82-469: Galaxy was a radio network owned by Global Radio and broadcast across the British Isles on FM in regional areas of England and Scotland , through the digital platform with Sky and DAB and online respectively. Stations included stations: Galaxy Birmingham , Galaxy Manchester , Galaxy North East , Galaxy Scotland , Galaxy South Coast and Galaxy Yorkshire . Programming was networked throughout
164-624: A brand-licensing agreement with Global Radio. This change will see the Quidem stations rebrand under the Global brands. At the beginning of October, Ofcom opened a consultation following Quidem's request for its six stations to make significant changes to their formats. On 20 December 2021 it was announced that Global has acquired the UK podcast hosting, distribution and monetisation startup, Captivate with founders Mark Asquith and Kieran McKeefery joining
246-873: A digital UK-wide version . On 3 January 2011, Capital London , The Hit Music Network and the Galaxy network became part of the nine-station Capital radio network; two former Heart stations became Capital in May 2014. Local news hours were extended as part of the agreement to increase programme-sharing, and advertising remains locally sold. Programming outside local hours originates from Capital's network studios in Leicester Square , London. Unlike its competitor BBC Radio 1 , Capital only plays pop dance music and does not play rock or alternative music. Capital runs two major multi-artist events each year, Capital's Summertime Ball and Capital's Jingle Bell Ball . Capital Dance
328-465: A 24-hour station, dropping its simulcast of LBC, but otherwise keeping the same format of rolling twenty minute bulletins, but with a UK wide focus. Its news presenters include Lisa Aziz and Martin Stanford , whilst John Kettley is one of the weather presenters. Radio X (formerly XFM) broadcasts alternative rock and independent music. It began officially in 1997 as an independent London station, it
410-565: A Global Player stream) and Smooth Chill , the successor to Chill . A pop-up digital Christmas music station, Smooth Christmas, was operated by R&S in the run-up to Christmas of 2011 and 2012, and having not run in 2013 was revived by Global in 2014 but was in 2015. In 2016, Smooth Christmas was not revived, instead Heart Extra Xmas, a pop-up digital Christmas music station, appeared from 12 November 2016 until 27 December 2016. It returned on 9 November 2017. Heart 80s launched in March 2017;
492-514: A MXR Yorkshire ensembles was closed and Capital moving to local multiplexes. Global Radio Global Media & Entertainment Limited , trading as Global , is a British media company formed in 2007. It is the owner of the largest commercial radio company in Europe having expanded through a number of historical acquisitions, including Chrysalis Radio, GCap Media and GMG Radio . Global owns and operates seven core radio brands, all employing
574-508: A Sunday daytime service called CFM, broadcasting a more contemporary mix of music than normally broadcast by the station. This was precursor to the Broadcasting Act 1990 which required all ILR stations to permanently split simulcasting output on both its AM and FM frequencies in order to create new local radio stations and improve choice. Capital responded in 1988 by launching a golden oldies station called Capital Gold , initially at
656-501: A brand licence by Communicorp ) has also reintroduced local programming. Classic FM is a classical music station broadcast nationally on FM and DAB , and also available on Freesat , Sky , Freeview and Virgin Media . It is one of three Independent National Radio franchises, and the only one to broadcast on FM. On 3 January 2024 it was announced that Dan Walker was joining to host Classic FM's breakfast show. Acquired as part of
738-475: A daily morning show) ceasing. However these were subsequently switched off as part of Global's decision to withdraw from AM broadcasting - the last to go being Greater Manchester at the end of April 2024. A number of areas gained or regained Gold as a DAB service in September 2015 in space vacated by XFM, following XFM's move from local to national transmission as Radio X. This was then in turn superseded by
820-566: A larger Heart Network that covers most of southern England and parts of North Wales – the stations which would become Heart in the North were acquired later. The remaining stations briefly formed The Hit Music Network before being merged with the Galaxy network and Capital London into the Capital network. On 25 June 2012, Global acquired GMG Radio for a sum thought to be between £50 and £70 million; it continued to be run separately while
