Swansea Sound began broadcasting on 30 September 1974 as the first commercial radio station in Wales and the seventh in the United Kingdom, - it was also the first independent radio station to broadcast a bilingual service in the English and Welsh languages. Originally, the station broadcast on 257 metres AM and 95.1 FM before moving its FM frequency to 96.4 in the early 1980s. Since then Swansea Sound has 'rebranded' the AM value from the wavelength to Frequency. In 1995, the station was split into two separate services - a practice that had been widely adopted within the commercial radio industry in order to avoid relinquishing frequencies – with a new station called 96.4 Sound Wave launched on the FM frequency, while Swansea Sound continued to broadcast as normal on 1170 AM. The station can also be heard online and on DAB across Swansea and South West Wales, although its medium wave and DAB signal can be heard beyond the official transmission area in North Devon and across the Bristol Channel. The AM transmitter is located at Winch Wen, on the side of Kilvey Hill, and for technical reasons, it does not use the same mast on the top of Kilvey Hill as its sister station. The DAB service covers a larger transmission area than its AM service.
Station rebrand
On 8 February 2019, Swansea Sound was sold alongside The Wave and the Wireless Group's network of local radio stations to Bauer Radio. The sale was ratified in March 2020 following an inquiry by the Competition and Markets Authority. On 27 May 2020, Bauer announced that Swansea Sound would be rebranded and join the Greatest Hits Radio network from early September 2020. Local programming will be reduced to a weekday Drivetime show and Welsh language programming, alongside news and traffic bulletins.
Programming
The majority of Swansea Sound's output is produced and broadcast from its Gowerton studios. Off-peak weekend programming is carried from Bauer's Greatest Hits Radio network. Alongside music-led daytime programming, Swansea Sound also airs Welsh language output in the evenings, including music shows each weeknight from 10pm - midnight and every Sunday evening from 7-10pm. Other specialist output includes religious programming and a weekly current affairs phone-in show on Sunday mornings.
News
Swansea Sound broadcasts local news bulletins hourly from 6am - 7pm on weekdays and from 8am to 12pm at weekends. Headlines are broadcast on the half-hour during weekday breakfast and drivetime. The station simulcasts hourly Sky News Radio bulletins at all other times.
