The original Delta Radio first broadcast in January 1990. It was the brainchild of
County Sound CEO, Mike Powell who successfully lobbied the
Independent Broadcasting Authority for permission to put separate programming for the Haslemere district on what was originally intended to be a relay transmitter for Guildford's County Sound. The station was launched by County Sound's Terry Mann, formerly Programme Director of
Radio 210, Reading. After County Sound merged with
Radio Mercury to form
Allied Radio, Delta Radio was closed down by its new owners in 1992 and the transmitter went back to being a relay. However, when Mike Powell's
UKRD Group won the Guildford licence (after it came up for renewal), Delta Radio was relaunched in 1996. Wey Valley Radio had already been operating as a full-time service in nearby Alton and Four Marks since 1992. This station was launched as a "community" station by David Way and Paul Mann after years of campaigning for such a licence and a first test broadcast in 1991 from the offices of the Alton Herald as part of the Radio Cracker
restricted service license. It was acquired by UKRD in 1994. The decision to merge the two stations operationally was made in 1998 and the Wey Valley service was renamed Delta, and then in 2000, the Haslemere licence (which had previously been a part of the Surrey and North East Hampshire franchise) was merged with the Alton licence to finally form a single radio station. Tindle Radio took over from UKRD as a major shareholder in the station in June 2003, a change which resulted in the closure of the Alton studios at Prospect Place, Mill Lane, with resulting consolidation at the Haslemere studios. ==Transmitters==