Capital (radio network)

Capital started as the independent music radio station for London in the early 1970s.

In the 1990s, Capital Radio became one of the UK's major radio groups via acquisition of a number of local radio stations including Red Dragon FM, BRMB and Power FM. Rival GWR Group also acquired a number of local radio stations in the 1990s, including Leicester Sound, Ram FM, GWR FM, Chiltern FM, Hereward FM, Marcher Sound and Trent FM, which operated as part of the 33-station Mix network.

Capital Radio and GWR Group's merger in 2005 to form GCap Media resulted in the stations being amalgamated into the One Network. This continued until June 2009 when most of the stations, now in the ownership of Global Radio — who had purchased GCap in 2008 — were rebranded as part of The Heart Network. This left Leicester Sound, Ram FM, Red Dragon FM and Trent FM which formed Hit Music with network content produced in Nottingham. In January 2011, these stations were rebranded as part of Capital, with the Leicester, Derby and Nottingham stations merged to form one regional station for the East Midlands.

The first Galaxy radio station, Galaxy 97.2, was launched in 1990 in South West England – initially broadcasting solely from Bristol – and operated under the Chiltern Radio Group. In 1994 the station won the first regional FM licence and moved frequency to 101.0 MHz, rebranded as Galaxy 101 and expanded coverage to include South Wales. At the same time a second studio was opened in Cardiff to provide some programming alongside the existing Bristol studio. Chrysalis Radio purchased the station in 1996 and, a year later, expanded the network by buying Faze FM's stations: Kiss 102 in Manchester and Kiss 105 in Yorkshire. In 1998, black community station Choice FM was acquired in Birmingham. Chrysalis Radio won the North East regional licence in 1999 and sold the original station, Galaxy 101, to the GWR Group in 2002 (this station is now Kiss 101).

In 2007, Chrysalis Radio was sold to Global Radio and following their subsequent acquisition of GCap in 2008, XFM Scotland and Power FM were rebranded under the Galaxy moniker in November 2008. Another rebrand followed in January 2011 when all Galaxy stations were rebranded as Capital.

Within the first five months of the network, Capital's flagship London station regained its position as the most listened-to commercial station in London. However, Manchester, the North East, South Wales and Yorkshire lost listeners, contrasting with Birmingham, Central Scotland and the South Coast where listening figures increased.[6]

On 1 July 2011, Global Radio requested changes to the formats of Capital Birmingham and Capital Scotland, which had inherited obligations from previous owners. This was to enable format consistency within all nine Capital stations.[7] On 17 November 2011, Ofcom approved both format change requests.[8]

On 6 February 2014, Global Radio announced it would be selling two of its Capital stations, in Scotland and South Wales, to Communicorp. Capital's network programming and brand name is still used by both stations under contract.[9]

Two ex-Heart stations were added to the network on 6 May 2014: Capital Cymru (serving Anglesey and Gwynedd) and Capital North West and Wales, broadcasting from Wrexham.

On 18 January 2016, Global added the former Juice FM station in Liverpool to the network, after approval was given to buy the station from UTV Media for £10 million.[10]

On 8 October 2017, Global added the former Three Counties Radio station in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, and Hertfordshire, after the station was bought from The Southern Radio Company. The station was integrated into the original Capital FM station on 31 March 2018.

In January 2018, Global added the former Juice 107.2 in Brighton and announced it would launch Capital Brighton on 3 September 2018.[11]

In July 2018, Global brought 2BR in Lancashire from UKRD.[12] The station was merged with the Manchester station and joined the network on 8 April 2019.[13]

In February 2019, following Ofcom's decision to relax local content obligations for commercial radio, it was announced Capital would replace its local breakfast and weekend shows with additional networked programming from London as of Monday 8 April 2019. This reduced total weekly hours of local programming on each station from 43 to 15.[14]

Capital Cymru retained its own local breakfast and weekend shows due to separate Welsh-language obligations.[15] In May 2019, the station dropped all networked output and introduced a full schedule of local programming, including additional Welsh-language shows.[16] Capital Cymru also retains the network's branding and much of its CHR music playlist.

Local Drivetime shows were retained, but some are now shared between stations. Local news, traffic updates and advertising is retained across all licence areas.[14]

In September 2019, Quidem, the owners of six local radio stations in the English Midlands, announced it had entered a brand licensing agreement with Global, citing financial losses.[17] Two months later, following Ofcom permission to change the stations' formats,[18] it was confirmed they would merge and join the Capital network on 2 December 2019.[19] Quidem continued to own Capital Mid-Counties as a franchise until August 2021 when Global took ownership, although Communicorp continues to own their franchises.

On 2 November 2022, Capital rebranded their stations to no longer use the word "FM" in their names; FM had already been removed from their on-air branding. The station logos with the Capital FM name and the station's frequency range were replaced with a blue and orange single-word logo, and Capital Xtra's branding had a colour change.

In April 2023, it was announced Capital Scotland (owned by Communicorp) would reintroduce local breakfast, daytime and weekend programming from 2 May 2023, as part of a major expansion of Global's Scottish radio operations.[20][21]

All Capital stations broadcast local news updates under the name of Capital Reports, every hour from 5 am to 7 pm on weekdays and from 6 am to noon at weekends.

• In Anglesey and Gwynedd, Capital Cymru broadcasts local programming 24 hours a day as part of its Welsh language requirements - including presenter-led shows from 6 am – 7 pm on weekdays and 9 am – 4 pm at weekends.[16] Welsh language music features in its playlist and local news bulletins are broadcast in Welsh. As of May 2019, the station does not carry any Capital networked programming, apart from The Sky VIP Official Big Top 40 every Sunday.
• The North Wales Coast, served by Capital North West and Wales on 96.3 FM, carries an hour-long Welsh-language music programme at 5 am on Sunday–Friday mornings.
• Birmingham, served by Capital Midlands on 102.2 FM, carries a specialist show featuring Afro-Caribbean music on Friday mornings from 2am-4am, hosted by Capital Xtra host Robert Bruce. There's also another show which airs 2-5pm on weekends, hosted by CBBC's Kia Pegg.

• Capital Breakfast with Roman Kemp, Chris Stark and Sian Welby
• The Capital Evening Show with Jimmy Hill
• The Capital Late Show with Sonny Jay
• The Capital Weekender with MistaJam

On 3 October 2013, Global Radio announced that the Capital brand will be extended to form a new nationwide digital rhythmic contemporary radio station by rebranding Choice FM as Capital Xtra. The rebrand took place at 6:01 am on 7 October. Capital Xtra is available on FM in London on 96.9 and 107.1 MHz and nationally on the Digital One DAB multiplex.[28] In September 2019, Capital Xtra received its own national sister station when Capital Xtra Reloaded - formerly an online stream through Global Player - was relaunched as a broadcast radio station, transmitting on Digital One in the DAB+ format and playing rhythmic hits from the recent past.

On 1 October 2020, Global launched a new dedicated electronic dance music station broadcast nationally via Digital One in DAB+ and online. Capital Dance simulcasts the Capital network's Friday and Saturday night dance shows (The Capital Weekender) from 7pm to 1am on Friday and Saturday nights. The station has its own presented shows on Monday to Saturday afternoons and Monday to Thursday evenings, with former BBC Radio 1Xtra DJ MistaJam heading the station's lineup at launch.[29] To enable the addition of Capital Dance to Digital One, other Global stations including Capital Xtra Reloaded and Capital UK had their DAB+ bitrate reduced.

On 13 February 2023, Global launched Capital Chill to play exclusively chill music, via DAB and online.[30]