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25 years of Mercury FM
Mercury FM turns 25 this year. For a quarter of a century, we have been part of the daily lives of people in Sussex and Surrey.
In that time, we've changed a lot. Here is our history to date... 
Radio Mercury began broadcasting to Surrey and West Sussex on the 20th October 1984. The station broadcast from studios at Broadfield House, Crawley on 1521 AM and 103.6 FM (97.5 FM in Horsham). The first voice on air was Ed Stewart who played "Pilot of the Airwaves".
Other early presenters included Tony Myatt, Geoff Aspel (Michael's brother), Peter Young, Pat Sharp, Howard Pearce and Russ Williams. In the early days, Radio Mercury only broadcast 18 hours a day and closed at 11pm each night.
The jingles made Radio Mercury known as the Heart of the South…. They were performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and made the name and the slogan memorable…. Radio Mercury - The Heart of the South.
In the early days, we had every programme you could think of – Rock Show on a Friday night, The Saturday Night Dance Party, Mercury Country on a Sunday afternoon, a Classical Show on a Sunday night. One of our most popular shows was Timbo in the evenings. This was a madcap show aimed mainly at young teenagers but enjoyed by all ages.
The original Mercury logo includes a small man running along and whistling. He was known as the Mercury Man. Towards the end of 1985, our frequency moved from 103.6 to 102.7.
Mercury has had a wealth of talent on-air over the years. At breakfast you may remember Jon Scragg, Steve Hyland, Paul and Emma, Russell Pocket, Martyn Blunt, Tony Myatt and many others.
Give us your memories below. 
With a host of new specialist stations opening in the 90s the old Radio Mercury had to change. It dropped the “radio” and changed to Mercury FM, lost all it’s specialist shows and launched a new on-air sound based around “Your greatest hits”.
Now, Mercury FM has is part of Global Radio, Europe's biggest radio group continues to be.... for 25 
years....the number one radio station in the South.
Here's a news feature we found from our launch all those years ago...
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(21/10/2009 12:31:22) Hi all, Can't believe where the time has gone! I joined the Action Desk in 1986 which really came into it's own on the day of the 'Great Storm'. I remember having to climb all the fallen trees in the car park to get in and was one of the few to make it that day along with the overnight presenter who was stuck there! The Action Desk had a busy day to say the least and managed to put listeners in touch with generators, chain saws and candles!! |
| - Irena Cook |
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(20/10/2009 14:36:15) Great memories of every one having lunch at the grapes on a hot summer day - leaving only the presenter on air.John A John W and Peter P, what a great team. The Sales office was great fun to work in..where is Ian Davidson???? |
| - veronica smith |
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(20/10/2009 10:24:03) Happy Birthday Mercury. We both miss you. x |
| - Paul and Emma x |
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(20/10/2009 10:13:45) We thought Paul and Emma were brilliant XXX |
| - Paul and Emma x |
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(20/10/2009 09:27:45) Did work experience here back in 04, had such a fun week with such a great bunch of guys and girls. Happy 25th and heres to the next 25! |
| - James Easton |
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(19/10/2009 20:04:59) Happy Birthday Mercury! - Probably the most fun place I've ever worked, with a great bunch of people and fab social life! Doing the news on Sept the 11th when the Twin Towers were struck by planes was the busiest, most exciting day I've ever had as a journalist - I remeber doing the 1st newsflash at Mercury at about 2.15pm when the first plane had struck one of the towers - at that stage we thought it was an accident of course - then all hell broke loose! I have so many happy memories of Mercury I would n't have room to list them on this website!! |
| - Laura Plumer |
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(19/10/2009 13:58:34) Having worked at Mercury for 17 years i'll never forget all the listeners who made every day a pleasure to broadcast to. Happy Birthday Mercury, 25 years young which must make Chris Oxlade nearly 50! |
| - Simon Osborne |
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(18/10/2009 21:45:08) I've just been looking at this page and it's brought back so many memories. Presenting some crazy shows from the middle of a field, being told of by the boss for saying inappropriate things during rush hour, to the mad Christmas light switch on's in Redhill and Horsham. Happy birthday Mercury. May the next 25 years bring some great stories |
| - Pete Bristow (presenter) |
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