Capital Scotland
 | |
| City | Glasgow |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Central Scotland |
| Branding | 105–106 Capital |
| Slogan | Scotland's No.1 Hit Music Station |
| Frequency |
FM: 105.7, 106.1 MHz DAB: 11C (Glasgow) 12D (Edinburgh) RDS: Capital |
| First air date |
Beat 106 (19 Nov 1999), XFM Scotland (4 Jan 2006), Galaxy (7 Nov 2008), Capital (3 Jan 2011) |
| Format | Contemporary hit radio |
| Audience share | 6.5% (June 2015, RAJAR) |
| Owner |
Big Beat Group (1999–2000), Capital Radio (2000–05), GCap Media (2005–08), Global Radio (2008–14), Communicorp (2014–) |
| Sister stations |
Classic FM Heart Scotland Smooth Glasgow XFM Scotland |
| Website | Capital Scotland |
Capital Scotland (formerly known as Beat 106, XFM Scotland, and later Galaxy Scotland) is a regional radio station owned by Communicorp and operated by Global Radio. It broadcasts to Scotland's Central Belt, an area surrounding the two cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, and the kingdom of Fife.
History
Beat 106
The station originally began on 19 November 1999 as Beat 106, a new rock and dance station. The first presenter on-air, at 1:06 pm on launch day, was Matt Finlay, who continued at the station until late 2005. His first words spoken were Is this thing on?. The first song on the station was 'Revolution No.9' by The Beatles followed by Fatboy Slim's 'Right Here, Right Now'. Other presenters at launch included George Bowie, Gina McKie, Graham Stewart and Jim Gellatly. Beat 106 closed on 1 January 2006, playing a countdown of the top 1000 tracks voted for by visitors to its website, entitled "The X-List".
Beat 106 was originally established by the Big Beat Group, headed up by a group of nightclub promoters from Glasgow. However, after being sold to Capital Radio Group in July 2000, the station switch towards playing more dance music (later changing it back to more of a rock/dance format). In 2005, Capital Radio merged with the GWR Group to form GCap Media, creating the UK's largest commercial radio group.
XFM Scotland
The rebranding of Beat 106 to XFM was one of a number of measures announced by GCap to improve their corporate performance following the merger. The original XFM station was XFM London and the rebranding in Scotland occurred four months before the expected launch of XFM Manchester.
XFM Scotland programmes were launched by breakfast presenter Dominik Diamond on 4 January 2006 with Loaded by Primal Scream as the first song played on the relaunched station. A major marketing campaign was launched a year later in a bid to try to regain lost listeners since the rebrand.[1] By September 2007, the station was only reaching audience shares of 2.6% in the West and 4.1% in the East.
On 11 February 2008 GCap Media announced that they would be selling the analogue licence for the station.[2] GCap later became part of Global Radio and it was decided to keep the licence.
On 28 August 2008, Jim Gellatly announced that his last show would be broadcast that day and he would be leaving the station together with a number of colleagues.[3] By the time of XFM's rebrand as Galaxy, station audience shares had fallen further to 2.4% in the West and 2.6% in the East.[4]
Galaxy Scotland
On 27 August 2008 new owners Global Radio announced they would re-brand XFM Scotland as Galaxy Scotland.[5] The rebrand was part of Global Radio’s major strategy to expand the brand across outside Scotland and into parts of England. Local programming on the station consisted of daily breakfast, weekday drivetime and specialist shows with networked programming broadcast from Leeds.
Galaxy Scotland joined the Galaxy Network on 7 November 2008. XFM closed at approximately 3.30pm that day, followed immediately by a 15-minute launch sequence for Galaxy. Galaxy programming started by 4pm the same afternoon, with Gary Spence as the first voice on the air, followed by a special evening show with networked presenter Dave Kelly.
From its launch, Galaxy Scotland gained 429,000 listeners providing almost 3.2 million listening hours per week. In the 12 months up to May 2010, the station doubled its number of listeners. As of Monday 12 July 2010, Galaxy Scotland changed their tagline from "Love Music" to "Scotland's No 1 Hit Music Station" in line with the other Galaxy stations across the UK.
105–106 Capital
The station was re-branded as 105–106 Capital on 3 January 2011 as part of a merger of Global Radio's Galaxy and Hit Music networks to form the nine-station Capital radio network.[6] Local breakfast and drivetime output was retained with most networked programming now broadcast from the network's London studios. The station also produced a networked dance music show on Saturday overnights, which was networked across the Capital network until July 2012.[7]
On 1 July 2011, Global Radio requested to change the formats of Capital Birmingham and Capital Scotland which have obligations from previous owners, enabling all nine Capital FM stations to fall inline.[8] The two format change requests were approved in November.[9]
On 6 February 2014, Global Radio announced it would be selling Capital Scotland to Communicorp. Capital's network programming and brand name remain in use under contract with Global.[10]
Programming
Local programming is produced and broadcast from Capital's Glasgow studios from 6-10am and 4-7pm on weekdays and 12-4pm at weekends. All networked programming originates from Global Radio's London headquarters, including the syndicated Vodafone Big Top 40 on Sunday afternoons.
The station's local presenters are Des Clarke and Jennie Cook (Capital Breakfast), Garry Spence (weekday drivetime) and Brad Yule (weekend afternoons).
Capital Reports
Capital Scotland broadcasts hourly local news updates, known as Capital Reports, from 6am-7pm on weekdays and 6am-12pm at weekends with headlines on the half-hour during breakfast and drivetime on weekdays.
The bulletins are produced for Communicorp by Global Radio's Glasgow newsroom, which also produces bulletins for Heart Scotland, Smooth Glasgow and XFM Scotland in Renfrewshire.
Former presenters
References
- ↑ "New PR push for Xfm Scotland".
- ↑ Plunkett, John (11 February 2008). "DAB 'not economically viable'". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 11 February 2008.
- ↑ "My last show for Xfm Scotland". Retrieved 28 August 2008.
- ↑ "RAJAR".
- ↑ "XFM Scotland to become Galaxy". Retrieved 27 August 2008.
- ↑ Global Radio takes Capital national, Brand Republic, 13 September 2010
- ↑ July 2012 blog Mash
- ↑ Global requests Capital FM format change Radio Today, 1 July 2011
- ↑ Ofcom approves Capital format change Radio Today, 17 November 2011
- ↑ Martin, Roy (2014-02-06). "Communicorp buys 8 Global stations". RadioToday. Retrieved 2014-02-06.