Chelmsford Radio began broadcasting as Chelmer FM in 1998, under the ownership of Mid Essex Radio Ltd. In September 2001, the station was purchased by the
Tindle Radio Group — owner of Dream 100 in
Colchester — and rebranded as Dream 107.7 in mid-February 2002. In September 2008, the station was sold by Tindle to Adventure Radio, the then owners of
Mercury 96.6 and
Southend Radio, with whom
Ofcom approved a co-location arrangement for Dream to move its studios to the Southend complex. On 2 February 2009 the station re-launched as Chelmsford Radio. Chelmsford Radio shared its programming and resources with Southend Radio as well as Connect FM in Peterborough and Northamptonshire. The 'Essex Action' feature was a community service designed to help local groups and charities with publicity and also with appeals for volunteers. The service was coordinated by the Southend Association of Volunteers (SAVS) with their counterparts across the county contributing items for broadcast. On 6 June 2013, Chelmsford Radio and sister station
Southend Radio launched on DAB under the singular service Radio Essex. The original DAB only Radio Essex was broadcast on the Essex DAB mux and could be heard in many places across the county where Chelmsford Radio couldn't, including
Harlow,
Colchester, and
Sudbury (
Suffolk). In February 2015, it was announced that Chelmsford Radio, along with Southend Radio and Radio Essex, would be relaunched as one single station known as
Radio Essex. The new station launched on 23 March 2015 on 105.1
FM, 107.7
FM, and on
DAB. In August 2025, it was announced that Radio Chelmsford, Radio Southend, and Radio Harlow would relaunch as Essex Breeze. == Slogans ==