902-533: A national network strategy, including Capital , Heart , Gold , Classic FM , Smooth and LBC . Global is also one of the leading out-of-home advertising (OOH) companies in the UK. Global was founded by Ashley Tabor-King in 2007, with financial backing from his father Michael Tabor , and purchased Chrysalis Radio, where Global took control of the radio brands Heart, Galaxy, LBC and The Arrow. A year later on 31 October 2008 Global Radio officially took control of all GCap Media and its brands. The GCap Media name
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#1732782499846984-480: A new "Up for It" image but at the same time being a more grown-up station. This is reflective in Galaxy's demographic now increasing from the 15–29 age range to the 15–34 age range. The owners of Galaxy, Global Radio, did have aims to expand the radio brand across the UK by introducing new stations but only two occurred for Scotland with Galaxy Scotland and for the south coast of England with Galaxy South Coast before it
1066-463: A new high-powered medium-wave station at Saffron Green , Barnet, was completed. In the meantime Capital Radio set about obtaining premises from which to broadcast and employing staff and on-air personnel, setting up temporary headquarters at 96 Piccadilly in London's Mayfair . Michael Bukht was appointed programme controller, Aidan Day Head of Music and Ron Onions Head of News, while Gerry O'Reilly
1148-613: A regulatory review was conducted. In May 2013, the Competition Commission ruled that Global would be required to sell seven stations across the network. The company initially offered to dispose of three stations, Real XS in Manchester and Scotland, and Gold in the East Midlands, to try to prevent the sale of the seven stations mentioned in the ruling. When this failed Global Radio launched an appeal against
1230-742: A separate station owned by Communicorp as XS Manchester . Most of the Gold AM stations switched to taking the Smooth London/Network output; all but one no longer broadcasts on that platform. It was announced in June 2015 that Darren Singer would be appointed as Global's chief financial officer. In February 2017, Global changed its company name from 'This is Global Limited' to 'Global Media & Entertainment Limited'. It also changed all its social media handles from 'thisisglobal' to 'global' and its web domain to global.com. Global also combined
1312-522: A single national breakfast show for each network, whilst Smooth kept its regional breakfast shows, instead turning its drive time show national. Capital's new breakfast show launched in April with Roman Kemp, Heart Breakfast with Jamie Theakston and Amanda Holden launched in June and Smooth Drivetime with Angie Grieves launched in September. In September 2019, it was announced that Quidem, the owners of Banbury Sound , Rugby FM and Touch FM had entered into
1394-487: A week later on 16 October. Since 2014, LBC has been broadcasting nationally on DAB, television and Global Player, and FM in London only. On 28 October 2019, what had been LBC London News changed its name to LBC News; since that date, it has been available on DAB+ via the D1 multiplex nationwide, using the space vacated by Radio X switching to DAB+. It continued to broadcast on 1152 AM in London until October 2024. It has reverted to
1476-418: Is Global's in-house charity. Capital London Capital London is an Independent Local Radio station owned and operated by Global Media & Entertainment as part of its national Capital Network. As Capital Radio it was launched in the London area in 1973 as one of Britain's first two commercial radio stations. Its brief was to entertain, while its opposite number, London Broadcasting (LBC) ,
1558-465: Is a contemporary radio station which currently broadcasts in numerous areas of England, Wales and central Scotland, alongside a digital UK-wide version . The network began with a single regional station in the West Midlands and subsequently a second station in London. The third station, Heart 106 in the East Midlands (previously Century 106) was sold to Orion Media and run as a franchise retaining
1640-617: Is a national digital radio station operated as a spin-off from the main Capital station. The station broadcasts from studios at Leicester Square in London alongside its sister stations Capital and Capital XTRA. The station predominantly plays contemporary electronic dance music. An urban music station based in London, originally named Choice FM. Until Summer 2010 it was sold as part of the Galaxy network for marketing purposes only, but retained its own separate branding and programming. From then on, with Galaxy ultimately absorbed into Capital, Choice
1722-470: Is also home to Capital's parent company, Global . The studio complex is shared with many other stations, including Heart , Smooth Radio , Classic FM , Capital XTRA , Radio X , LBC and Gold . The station launched its website in September 1996 resulting in high demand which led to it crashing within a few hours. Beginning in late 2005, the station went through a number of changes. In December 2005, Chris Brooks moved from weekend breakfast to host 1–4 in
