Capital Birmingham was a local

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based rad ...

owned and operated by

Global Global may refer to: General *Globe, a spherical model of celestial bodies *Earth, the third planet from the Sun Entertainment * ''Global'' (Paul van Dyk album), 2003 * ''Global'' (Bunji Garlin album), 2007 * ''Global'' (Humanoid album), 198 ...

as part of the

Capital Capital and its variations may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** Capital region, a metropolitan region containing the capital ** List of national capitals * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Econom ...

radio network. It broadcasts to

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

from studios at Brindleyplace in

City Centre. In April 2019, Capital Birmingham was merged with a sister station in the East Midlands to form Capital Midlands.

History

The station began broadcasting as

Choice FM Capital XTRA (formerly Choice FM) is a British digital radio station owned and operated by Global. It broadcasts on 96.9 and 107.1 FM in Greater London, and nationally on DAB, Global Player and television platforms. It specialises in hip ho ...

on 1 January 1995, after taking over the licence previously operated by Buzz FM. Four years later, Choice was renamed as Galaxy after it was bought out by Chrysalis. Galaxy was sold off to Global Radio in June 2007 in a £170 million deal which saw the group take over The Arrow,

LBC LBC (originally the London Broadcasting Company) is a British phone-in and talk radio station owned and operated by Global and based in its headquarters in London. It was the UK's first licensed commercial radio station, and began to broadc ...

and

Heart The heart is a muscular Organ (biology), organ found in humans and other animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels. The heart and blood vessels together make the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrie ...

. The station was relaunched and re-branded as 102.2 Capital on 3 January 2011 as part of a merger of Global Radio's

Galaxy A galaxy is a Physical system, system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar medium, interstellar gas, cosmic dust, dust, and dark matter bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek ' (), literally 'milky', ...

and

Hit Music ''Hit Music'' was a weekly British chart newsletter; sister publication to ''Music Week''. ''Hit Music'' existed for almost nine years, supplying the official UK music charts (as compiled by The Gallup Organization, Gallup and later Official Cha ...

networks to form the nine-station

radio network. In April 2013, the station along with

Heart West Midlands Heart West Midlands is a regional radio station owned and operated by Global as part of the Heart network. It broadcasts to the West Midlands. History Heart began broadcasting to the West Midlands on Tuesday 6 September 1994, as 100.7 Heart F ...

moved to new studios at Eleven Brindleyplace in central Birmingham.

Station merger

On 26 February 2019, Global confirmed the station would be merged with Capital East Midlands. As of Monday 8 April 2019, the regional output consists of a three-hour Drivetime show on weekdays, alongside news bulletins, traffic updates and advertising. Local breakfast and weekend shows were replaced with networked programming from London.

Format

Unlike other stations on the Capital network, the 102.2 Capital licence was to cater primarily for

Urban contemporary Urban contemporary music, also known as urban music, urban pop, or just simply urban, is a music radio format. The term was coined by New York radio DJ Frankie Crocker in the early to mid-1970s as a synonym for Black music. Urban contemporary r ...

black music rather than a 'contemporary/chart music-led service'. The radio station format stated that the service should provide 'a rhythmic-based music and information stations primarily for listeners of African or afro-Caribbean origin, but with cross over appeal to young white fans of urban contemporary black music'. On 1 July 2011,

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 Chrysal ...

requested to change the formats of Capital Birmingham and Capital Scotland which have obligations from previous owners - this is to enable all nine Capital stations to be inline. On 17 November 2011 it was announced

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, internet, telecommunications and mail, postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-rang ...

approved two format change requests.Ofcom approves Capital format change
Radio Today, 17 November 2011 In February 2014, the station resumed opting out of networked programming for two hours each week, broadcasting an overnight specialist show featuring Afro-Caribbean music. Capital Birmingham's transmitter is located at

Metropolitan House Metropolitan House, also known as 1 Hagley Road, is a commercial building that has been developed into apartments in Birmingham, England. It is situated on the A456 Hagley Road at Five Ways. It was designed by John Madin. Radio transmitters T ...

on the A456. It is also available on DAB via the Birmingham, Coventry, and Wolverhampton, Shrewsbury and Telford multiplexes.

Notable former presenters

* Edith Bowman * Sacha Brooks * Rich Clarke * David Dunne * Andi Durrant *

Stephanie Hirst Stephanie Hirst is an English radio and television presenter on Hits Radio. She has hosted '' Hit40UK'' and the weekday breakfast show on Capital Yorkshire '' Hirsty's Daily Dose''. Career Hirst started her career at 96.3 Radio Aire in Le ...

*Dave Kelly * Adele Roberts * Steve Sutherland * Margherita Taylor *

Tiësto Tijs Michiel Verwest (; born 17 January 1969), known professionally as Tiësto ( , ), is a Dutch DJ and record producer. He was voted "The Greatest DJ of All Time" by ''Mix (magazine), Mix'' magazine in a 2010/2011 poll amongst fans. In 2013, h ...

References

External links

Capital Birmingham

Metropolitan House transmitter
{{DEFAULTSORT:Capital Birmingham

Radio stations in Birmingham, West Midlands Defunct radio stations in the United Kingdom Radio stations established in 1995 Radio stations disestablished in 2019 1995 establishments in England 2019 disestablishments in England