a crane driver, Trodd was born in Southampton, Hampshire, and raised in the Chri ...

, presented a Sunday programme of 78 records featuring singers including

Al Bowlly Albert Allick Bowlly (7 January 1899 – 17 April 1941) was a South African-British vocalist, crooner, and dance band guitarist who was Britain's most popular singer for most of the 1930s. He recorded upwards of 1,000 songs that were listened ...

, which Todd and Potter had used in ''Pennies from Heaven''. Another director was England rugby player Mike Burton, who also started sports travel agency Gulliver's Travels. On 1 July 1984 two of the station's engineers, Nigel Lane and Tony Cooper, were killed on an outside broadcast when the telescopic mast of their radio car touched an overhead 11 kV power line while they were preparing for a live broadcast from Sudeley Castle, Winchcombe. The inquiry into the accident found Severn Sound guilty of health and safety offences and fined the company £2,500. Many new safety procedures for radio cars were introduced across the industry as a result of the accident. The station was sold to the ''

Chiltern Radio Group Chiltern Radio may also refer to Chiltern Voice FM: Chiltern Radio Network was the parent group of several Independent Local Radio stations in the 1980s and 1990s. These were divided across two networks: ''The Hot FM'' and ''SuperGold''. Hi ...

'', after some resistance, in 1989, and was later taken over by the GWR Group in 1995, which merged into

GCap Media 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 Index ...

in 2005, and was sold to

in 2008. During the Gloucester/Tewkesbury flood crisis of Summer 2007, Severn Sound was forced to move temporarily to the GWR FM Bristol Studios, due to a loss of electricity and running water.

Split frequencies

In 1990, Severn Sound split frequencies, with its 774 kHz AM frequency being renamed Three Counties Radio, expanding to cover

Hereford Hereford ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of the ceremonial county of Herefordshire, England. It is on the banks of the River Wye and lies east of the border with Wales, north-west of Gloucester and south-west of Worcester. With ...

Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Engl ...

. This was an "oldies" station and was a mix of local programmes and networking from

Chiltern Radio Network Chiltern Radio may also refer to Chiltern Voice FM: Chiltern Radio Network was the parent group of several Independent Local Radio stations in the 1980s and 1990s. These were divided across two networks: ''The Hot FM'' and ''SuperGold''. His ...

Supergold Supergold (Europe) was an oldies radio sustaining service originally operated by the Telstar Satellite Music Network (TSMN) and later by Chiltern Radio Network in the United Kingdom. Originally devised by entrepreneur and DJ Graham Kentsley, it ...

service. Presenters who moved from Severn Sound to Three Counties included ''Tony Peters & Sally Low Hurry''. John Hellings was brought in as breakfast presenter. In 1992, Three Counties Radio was re-branded as Severn Sound Supergold (and no longer promoted in Hereford & Worcester), and was re-branded again, in 1996, by new owners GWR as Severn Sound Classic Gold. Ownership rules required GWR to sell all their Classic Gold licences, to

UBC Media UBC Media Group was a production and content creation company which began as the Unique Broadcasting Company in 1989. In June 2014 the company merged with 7digital to form a global digital music and radio platform. The new company was called 7di ...

, and another re-brand to Classic Gold 774 followed. The heritage name "Severn" is no longer mentioned on 774 AM after it was re-branded again, in 2007, to

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 ...

, and again on 24 March 2014 to Smooth Radio. All programming on 774 AM now comes from London.

Rebrand

In September 2008 Severn Sound became

Gloucestershire as part of a national re-branding of 29 stations by owners

. The ''Heart Gloucestershire'' branding was launched at 6am on Monday 23 March 2009, with local programming broadcast from the above-the-street ''Bridge Studios'', part of the Eastgate Shopping Centre (The Mall) in Gloucester. Local news bulletins on the station are produced by Heart West in Bristol, following the closure of the station's Gloucester newsroom in summer 2010.

Station merger

In 2019 Heart Gloucestershire merged with three sister stations in Bristol and Somerset, Devon and Cornwall and

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...

.Global to network Capital, Heart and Smooth breakfast shows
, RadioToday, 26 February 2019 From 3 June 2019, local output will became a three-hour regional Drivetime show on weekdays, with local news bulletins, traffic updates and advertising.Amanda Holden to join Jamie Theakston for Heart UK Breakfast
, Radio Today, 29 April 2019 Heart Gloucestershire's studios in Gloucester closed, with operations moving to

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

. The station ceased local programming on 31 May 2019. Local breakfast and weekend shows were replaced with network programming from London. Heart West began broadcasting regional programming on 3 June 2019.

References

External links