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#17327824998461804-653: The Capital Radio Helpline which helped listeners through matters ranging from how to cook a turkey at Christmas time to suicide prevention. In this era the station also lent its support to London-based orchestras, choral societies, the British Film Institute Children's Film Festival and many other ventures. 1976 saw the launch of the Flying Eye , a traffic-spotting light aircraft, which could see traffic congestion below on
1886-479: The Royal Albert Hall . It also produces its own Global Awards, which recognizes the most popular songs across its radio stations. In March 2018, Global launched a new awards show (The Global Awards) celebrating the stars of music, news and entertainment across genres in the UK and from around the world. The Global Academy UTC opened on 12 September 2016 and is sponsored by Global and University of
1968-489: The 90s and 00s. In 2007, Galaxy released a three disk box set called Galaxy Dance Anthems featuring 50 club classics. The first chart Galaxy Radio broadcast was Hit40UK . After this, the Fresh 40 chart was broadcast across the brand, but soon after the chart was cancelled. A replacement chart, The Galaxy 40 , was introduced and produced by Galaxy Radio . It was networked across all Galaxy radio stations. The chart show
2050-723: The Arts London . It is located on the site of the Old Vinyl Factory in Hayes, Hillingdon . On 20 January 2017, The Global Academy was officially opened by the Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry . Two Breakfast shows from the Global brands were broadcasting Live from the academy, Heart London Breakfast with Jamie Theakston and Emma Bunton and Nick Ferrari on LBC . All of Global's stations broadcast news updates under
2132-530: The Capital Countdown show, he was replaced at breakfast by the former Radio London partnership of Kenny Everett and Dave Cash (known for The Kenny & Cash Show ). Immediately after going on air, Capital Radio suffered co-channel interference from Radio Veronica , a pirate radio station off the coast of the Netherlands . Veronica began broadcasting in the 1960s and it was suggested that
2214-420: The Global team in order to continue to grow Global's presence in the digital audio and podcasting space. On 22 February 2022 Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel announced they were joining Global to launch a new podcast. On 30 August 2022 The News Agents launched as a daily podcast presented by Emily Maitlis , Jon Sopel , and Lewis Goodall . Episodes are released every weekday afternoon. On 26 May 2023, it
2296-816: The Heart name until the start of 2011, when it was rebranded as Gem 106 . In 2009 many of the heritage CHR stations which had formed part of the One Network were renamed Heart, as were Ocean and South Hams Radio (which were not part of the One Network). Heart Hertfordshire is owned by Communicorp and uses the Heart name and format under licence from Global; Heart South Devon was partly owned by UKRD Group; and Heart stations in North Wales and Yorkshire (both formerly Real Radio licences) are operated by Communicorp; all other Heart stations are wholly Global-owned. All of
2378-611: The Help a London Child charity, which aimed to raise money for London's poorest children. The charity appeal went on to become one of the longest-running in broadcasting and the most recognised in British radio. In recognition of this, Network Southeast named British Rail Class 47 47710 "Capital Radio's Help a London Child", in August 1991. In 1976, Capital Radio, Thames Television , London Weekend Television and British Telecom launched
2460-465: The London local radio market ratings, recording the lowest-ever share of the London audience and for the first time falling behind Emap -owned station Magic and Heart , now owned by Global. Capital 95.8's audience share slipped from 4.6 to 4.1 per cent over the quarter. The station then returned to the "London's Hit Music Network" tagline on 10 December 2007, with ex- Absolute Radio presenter Greg Burns replacing Lucio on drivetime, and Lucio moving to
2542-581: The Midlands. FM reception remained unaltered. Capital continued broadcasting, having been a 24-hour station from the beginning. The so-called ' needle-time ' restrictions on playing recorded music were eased, which meant it could play more of it, although they were not abolished entirely until 1988. They're even worse because they had the chance, coming right into the heart of London and sitting in that tower right on top of everything. But they've completely blown it. I'd like to throttle Aiden Day. He thinks he's
Galaxy (radio network) - Misplaced Pages Continue
