Capital Radio

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This article is about the British radio station. For other uses, see Capital Radio (disambiguation).

Capital 95.8
Broadcast area	London
First air date	16 October 1973
Frequency	95.8 MHz Channel 0109 (Sky) Channel 958 (and 931 in some areas) (Virgin Media) DAB Digital Radio (London)
Format	Contemporary
Owner	GCap Media
Website	www.capitalradio.com

The Capital Radio building in Leicester Square, London. In 2005, the famous "Capital Radio London" signage was removed following the inauguration of GCap Media, however in January 2006 the signage was reinstalled. The "Yates" signage refers to a bar underneath the radio building.

Capital 95.8 is a London radio station owned by GCap Media (formerly Capital Radio Group).

[edit] Early Years

The station, which was based at Euston Tower until early in 1997, was originally named Capital Radio, and was launched by then-chairman Richard Attenborough in October 1973. Capital went on air just over a week after news station LBC, making it the second legal commercial radio station in the UK. The first song to be played on Capital was Bridge Over Troubled Water, by Simon and Garfunkel. In 1988, the station relaunched under the name Capital FM, before reverting to its original name at the beginning of 2006 and then relaunching again in March 2007 with the name Capital 95.8.

From its inception, the station broadcast on FM and medium wave - it has used 95.8 MHz since its inception, while the medium wave frequency was originally 539 metres (557kHz). This happened to be the same frequency that the Dutch pirate radio station Radio Veronica was using, and the interference between the two meant that neither station could be heard clearly in parts of southern England or Belgium.

Capital's mediumwave frequency moved to 194 metres (1548 kHz) in 1975, after Veronica had been closed by the Dutch anti-pirate legislation. As the government encouraged an end to simulcasting as part of its plan to expand choice in UK radio, a separate service - Capital Gold - was set up in 1988 to broadcast on Capital's medium wave frequency.

A recent photo of the Capital Radio building.

[edit] DJs

The station's former DJs include

• Chris Moyles
• Tommy Vance
• Ian Davidson
• Peter Young
• Graham Dene
• Tony Myatt
• Nicky Horne
• John Sachs
• Gerald Harper
• Maggie Norden
• Sue Cook
• Michael Aspel
• David Jensen
• Chris Tarrant (who hosted the breakfast show for 17 years)
• Pat Sharp
• Richard Allinson
• Roger Scott
• Neil Fox
• Richard Bacon
• Katy Hill
• Jeremy Kyle
• Nicky Campbell
• Richard Skinner
• Kenny Everett (of whom they now provide podcasts )
• Dave Cash
• Paul Burnett
• Alan Freeman

The last four of the broadcasters named above also worked for Capital Gold. Capital 95.8 presenters today are

• Johnny Vaughan
• Lucio
• Craig Doyle
• James Cannon
• Chris Brooks
• Margherita Taylor
• Tony Shepherd
• James Bassam
• Myleene Klass
• Jo Good
• Stephen Sullivan
• Tim Lichfield
• Sophie Malcolm
• Dave Berry
• Matt Brown
• Bam Bam and Kat Shoob
• Paul Gillies

[edit] Today

The studios of Capital 95.8 are today based in Leicester Square, which is also home to Capital's parent company, GCap Media.

In September 1996 the then Capital FM launched its website, a little later than some UK broadcasters, but high demand led to it crashing within a few hours.

Towards the end of 2005, and the beginning of 2006, the station went through a number of changes. From December 2005, it was decided to only have two commercials in one advert break in order to get listeners back to the music faster (these adverts were however played on the station at more regular intervals, to ensure the station the correct amount of "capital"). On January 9th 2006, due in part to the fact that by then many people were no longer listening on FM but via the Internet, TV or DAB, the station was once again 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 the desired success, a new Programme Controller was appointed in September 2006. Scott Muller came from the Nova group in Australia, and the station saw another tweak in style. The new era has seen Capital re-branded back to "London's Hit Music Station", a play on the stations earlier brand of "London's Number One Hit Music Station" with noticeable improvements - leading to an uprisal in audience figures at the end of last year. The station also changed it's 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 new name of the station is Capital 95.8 and it's slogan reads "The Sound Of London".

[edit] See also

• Capital Radio Group
• Capital FM Network
• List of radio stations in the United Kingdom
• Bong Game

[edit] External links

• Capital Radio