Bauer rebranding 53 stations to The Hits/Greatest Hits

There seems to be a lot of love for Plymouth Sound. As a "janner" I did listen to Plymouth Sound in the 80s but I remember it being wildly different in the early 80s compared to late 80s. We even had a phone in show mid morning with Louise Churchill (anyone remember her?) which I think went right into the early 90s.

The music was at best to my teenage ears outdated and it was only when it took on the Heaven on 97 brand, in 1987 did things improve. If you look on youtube for Plymouth Sound the jingle package is there in all its glory.

Just as a little extra, Plymouth Sound presenter Camella McKenzie actually married/civil partnered me at Plymouth Registry Office in 2007, a job she took up after leaving radio!

It was one of the original 20 franchised by the IBA between 1973 and 1976 - the 'first wave' of ILR


The term 'heritage station' is an unofficial enthusiasts term. It means different things to different people. The 40th according to the list on Wikipedia was Red Rose in 1982, if that's your arbitrary cutoff then so be it. I've heard it used for newer ones - Leicester Sound for example.

But again that's not what's being talked about here.


Pirate FM has been going longer than many of the 'heritage stations' of whatever definition. If it's still going in 5 years it'll be older than Plymouth Sound. That's a lot of heritage

There was a documentary about local radio made by the BBC last year called The Village Loudspeaker, which featured a lot of Plymouth Sound. It's not on iPlayer any more but the extra clips are and they're great: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p082ytg6/clips

The half hour TV documentary is here:
https://youtu.be/ROUni__bQG8

And the hour long Radio Solent version is here:
https://youtu.be/fOosvW1px1k

I remember watching it at the time. It was an interesting watch, but I felt it leaned a little too heavily on old commercial radio presenters moaning that the good old days aren't with us any more. I'd have liked to have seen a bit more about the development of commercial radio over time, the increase in specialist and ethnic minority stations in the 90s and 2000s, the advent of innovative digital and community radio services.

Instead, we got "ILR was great in the 80s and early 90s, GWR came along, ruined it and now everything is crap". It was like watching a Digital Spy Radio Forum post.

Just for the sake of arguement, I thought the first phase of ILR took it to 19 (not 20) and the second took it up to either 43 or 44.
Be warned that I might be able to list them all and their on air dates..... and I am not the only one on here who can!

Heritage is an odd term - BRMB Piccadilly and Capital all are, but are Free Radio, Key 103, The Hits or the Capital network of today?

No, it wasn't either of those, I couldn't quite follow what you had said, and I can only go with what you typed.
I worked out that there was hostility between two people, but wasn't really sure why it was of note.
You obviously wanted to let us know, so I was after a bit more to make sense of it.

And in true North East fashion, Radio Tees was I believe the first one to fail financially and be gobbled up by a larger neighbour😉

It's a close call, Metro buying Tees was 1986, Centre Radio went bust and off air in 1983, and Leicester Sound part owned by Radio Trent went on air in 1984.
Gwent Broadcasting went off air in 1985, and relayed CBC until the relaunched both as Red Dragon later that year.
So I don't think the North East was the first date wise, but was one of the first that launched to do so.

Could very easily have been LBC or even Capital Radio though!

Yeah I was counting those as companies that died completely and were replaced, as opposed to continuing to operate as separate entities under new management. Fair comment though.

Back in those days taking over another station or changing ownership was a big issue for the IBA.
The idea that a big group could buy up other stations was not on the cards then.
Good shout that Metro buying Tees could be one of the first, but other stations - maybe heratige ones(!) - having shares in new stations became commonplace.
BRMB and Radio Wyvern or Radio City and Marcher Sound for example.
Nobody from the 70s or 80s could have predicted that practically every station would be owned by one of two groups. Certainly not with one of them being a German company as foriegn ownership was not allowed.

There were shared programmes even in the cherished IBA era. Radio Mercury was allowed to network with Southern Sound for the Timbo show.

You're right, I miscounted on this page not realising that above the list it says 19!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_Local_Radio


Yes and of course there's LBC which isn't a 'heritage station' - despite having the same name as the original 1973 station, it's 2 years younger than Pirate FM. Same with Eagle Radio....


Which makes me realise that it's odd how few stations have lost their license due to non renewal or otherwise - far fewer than ITV stations.

I make it just 6 times: Radio Victory, Devonair, LBC, Radio Mercury (Surrey license that was originally County Sound), Liberty Radio and Town 102