2624-544: The Mike Allen hip hop show was influential during this time to bring the new music culture to the UK. In 1987, a new programme controller Richard Park , oversaw an overhaul of Capital's output from a full-service station to a music-intensive CHR format, which proved highly successful. The revamp was underlined by a new on-air imaging package, known as 'Music Power'. As part of an IBA experiment in split broadcasting on Independent Local Radio , in 1986, Capital runs
2706-718: The Real Radio stations were rebranded as Heart on 6 May 2014. Heart is also available on DAB in some areas where there is not a local Heart station on FM; these areas generally receive Heart UK , which is a relay of Heart London. Heart has five sister stations: Heart 70s , Heart 80s , Heart 90s , Heart 00s and Heart Dance . On 11 April 2023, it was announced that Heart Scotland would reintroduce local breakfast, daytime and weekend shows as part of an expansion of Global's Scottish radio operations. This saw drive time presenters Des Clarke and Jennifer Reoch move to Breakfast. Sister station Capital Scotland (owned and operated under
2788-556: The Real stations were renamed Heart and carried the Heart network off-peak programming as provided by Global. Global retained control of all other stations, relaunching the existing Heart North West and Wales as Capital to allow Real North Wales (under Communicorp) to take on the Heart affiliation. Real XS in Paisley was retained by Global and joined the XFM network; Real XS in Manchester is still
2870-553: The Smooth areas had previously been Jazz FM stations, and three had originally been Saga stations; the North-East service launched as Smooth on a licence originally awarded to Saga. LBC is a news and talk radio station, focusing on stories and issues from across the UK and internationally by phone-in discussion programmes. It launched on 8 October 1973 as the UK's first licensed commercial radio station, with Capital Radio launching
2952-685: The West & East Midlands and northern & southern England broadcasting under the Capital FM identity. Local programming on the Hit Music stations is now restricted to daily breakfast and weekday drivetime shows. The first Galaxy station, Galaxy Radio was launched in 1990 in Bristol broadcasting from studios in Portland Square on the 97.2 FM frequency. The station became a key rival to
3034-468: The afternoon and Richard Bacon presenting The Go Home Show between 4–7. A new policy started of two advertisements in each break to win favour with listeners, though there were more frequent breaks as a result. This policy was changed within a few months. On 9 January 2006, the station was relaunched under its original name Capital Radio , with a modified line-up of presenters and a slightly tweaked music format. After this re-launch turned out not to have had
3116-590: The allocation of 539 metres to ILR may have been an attempt to block reception of overseas broadcasts – a battle which preceded the launch of BBC Radio 1 . Capital finally moved into office blocks in Euston Tower in September 1973, just a few yards away from Thames Television headquarters. Euston Tower was, at the time, London's tallest office tower. In 1975, the IBA opened the transmission facilities at Saffron Green which allowed both LBC and Capital Radio to move up
3198-456: The biggest networked commercial radio chart show, The Official Vodafone Big Top 40 , produced by Global's Capital . The move led to Global discontinuing the Sunday evening show for all stations outside of their own Heart and Capital networks, on which the show continues to air. On 26 February 2019, Global Radio announced plans to replace the regional breakfast shows on Capital and Heart with
3280-471: The branding of “95 – 106 Capital FM, The UK’s No.1 Hit Music Station” but the stations ID locally as [freq] Capital. Local news hours have been extended and local advertising remains locally sold. All programming, with the exception of weekday breakfast/drivetime and weekend afternoons, originates from Capital studios in Leicester Square , London . Specialist dance music programming remains on overnights excluding Sunday. Galaxy fell silent on 30 June 2015 when
3362-520: The city's GWR FM station and was operated by the Chiltern Radio Group under the "Hot FM" brand. The line up at the time included Andy Gelder, Rik Scott, Keith Francis (station manager), Andy Beeley, Tristan B, Bob Prince, Tin Tin and Roni Size. It quickly became the most successful dance music station in the UK and was reaching half of all 16- to 24-year-olds in the city every week. In 1994,
Galaxy (radio network) - Misplaced Pages Continue
3444-409: The conversion of these stations to DAB+ in 2019 permitted the launch of further stations including Heart Dance , Heart 70s , Heart 90s , followed by Heart 00s in 2022 and Heart 10s , Heart Musicals & Heart Love in 2024 as part of Global's network expansion on 12th September. PopBuzz is a cultural platform of interviews, articles, podcast, videos, and GIFs, combined with a music stream of
