Southend Radio

Southend Radio is a local adult contemporary radio station broadcasting to Southend on Sea, in Essex, England from studios in The Icon Building on Southend Seafront, owned by the Adventure Radio Group.

The station was awarded its licence to broadcast in October 2005, beating three rival bids. Southend Radio began broadcasting on 28 March 2008 after a month of test transmissions.

Southend Radio has the lowest audience share of any radio station in the area, reaching just 2.8% of the potential audience.

The station simulcasts all of its programmes with its sister station Chelmsford Radio, but also simulcasts programmes with Connect Radio 106.8 and 97.2 & 107.4.

The station broadcasts bespoke local news bulletins from 6am to 6pm Weekdays and between 8am and 11am at Weekends.

Travel News is broadcast up until 6pm on weekdays and provided from the Essex Traffic Control Centre. The station does not provide any information about local car park spaces availability and there are very few travel bulletins at the weekend. This is despite the station advertising on road signs at key entrances to the borough of Southend-on-Sea that they provide local traffic and parking updates.

The 'Essex Action' feature is a community service designed to help local groups and charities with much needed publicity and also with appeals for volunteers. The service is coordinated by the Southend Association of Volunteers (SAVS.)

Southend Radio has a broad music policy, tailored to its audience, which also features the 9-5 No Repeat Workday between Monday to Friday.

Much of the station's output (at least 50%) is broadcast by computer, with no presenters or staff in the studio.

The station was heavily criticized for its lack of local traffic news and real-time news during the bad weather disruption in March 2013, despite promoting itself as a "local" radio station.