Southern launch

I remember Southern Sound fondly from my many visits to Brighton in those heady eighties Maria Vidal days. It made a small boarding house and a greasy breakfast tolerable. I recall, later, the menacing VOs promising ‘Classic Hits across Sussex’; and a more refined, relaxed AC ILR than I was used to in the grimy Midlands.

Southern Sound was one of the second burst of commercial stations, launching in 1983. Its first franchise allowed it to serve Brighton and parts of West Sussex, extending to nearby Lewes, Newhaven and Seaford four years later and then to East Sussex in 1989. Southern FM, as it had become, was branded Heart Sussex in June 2009. 

In its pre-Capital days, I recall too Southern’s plush and warm AM companion, South Coast Radio. 'Twas the sort of comforting, easy station which would have reassured us in a crisis, had there ever been one. Capital though, did bring us the 'sunny day' logo - which cheered up a stormy South Coast on those dark Wintery days.

Enjoy here, an under-stated launch, with a clip from its long David Arnold theme, played by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The full beautiful Southern Sound theme lasted 2'10" and wended its way from an urgent pounding to something reminiscent of the theme to 'All Creatures Great and Small'.