3526-723: The decision and was considering it further. On 6 February 2014, it was announced that a number of stations would be sold to the Irish broadcaster Communicorp , with programming generally to be supplied by Global under contract. The deal involved control of Smooth Radio in the North East, the North West and the West Midlands, of Capital in South Wales and Scotland, of Real Radio in North Wales and Yorkshire, and of Real XS in Manchester. Most stayed under their previous brands though
3608-528: The decision. The appeal was based on three grounds: (a) Real and Smooth as alternatives to the Greater Manchester stations, (b) reliance on "significant adverse effects" in the North-West (c) Global's remedy proposal (see above). The appeal was rejected on all grounds and the company must sell the seven stations it was ordered to in the original judgement, Global said it was disappointed with
3690-523: The desired success, a new Programme Controller was appointed that September. Scott Muller came from the Nova group in Australia, and the station saw another tweak in style. The changes continued seeing Capital re-branded back to "London's Hit Music Station", a play on the station's earlier brand of "London's Number One Hit Music Station" with noticeable improvements – leading to a rise in audience figures at
3772-557: The dial. Capital moved to 1548 kHz mediumwave (194 m) and LBC to 1152 kHz (261 m). Saffron Green needed to be highly configured as it was sharing the same frequency as other ILR stations and needed to prevent co-channel interference from new ILR stations in Birmingham and Manchester . Previously the aerial wire suspended between the towers of Lots Road site gained Capital and LBC the semi-humorous nickname of "Radio Clothesline" however both stations could be heard as far away as
3854-503: The end of 2006. The station also changed its on-air name to 95.8 Capital Radio , incorporating the frequency of "95.8" back into the station since it was dropped at the January 2006 re-launch. In March 2007, the station was then renamed Capital 95.8 and its slogan became "The Sound of London". The marketing campaign combined outdoor, cinema, and print adverts. RAJAR figures for Q2 2007 showed Capital 95.8 slipping to fourth place in
3936-511: The end of 2014 to broadcast nationally on Digital One (in the slot previously occupied by the network Smooth Radio service) with a 'melodic music from past decades' format (some programming is simulcast with Smooth London ). A previous plan to launch a service of "music from the 70s, 80s and 90s" in the Digital One capacity ultimately did not go ahead. Smooth added two further digital siblings on 3 September 2019; Smooth Country (previously
4018-439: The evening show. Lucio took over from Bam Bam ( Peter Poulton ) who left Capital in early December 2007. On 6 June 2008, Global completed its £375 million takeover of Capital's owner GCap Media . On 3 January 2011, the Capital brand began to be rolled out across the UK when Capital London became a founder member of a nine-station Capital network as part of a merger of the Global owned Hit Music and Galaxy networks and with
4100-516: The exception of weekday breakfast and drivetime plus weekend mornings, all output was simulcast with the rest of the network. On 12 May 2011 it was announced that 95.8 Capital remained the most-listened-to commercial radio station in London, on both share and reach, beating rival Magic 105.4 . However, on 4 August that year it was announced that rival Magic 105.4 had overtaken the position. As of April 2019, only one programme - weekday drivetime - remains local, with all other programming coming from
4182-526: The fastest trending tracks in social media with digital goodness from around the web. It also has an online radio station called PopBuzz Radio. PopBuzz podcast is released weekly. PopBuzz Presents, introduced in 2017, is an original live program produced in partnership with Twitter . Founded in 2014, the site is targeted to millennials and Gen Zs . Global produce over 150 events for its radio brands annually. These include Capital's Summertime Ball and Jingle Bell Ball , Heart Live and Classic FM Live at
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#17327824998464264-532: The first week of September 2024, Global announced that they would introduce an additional twelve radio stations, via a week long advertisement campaign on their social media pages. Additional spin-off stations of Heart, Capital, Radio X and Classic FM would be introduced on the 12th September 2024. This brings the total number of stations operated by Global up to 33. The Capital network consists of eleven contemporary hit stations which currently broadcast in numerous areas of England, Wales and central Scotland, alongside
