Heart Sussex (previously Southern FM, also operating as Heart Sussex for Crawley & Surrey in Crawley and Surrey) was an Independent Local Radio station which was owned by Global Radio (formerly GCap Media) and played commercial, chart-oriented popular music. Broadcast and managed from studios and offices in Portslade, Brighton and Crawley, the station played a mix of pop, rock and RnB with the overall tag line being 'The station for Sussex and Surrey' – replacing Mercury FM. On 17 September 2008, it was announced that Southern FM was one of 30 local radio stations to face a re-brand to Heart within the next 18 months. Southern FM was rebranded as Heart Sussex on 22 June 2009. Mercury FM also merged with Heart in July 2010 to be re branded and re-launched as a sub-section of Heart Sussex operating as Heart Sussex for Crawley & Surrey or simply Heart Crawley & Surrey – sharing the same programming output. History The station launched as Southern Sound from the converted Rothbury Cinema in Franklin Road, Portslade. Under the leadership of managing director Keith Belcher and programme director Rory Macleod, early presenters included Sean Bolger, Louis Robinson, Stewart Macintosh, Vince Geddes, John Mann, Russ Williams and Becky Manesseh. The head of news at launch was Paul Woodley with a reporting team including Andy Steggall, Andrew Winter and Cornelius Lysaght. Tommy Boyd joined the station, initially as a fill-in for Timbo (Tim Lloyd) and was subsequently hired to present a regular Sunday evening show with a team of assistants including Nicky Keig-Shevlin. At the launch of the station, Southern Sound broadcast only to Brighton and parts of West Sussex. In 1987, transmissions were extended to Lewes, Newhaven and Seaford. Then on 5 February 1989, the station won a new licence for East Sussex too. Initially running split programming for East and West Sussex, the station now only splits for commercial breaks. In 1994 the Radio Authority merged the two licences to become one official ILR licence. The station broadcasts to the following areas: Analogue VHF FM 96.9 MHz - Newhaven Transmitter 102.0 MHz – Hastings Transmitter 102.4 MHz – East and West Sussex, including Eastbourne (Heathfield Transmitter) 103.5 MHz – Brighton and Worthing (Whitehawk Hill Transmitter) DAB Digital Radio: Block 10B 211.648 MHz Worthing (Findon Transmitter) Newhaven (Newhaven Transmitter) Hastings (Hastings Transmitter) Eastbourne (Eastbourne Transmitter) Chichester (Burton Down Transmitter) Brighton (Whitehawk Hill Transmitter) Crawley (Little