Original 106 & The Coast The station was originally launched in 2006 as
Original 106 (Solent), owned by
Canwest, which then sold the station to
Celador in August 2008. It was replaced by
The Coast 106 on 30 October 2008, and while initial
RAJAR results were encouraging with a healthy increase over those posted by Original, the weekly reach stagnated at around 115,000 by early 2011.
Jack FM Celador then rebranded the station as
Jack FM, to bring it in line with its sister station in Bristol, from 4 July 2011. All prior presenters except Robin Caddy were removed from the station, which switched to a format also used by Celador's other Jack stations - a presenter-led breakfast show (hosted by
Bam Bam), a Saturday morning "World Of Sport" show presented by Robin Caddy and automated music interspersed with topical one-liners in between songs voiced by actor
Paul Darrow at other times.
Sam FM On 1 April 2015, the station was rebranded again as Sam FM, which runs with a strapline of ''We're In Charge'' - the station controls the music and doesn't play requests - interspersed with topical one-liners in between songs by
Gareth Hale who was referred to as 'The Voice of Sam FM'. However, by end of 2019 these one-liners had been withdrawn. In March 2019, Sam FM South Coast was taken over by Nation Broadcasting, following the sale of Celador Radio to Bauer Radio. On 1 December 2019, Sam FM no longer shared programming with its sister stations in Bristol and Swindon and took the tagline ''The South's Greatest Hits''. This appears to have had an effect on the playlist, with less
rock and more
pop tracks being played than previously.
Greatest Hits Radio On 27 May 2020, it was announced that Sam FM would become Greatest Hits Radio in early September, after Nation Broadcasting agreed a licensing agreement with Bauer Radio. From 1 September 2020 Greatest Hits Radio was launched at 6am.
Nation Radio South On 19 September 2022, the licensing agreement with Bauer Radio ended, and the station relaunched as Nation Radio South. Following the rebranding of rival station
Wave 105 to Greatest Hits Radio in spring 2024, many of its presenters moved to Nation Broadcasting stations to present shows on Nation Radio South and sister station
Easy Radio. These included Steve Power, Mark Collins, Tony Shepherd, Andy Jackson, Stuart McGinley, Gary Parker, Tim Allen, Selina Ross and Kate Weston. The station now operates a local schedule for most of the day, sharing some presenters with its sister
Nation Radio stations in other parts of the UK through the use of localised links for each station. In March 2025, the station further expanded its DAB coverage area by launching on the Somerset multiplex, taking its overall broadcast area to cover a potential audience of nearly four million adults. Nation Broadcasting stated they made the move to increase their DAB coverage in North Dorset where reception of the Bournemouth multiplex is poor, but also welcomed new listeners in Somerset itself who may have been listening to
other Nation Radio stations previously. With this expanded coverage, the station can now be heard on DAB across an area that stretches from
Weston-super-Mare in the north to
Rye in the east. In March 2026, the broadcasts to Somerset began to split off from the Nation Radio South schedule for localised programming on weekday daytime; the range of split programming on the new 'Nation Radio Westcountry' will be increased from 30 March 2026 when DAB+ broadcasts of the service expand into Devon and Cornwall though some programming, including Stuart McGinley's evening show, will continue to be broadcast across both Nation Radio South and Nation Radio Westcountry. == Programming and presenters ==