4346-476: The impresario Robert Stigwood , the then radio producer John Whitney , the record and electronics company EMI , and Mecca Leisure Group . The theatre director Peter Hall (director) supported Artists in Radio. The successful franchisee, however, was Capital Radio Limited. This company, with shareholders including Rediffusion Radio Holdings Limited, Local News of London Limited and The Observer (Holdings) Limited
4428-564: The licence such as Lord Willis and John Whitney had joined the board. Test transmissions by the IBA commenced in January 1973 using the VHF frequency 95.8 MHz for FM from the Croydon transmitter and the MW frequency 557 kHz (539 m) for AM from London Transport 's Lots Road Power Station , Chelsea. The location of the medium-wave transmitter and the frequency used were only temporary until
4510-501: The name Global's Newsroom. Local and national bulletins are produced and Global's Newsroom also provides the news to Global's news station LBC. In terms of weekly audience reach, Global's Newsroom is the second largest news broadcaster in the UK, second only to the BBC. The Global Awards which started on 1 March 2018 are held by Global and reward music played on its own stations. The Global Awards returned in 2019. Global's Make Some Noise
4592-624: The national radio stations provided by the BBC . In October 1972 the Independent Broadcasting Authority invited applications for two local radio licences in London: one for a general and entertainment station, the other for news and information. The licence for the entertainment service saw eight organisations applying, many of them with established entertainment pedigrees. Associated Television , run by Lew Grade ,
4674-462: The network programming feed continue as previously provided under Gold, and the former Gold stations in Wales continue to offer a four-hour local show as Smooth Wales . Three Gold areas where Smooth is already provided on FM – London, Manchester and the East Midlands – retained a reduced Gold service on AM and (bar Manchester, where capacity is unavailable) local DAB, with most presented shows (aside from
4756-477: The radio station has changed their "Passion for Music, Passion for Life" strap-line slogan to "Love Music" . As of 11 July 2010, Galaxy changed its slogan to "TSA's No. 1 Hit Music Station" inline with Capital London . On 7 July 2023, the Galaxy brand as retired twelve years prior returned to use with the launch of a new 'Live Playlist' stream on Global Player called "Galaxy of Stars", including predominantly chart dance and RnB tracks from Galaxy's heyday in
4838-581: The self appointed Minister of Public Enlightenment. We've just written a new song called Capital Radio and a line in it goes "listen to the tunes of the Dr Goebbels Show". They say "Capital Radio in tune with London". Yeah, yeah, yeah! They're in tune with Hampstead. They're not in tune with us at all. I hate them. What they could have done compared to what they have done is abhorrent. They could have made it so good that everywhere you went you took your transistor radio – you know, how it used to be when I
4920-605: The station was awarded the licence to broadcast on the new Severn Estuary frequency on 101 MHz serving South Wales and the West of England areas and was rebranded as Galaxy 101 . Chrysalis Radio purchased the station in 1996 and in 1997 expanded the network by buying the Faze FM operated stations which were Kiss 102 in Manchester (which became Galaxy Manchester ) and Kiss 105 in Yorkshire (which became Galaxy Yorkshire ) respectively. In 1998, black community station Choice FM
5002-441: The stations from Leeds – excluding weekday breakfast/drivetime and weekend mornings. On Monday 28 April 2008, Galaxy was rebranded as a mainstream station by Creative Spark, with a brand new layout including a fresh logo and a completely new show schedule. Galaxy Scotland (formerly known as XFM Scotland), launched on Saturday 7 November 2008, and Galaxy South Coast (rebranded from Power FM), launched on Saturday 22 November 2008, as
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#17327824998465084-510: The streets of Central London. LBC also had a similar service but was forced to suspend operations due to cost. Capital's aircraft was originally a Piper Seneca model, and, later, a twin-engined Grumman Cougar . Charlie Gillett had his world music programme The World of Difference on Sunday evenings. Several of Capital's early presenters had moved on, to be replaced by newer disc jockeys, some of whom had experience presenting on Radio Luxembourg. Although it would only broadcast for three years,
