Juice FM: Spreading the love
Ambrose Harcourt spreads love on the airwaves through his Sunday Soul Breakfast Show on Juice 107.2FM
He is known as the Barry White of Sussex and there aren’t many people in the area who haven’t heard his deep romantic tones on the radio. Ambrose Harcourt – “Mr Lurve” – recently celebrated over 25 years of spreading the love to Sussex, London and the Southeast of England, his broadcasting patch. Ambrose joined Southern Sound Radio in 1986 to present a Soul and R’n’B show called ‘Soul Direction’ which developed into ‘The Love Hour’.
“Soon ‘The Love Hour’ was receiving 200 to 250 letters a week to the show with over 1,000 messages and calls on one of our Valentines’ Day shows, which, for a regional radio station, was staggering,” Ambrose says. “In those days, there was no email, no text messages, Facebook or Twitter. The show became massive and staff at the radio station nicknamed me ‘Mr Lurve’.”
Currently Ambrose has now moved from his ‘Love Inn’ slot (Monday to Thursday 10pm–12am) to present the Sunday Soul Breakfast Show from 6am to 9am on Brighton’s Juice 107.2FM. ‘The Sunday Soul Breakfast Show’ commenced this summer and enables Ambrose to play some of his favourite soulful tunes gleaned from his musical tour of soulful America with visits to Detroit, Memphis, Minneapolis, Cleveland and New York in which he was able to meet and interview some of the biggest soul and R’n’B artists of our time.
Over the years, Ambrose has met and interviewed many famous personalities including Mick Jagger, Rod Stewart, Bryan Adams, Angelina Jolie, Colin Firth, Michael Flatley and many more. He has worked for a number of the major UK radio and TV stations. But he says that meeting and interviewing Barry White has got to be up there: “To be with ‘the Walrus Of Lurve’ was something very special.
“I remember him saying ‘We might all eat different foods, drink different wines and speak different languages, but there is one thing we all understand: the language of lurve.”
“We might speak different languages, but we all understand the language of lurve”
Being a man of love, Ambrose is a charitable guy and is currently Patron of Chestnut Tree House, the only children’s Hospice in Sussex, St Barnabas Hospice, and has worked with The Princes Trust, British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research, Scope, Mencap and many others. The new show is co-sponsored by Bang & Olufsen, Brighton and Hove, as well as IEP Financial, who are delighted to be involved with another chapter in Ambrose’s broadcasting experience.
Ambrose has so many great stories to tell about the past 25 years of spreading the lurve, but says that helping listeners propose and dedications to mums in maternity units delivering their new babies are some of the key moments that inspire him.
For now, Ambrose would like you to tune in and join him for breakfast on Sunday mornings on Brighton’s Juice 107.2 for some great Soul/R’n’B tunes, plus the Soulful Love Bites Top 3, marriage proposals, dedications and what’s on in Brighton and Hove for the week ahead. Contact him on ambrose@juicebrighton.com
The Sunday Soul Breakfast Show with Ambrose Harcourt, every Sunday, 6am–9am, on Brighton’s Juice 107.2FM. www.juicefm.com
