City Norwich Branding This is Heart Frequency 96.4, 97.1 & 102.4 MHz | Broadcast area Norfolk Slogan Turn up the Feel Good! Format Hot AC | |
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Heart East Anglia is a local radio station owned and operated by Global Radio as part of the Heart network. It broadcasts to Norfolk and Suffolk from studios in Norwich. The station began launched on Friday 3 September 2010 as a result of a merger between Heart Norwich (formerly Radio Broadland) and Heart Ipswich (formerly Radio Orwell and Saxon Radio, latterly SGR FM).
Contents
History
The regional station originally broadcast as three separate stations - Radio Orwell served Ipswich and surrounding areas since October 1975. In November 1982, Saxon Radio launched in west Suffolk from studios in Bury St. Edmonds, acting as an effective opt-out service to Orwell. Meanwhile, Radio Broadland began broadcasting to Norfolk and north Suffolk in October 1984.
In 1990, Broadland bought out Suffolk Group Radio (the owners of Radio Orwell and Saxon Radio) and formed the East Anglian Radio Group. Two years later, Orwell and Saxon were merged into SGR FM - which launched a sister station in Essex, SGR Colchester, in October 1993.
By 1996, the GWR Group had bought out the East Anglian Radio Group. In January 2009, both Broadland and SGR were among the first stations to rebranded under the Heart moniker after GCap Media's takeover by Global Radio the year before.
On 21 June 2010, Global Radio announced it would merge the five stations as part of plans to reduce the Heart network of stations from 33 to 18. The new station began broadcasting on Friday 3 September 2010 from studios in Norwich, leading to the closure of studios in Ipswich.
Programming
Local programming is produced and broadcast from Heart's Norwich studios from 6-10am and 4-7pm on weekdays, 1-5pm on Saturdays and 12pm-4pm on Sundays. All networked programming originates from Global Radio's London headquarters, including the syndicated Vodafone Big Top 40 on Sunday afternoons.
The station's local presenters include Dave Taylor and Heidi Secker (Heart Breakfast) and Noel Vine (weekday Drivetime).
News
Heart East Anglia broadcasts hourly local news bulletins from 6am-7pm on weekdays and 6am-12pm at weekends. National news updates air hourly from Global's London headquarters at all other times.