According to RAJAR, BBC Radio Surrey and BBC Radio Sussex share a combined weekly audience of 192,000 listeners and a 3.7% share as of December 2023.[1]
In the late 1980s, with the BBC Local Radio network nearing completion, a management team was appointed for 'BBC Radio Surrey and Berkshire', the plan being to have two separate stations with their own identities, but with shared resources, and some shared programming. But then in 1990, as part of a plan to save £3 million, the BBC announced that BBC Radio Surrey would instead launch as an opt-out service of BBC Radio Sussex, with BBC Radio Berkshire an opt-out of BBC Radio Oxford.
BBC Radio Surrey went on air initially on Saturday 6 September 1991 for coverage of a cricket match between Surrey and Hampshire - this was simply a relay of BBC Radio Solent's coverage. The station finally went on air officially at 6 am on Thursday 14 November 1991. At launch it broadcast 43 hours a week of its own programming from its studios on the campus of the University of Surrey in Guildford. The remainder of the output came from either its sister station BBC Radio Sussex, or from the BBC South & East network.
John Terrett hosted the breakfast show from launch, which featured regular reports from the station's own dedicated travel presenter Christina King. It was followed by Julian Clegg's mid-morning phone-in, which was simulcast with BBC Radio Sussex - although news and travel bulletins were split between the two stations every hour throughout the day. The joint output avoided mentioning the name of either station; instead full use was made of split jingles. At midday, Steve Watts hosted the hour-long 'Watts for Lunch' which featured celebrity guests, local topics, and the Weather Wardens, made up of listener-correspondents from across the county, who brought unusual facts and history about their corner of Surrey. Following Miranda Birch's consumer show from Brighton, the final daily programme from Guildford was Drivetime with Claire Paul, although since she was also station editor she was absent from the show more often than not. Charles Carroll, Mike Carson and Radio Sussex's Stewart Macintosh were the usual stand-ins. In the early days, Christina King presented travel reports during this show as well.
There were three weekend programmes from Guildford - Steve Watts's light-hearted Saturday show which included a pub team quiz; the religious programme Sunday Best; and Nick Simmons's laid back Sunday morning show of music and chat.
Just over a week after launch, BBC Radio Surrey presented its first Children in Need programme, with John Terrett and Christina King making a brief appearance on the South East section of the television coverage. The station was to receive little more in the way of promotion thereafter.
In October 1992, John Terrett and Claire Paul left, so Stewart Macintosh took over the lunchtime show (while continuing to present BBC Radio Sussex's breakfast show), while Tim Humphrey moved to breakfast and Steve Watts moved to Drivetime. Jonathan Wills (later a presenter on ITV's London Tonight) joined the station, first as a travel presenter, before moving on to news reading and then sports presenting. During 1993, Phil Kennedy became a regular stand-in on BBC Radio Surrey's Drivetime and lunchtime shows.
Over its two years on air, BBC Radio Surrey struggled to build a substantial audience; in fact audience figures reached a maximum of only 29,000, or 7 per cent reach, in 1993. One factor in this was that the output was broadcast by only one transmitter at Guildford, covering West Surrey on 104.6 FM, meaning people in East Surrey could not hear the station on FM (although there was the possibility of picking up the station in East Surrey on the medium wave frequency). Another was the fact that the county's ILR stations were already long-established, making it difficult for the new station to establish itself.
Following schedule changes in July 1993, BBC Radio Surrey was gradually wound down. From September, the station was identified on air as 'BBC Radio Sussex and Surrey', although some programmes remained split between the two counties. The merger was completed on 7 January 1994, when BBC Radio Sussex and Surrey officially became a single station.
On 1 August 1994, the station's name was changed to BBC Southern Counties Radio. At first it ran a single all-talk schedule across Sussex and Surrey. However, in September 1997, a dedicated breakfast show for Surrey was reintroduced, followed by a drivetime show in April 2006. Apart from a brief period in 2006, the former BBC Radio Sussex transmitter at Reigate on 104.0 FM was now used for the Surrey output, in order to give better reception for listeners in East Surrey.
The county name returned to the radio station's name on 30 March 2009, when BBC Surrey became the new name for BBC Southern Counties Radio across Surrey, North-East Hampshire and Crawley, broadcasting on 104.0 and 104.6 FM. Mark Carter was the first voice on air, presenting the 6 am to 9 am breakfast show.
BBC Radio Surrey (2020–present)
On 30 March 2020, the station reverted to its original name of BBC Radio Surrey.[2]
Technical
BBC Radio Surrey is transmitted on FM and on DAB via the MuxCoSurrey multiplex, which officially launched on 12 December 2013.[3][4] Until 2018, the station was also broadcast on medium wave.
Local programming airs from the BBC's Guildford studios from 6 am to 10 am on Mondays to Saturdays and from 2 pm to 6 pm on Saturdays.
Regional programming, shared with BBC Radio Sussex, airs from 10 am to 10 pm on weekdays, from 10 am to 2 pm and 8 pm to 10 pm on Saturdays and from 6 am to 6 pm and 10 pm to 1 am on Sundays.
BBC Radio Northampton is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Northamptonshire.
BBC Radio Kent is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Kent.
BBC Southern Counties Radio was the BBC Local Radio service for the English counties of Surrey and Sussex. The station also covered a large part of north-east Hampshire. It was the first BBC local radio station to introduce an all-speech format. It broadcast from studios in Brighton and Guildford on FM and AM, and on DAB on the NOW Sussex Coast multiplex.
BBC Radio Berkshire is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Berkshire.
BBC Radio Solent is the BBC's local radio station serving Hampshire, Dorset and the Isle of Wight, broadcasting on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios on Havelock Road in Southampton.
BBC Radio Cornwall is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Cornwall.
BBC Radio Nottingham is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Nottinghamshire.
BBC Radio York is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of North Yorkshire.
BBC Radio Cumbria is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Cumbria.
BBC Radio Bristol is the BBC's local radio station serving the cities of Bristol and Bath and the unitary authorities of Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire.
BBC Radio Gloucestershire is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Gloucestershire.
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BBC Radio Sussex is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Sussex.
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