Heart Ipswich

Heart Ipswich (formerly SGR FM) was a radio station that evolved from Suffolk Group Radio, which was the parent company for two Independent radio stations serving the county of Suffolk in England.

Overview

The older of the radio stations was Radio Orwell, which began transmissions in Ipswich on 28 October 1975 on 257m MW. It was one of the original group of ILR stations set up by the Independent Broadcasting Authority following relaxation of the rules governing broadcasting in Britain. Other stations that were included in the original 15 or so were LBC and Capital Radio 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 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 Ipswich, and a few from Bury St Edmunds.

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.