V2 Radio exists because a group of presenters refused to accept that Spirit FM, the station they had spent years building an audience for, would simply be replaced by a national brand with no local identity. When Bauer Media announced in 2020 that the 24-year-old West Sussex station would become Greatest Hits Radio, the people who had lost that platform went and built their own instead.
A Rebrand That Locals Did Not Want
Bauer Media acquired Spirit FM in 2019 and folded it into its national Hits Radio Brand Network the following year, announcing the switch to Greatest Hits Radio in June 2020. The reaction from listeners and local papers was sharp: critics argued the station was losing the local identity it had built over more than two decades serving Chichester, Bognor Regis and the surrounding area, and there was significant public pushback in the local press. Bauer went ahead with the rebrand regardless, and displaced Spirit FM presenters were left without a platform in the community they had been broadcasting to for years.
From Displacement to a New Station
Justin Cottrell gathered a group of the former Spirit FM presenters and partnered with VeeToo Trade to launch a replacement station. V2 Radio began with test transmissions on 87.7 FM in December 2020, broadcasting under a Restricted Service Licence to Chichester and Bognor Regis, before its full official launch on 18 January 2021, barely six months after the Greatest Hits rebrand had taken away the station they had worked for.
A Name That Points Back to the Old Station
The station's tagline, "The Spirit of the South," is a direct, unmistakable nod to the station it replaced. It is a rare case of a new station branding itself explicitly around what came before it rather than trying to erase that connection, a signal to listeners that this was meant to continue something rather than start from nothing.
Growing Past Its Original Footprint
V2 Radio has expanded steadily since its 2021 launch, adding DAB coverage into South Hampshire in April 2024 after Wave 105 also rebranded to Greatest Hits Radio, a second instance of the same national branding push opening space for another locally rooted alternative. The station now runs a full adult contemporary schedule around the clock from its West Sussex studios, with a breakfast show hosted by Tanya McCarthy and a drive-time slot led by Ian Crouch.
What a National Rebrand Left Room For
V2 Radio's origin story is a specific answer to a common pattern in commercial radio, where large groups buy up regional stations and replace decades of local branding with a nationally standardized format. Sussex ended up with a genuine independent alternative because the presenters who lost their jobs in that process decided to build one, and five years on, V2 Radio is still the station the corporate playbook did not anticipate.