5166-470: The takeover of Real & Smooth Ltd, Smooth Radio broadcasts soft adult contemporary music on FM in six areas, and from March 2014 on MW in a number of areas previously served by Gold. After taking over Smooth, Global reversed the "national" format that Smooth had taken in 2010 – whereby a network version of the station was broadcast nationally on DAB with all English FM stations sharing this content – and reintroduced local breakfast and drivetime shows. Two of
5248-672: The three sub-companies, Global Radio, Global Entertainment and Global Television into just 'Global'. On 1 March 2018, Global launched a brand new awards show called The Global Awards celebrating the stars of music, news & entertainment across genres in the UK and from around the world. It took place at London's Eventim Apollo . In September 2018, Global announced the double acquisition of two key outdoor companies, Primesight and Outdoor Plus, creating Global's Outdoor Division. The acquisitions were rumoured to be worth several hundred million pounds. On 19 September 2018, rival commercial radio group Bauer announced that they were pulling out of
5330-490: The transmission of Gold nationally over Digital One in the DAB+ format from 2019, with most of the prior Gold capacity outside London reallocated to Smooth Country. With the closure of Gold's last AM transmission in 2024, Gold Radio - as the station was officially rebranded that year - is now a digital-only offering. Global currently operates five stations exclusively broadcast via web-based platforms: Smooth Extra launched at
5412-587: The two new radio stations to join the Galaxy Network which was part of Global Radio's plans to simplify radio stations they own and expand other radio stations across the UK. Galaxy used RCS Selector and Master Control as its music playout system. According to RAJAR figures, Galaxy was the 7th most listened to radio station in the UK. The network was rebranded and merged with The Hit Music Network on 3 January 2011 to form The Capital FM Network , comprising nine stations in London, Scotland, South East Wales,
5494-464: The weekend prior to going full time on 1 November, on its AM frequency while Capital on FM became 95.8 Capital FM , a chart contemporary music station. Both stations received brand-new jingle packages from Californian jingle house Who Did That Music (later Groove Addicts, now GrooveWorx ), that went on to become well known and essential parts of its music programming. From 1997, the studios of 95.8 Capital FM have been based in Leicester Square , which
5576-399: Was a separate station within Global's line-up. On 7 October 2013 Choice FM was rebranded as Capital XTRA and made available nationally via DAB radio. Capital Xtra Reloaded broadcasts from Birmingham and is available on DAB+ on Sound Digital and online via Global Player. Its output consists primarily of hip-hop, dance, garage, R&B and grime classics from the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. Heart
5658-779: Was acquired in Birmingham and became Galaxy Birmingham . Chrysalis Radio scored another success in 1999 with the Radio Authority 's award of the North East regional licence to Galaxy North East . However, Galaxy 101's success in Bristol was starting to falter, and the station was sold to the GWR Group in 2002, becoming Vibe 101 (now Kiss 101 ). On 7 November 2008, Xfm Scotland became Galaxy Scotland after Global Radio purchased GCap. With Galaxy renaming their stations in 2006 to their respective areas of Birmingham, Manchester, North East, Yorkshire and Digital, they introduced
5740-444: Was also the first ever legal radio commercial on LBC. Capital's programming remit, as with all ILR stations at the time, was to appeal to the broadest range of people as possible, which included specialist music programmes, radio plays, classical music, community features and news documentaries. The host of Capital's first show was former BBC Light Programme and former BBC Radio 1 presenter David Symonds . After Symonds moved to
5822-416: Was announced that a weekly US version of the podcast would launch on 20 June. The News Agents USA is hosted by Maitlis and Sopel. On 29 September 2023, Global announced a further spin-off podcast, The News Agents Investigates , would launch on 1 October and be presented by Goodall. In March 2024, Simon Pitts was appointed Group Chief Executive of Global Media. He will take up his role in early 2025. In
5904-582: Was appointed Chief Engineer. On 16 October 1973 Capital commenced regular transmissions with the British national anthem " God Save the Queen ", then a message from director Richard Attenborough "...This, for the first time, is Capital Radio" followed by the Capital Radio theme jingle, made by Blue Mink : Simon & Garfunkel 's song " Bridge over Troubled Water " followed the jingle. The first radio commercial came from Birds Eye fish fingers, which
