The Southern Radio Group was a company which owned and operated radio stations on the south coast of England.
History
Southern Radio Group was formed when
Ocean Sound
Heart Hampshire (formerly Ocean FM and Ocean Sound) is a British Independent Local Radio station serving South Hampshire, West Sussex (excluding Worthing) and The Isle of Wight primarily for Portsmouth, Southampton, Winchester and Chichester ...
Invicta FM
Heart Kent (previously Invicta FM) was an Independent Local Radio station owned and operated by Global Radio as part of the Heart network. It broadcast to Kent from studios at John Wilson Business Park in Whitstable.
History
Invicta in the 80 ...
and its AM services Invicta
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 ...
in
Kent
Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...
, and Mellow 1557 in Essex joined the group as a result of a reverse takeover by the Invicta Radio Group.
In 1994, Capital Radio purchased Southern Radio plc, which included Ocean Sound. This led to the station being a more music-led station, playing heavy rotation soft adult contemporary hits, with its news and information sequences reduced in length and finishing with the sentence "And that's the way it is at " like Capital FM. Whilst
Power FM
Capital South Coast was a regional radio station owned by operated by Global Radio as part of the Capital (radio network), Capital radio network. It broadcast to Hampshire from studios in Segensworth, Fareham. In 2019, Capital South Coast was r ...
took on Capital FM's long-established, successful and highly polished sound.
In 1997 the Capital Radio Group sought Radio Authority approval to reduce the amount of local programming on its AM stations, this would mean South Coast Radio opting-out of a main service based in London. There Capital Gold was launched in place of South Coast Radio, with four hours programming locally produced, usually either at breakfast or drivetime.