5986-407: Was at school. I'd have one in my pocket all the time or by my ear'ole flicking it between stations. If you didn’t like one record you'd flick to another station and then back again. It was amazing. They could have made the whole capital buzz. Instead Capital Radio has just turned their back on the whole youth of the city. — Joe Strummer The mid-1970s saw Capital Radio expand with the launch of
6068-578: Was decided to roll out the Capital FM brand instead. In August 2009, following Chill being taken off air, Galaxy replaced the station on numerous networks in different areas including Bournemouth, Cambridge, Cardiff, Norwich, Peterborough, Southend and more. Until 14 November 2010, Galaxy Yorkshire was available on Sky channel 0112 and Virgin Media channel 919. Galaxy was due to be available on various platforms like Freeview, (channel 724) and Freesat. but never came into effect. On Friday 21 March 2008,
6150-644: Was dropped at this time. The GCap purchase gave Global the network of FM stations which GCap had operated as The One Network (many of which are now part of the Heart or Capital networks), plus Classic FM , XFM , Choice FM , Gold and Chill . Following the acquisition of GCap Media, Global was required to sell off a number of stations in the Midlands. The stations were bought by Orion Media , headed by Phil Riley, former Chief Executive of Chrysalis Radio. Heritage local radio stations in areas not already served by Heart FM were gradually rebranded and incorporated into
6232-458: Was headed as chairman by the actor and film director Richard Attenborough . Other board members at that time included record producer George Martin , actor and film director Bryan Forbes , theatrical producer Peter Saunders , and a millionaire dentist and long-time commercial radio enthusiast Barclay Barclay-White. By the time of Capital Radio’s launch in October 1973 some of the competitors for
6314-557: Was licensed to provide news and information. In search of a larger audience in 1974, Capital Radio rapidly moved from a general and entertainment station with drama, features, documentaries and light music to a more successful pop music-based format. In 1988 it became two stations: 95.8 Capital FM and Capital Gold . After some national expansion with the purchase of other radio stations the Capital Radio Group merged with GWR Group in 2005 to form GCap Media which in turn
6396-423: Was one of them, as was the long-established Isle of Man broadcaster Manx Radio . Others were specially formed companies: Piccadilly Radio under the leadership of the film producer Lord Brabourne , Network Broadcasting headed by the writer Lord Willis and the broadcaster Ned Sherrin , the actor and comedian Bernard Braden ’s London Radio Independent Broadcasters and London Independent Broadcasting which included
6478-661: Was originally a standalone station Fortune 1458 and Lite AM before becoming part of the Big-AM and later Capital Gold networks. In the West Midlands, after the divesture of some radio holdings to Orion Media , the Gold brand continued as a franchise, however, in late 2012 these stations were rebranded as Free Radio 80s and no longer carried Gold network programming. Most Gold stations on AM/local DAB transferred to receive their network programming provision from Smooth Radio on 24 March 2014; local news, travel and advertising drop-ins into
6560-685: Was produced and made up of the latest and most popular dance , RnB/Rap and pop hits from Galaxy stations and the public. The Galaxy 40 did its last show on Sunday 7 June 2009, leaving the commercial Big Top 40 Show to take over the airwaves, although unlike the Fresh 40 and the Galaxy 40 , Big Top 40 is based on iTunes downloads and airplay. The official UK Top 10 is also available, on each station website, but not announced on air. The Galaxy Network schedule in December 2010 was: On 3 January 2011, The Galaxy Network and The Hit Music Network merged to create Capital , with
6642-538: Was purchased by Capital Radio Group (now Global) in 1998. Radio X is available nationally on DAB+ digital radio, Global Player, Virgin Media channel 960, Sky channel 113, and on FM in London 104.9 and Manchester 97.7. Gold is a national DAB station mostly playing music from the 1950s to the 1980s, which grew out of a network of AM and later DAB stations. Many of these were the AM sister stations to heritage CHR stations which are now Heart or Capital stations, though Gold Manchester
6724-543: Was taken over by Global Radio in 2008. In 2011, Capital was launched nationally, apart from the daily breakfast and weekday drivetime shows, becoming part of the Capital FM Network. In 2019, the breakfast show also became national, with 11 regional drivetime shows. The Sound Broadcasting Act 1972 allowed for the establishment of local commercial radio stations in the United Kingdom to operate alongside
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