Capital Manchester was a local

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission 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 radi ...

owned and operated by

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 Chrys ...

as part of the

Capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used fo ...

radio network. The station broadcast from their studios at Global's Manchester HQ in the XYZ Building in

Spinningfields Spinningfields is an area of Manchester city centre, in North West England, developed in the 2000s between Deansgate and the River Irwell by Allied London Properties. The £1.5 billion project consists of twenty new buildings, totalling approxi ...

, Manchester. In April 2019, the station was merged with

2BR Two Boroughs Radio (known on air as 2BR) was an Independent Local Radio station serving East and Central Lancashire, England. It was owned and operated by Global and broadcast from studios at Clayton-le-Moors near Accrington. 2BR was merged ...

in Lancashire to form

Capital Manchester and Lancashire Capital Manchester and Lancashire is a regional radio station owned and operated by Global as part of the Capital network. It was broadcast to Greater Manchester and eastern & central parts of Lancashire from studios at the XYZ Building in Spin ...

History

The 102 MHz frequency in Manchester has a chequered background. Initially it was occupied by

Sunset 102 Sunset 102 was an Incremental radio station, a new type of station licensed by the Independent Broadcasting Authority in 1989. It was the first of a series of licenses awarded by the IBA in areas already served by an Independent Local Radio stat ...

which included regular shows from

house music House is a music genre characterized by a repetitive four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 120 beats per minute. It was created by DJs and music producers from Chicago's underground club culture in the late 1970s, as DJs began altering ...

innovators

808 State 808 State are an English electronic music group formed in 1987 in Manchester, taking their name from the Roland TR-808 drum machine. They were formed by Graham Massey, Martin Price and Gerald Simpson. They released their debut album, '' New ...

and a Saturday evening rave show from Sammy B; both were cited by

Dave Haslam Dave Haslam is a British writer, broadcaster and DJ who DJ'ed over 450 times at the Haçienda nightclub in Manchester and has since DJ'ed worldwide. He has written for the ''New Musical Express'', ''The Guardian'', the ''London Review of Book ...

in City Life to have been instrumental in reflecting and developing the early rave culture in the city. However, due to occasional threats of violence on air and other breaches of the licence the station was closed. The licence was re-advertised and quickly won by

Faze FM Faze FM Radio Ltd was the owner of two dance music radio stations in the North of England. It operated Kiss 102 in Manchester and Kiss 105 in Yorkshire from 1994 to 1997 before being taken over by Chrysalis Group. History Faze FM Radio Ltd was ...

who launched

Kiss 102 Kiss 102 was a dance music radio station based in Manchester, England. History The frequency was originally issued to Sunset 102, Sunset 102 Radio - The Kickin FM but that suffered some financial problems. In May 1993, the Radio Authority made ...

on 16 October 1994. The licence win was spearheaded by Eugene Perera's Level Broadcast, aided by

Mike Powell Michael Anthony Powell (born November 10, 1963) is an American former track and field athlete, and the holder of the long jump world record. He is a two-time world champion and two-time Olympic silver medalist in this event. His world record of ...

's Infinity Radio consultancy, and included shareholders

UKRD The UKRD Group Ltd was a British media company that owned 15 commercial radio stations in the United Kingdom. The name originates from UK Radio Developments. Since its acquisition in March 2019, it has been run as a subsidiary of Bauer Radio. H ...

, Eastern Counties Newspaper Group and 3i. Gary Burton, who had presented at

Radio Trent Trent FM was an Independent Local Radio station which broadcast to Nottinghamshire. The station merged with two other East Midlands stations, Leicester Sound and Ram FM to form Capital FM East Midlands (part of Global's Capital FM Network) ...

for much of the 1980s and early 1990s, was Kiss 102's first breakfast presenter. The station became a victim of its own success when just months after opening a second station,

Kiss 105 Kiss 105 was a dance music radio station based in Leeds, West Yorkshire. It was part of a new breed of regional radio stations as opposed to independent local radio. History The station was launched at and the first track played was 'I Like ...

in Yorkshire, the station's board accepted a £17.6 million takeover bid from the

Chrysalis Group Chrysalis Group was a United Kingdom, UK media company that was founded by Chris Wright (Music), Chris Wright, chairman, and Terry Ellis (record producer), Terry Ellis. Wright was named in ''Sunday Times Rich List 2009'' of the 1,000 richest per ...

in 1996 for a company that had cost just £600k to set up three years earlier. Chrysalis rebranded the station as Galaxy 102 in 1997. Eleven days after the transfer of ownership, as a direct result of EMAP, the Kiss brand owners refused to franchise the Kiss name to Chrysalis. The music policy was toned down, integrating R'n'B into the playlist and dispensing with many of the specialist programmes and presenters. Nevertheless, their investment in advertising and change of music policy was able to grow the audience further. The station was rebranded as Capital on 3 January 2011 as part of a merger of Global Radio's

Galaxy A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, dark matter, bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Greek ' (), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar Sys ...

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 Gallup and later OCC/CIN). The founding editors were ...

networks to form the nine-station Capital network. On 1 June 2017, local programming moved from Salford to new studios at the XYZ Building in the Spinningfields district of Manchester City Centre. Capital Manchester shares facilities with sister station

Heart North West Heart North West is a regional radio station owned and operated by Global as part of the Heart network. It broadcasts to North West England from studios in the Spinningfields area of Manchester city centre. Overview Century Radio (1998–2009) ...

and two

Communicorp Bauer Media Audio Ireland (formerly Communicorp Group) is a media holding company based in Ireland, owned by Bauer Media Group. History Communicorp Group Ltd was formed by Denis O'Brien in 1989. It launched its radio operations in Ireland that ...

-owned stations,

Smooth North West Smooth North West is a regional radio station owned by Communicorp UK and operated by Global as part of the Smooth network. The station broadcasts to the North West of England from studios at Spinningfields in Manchester. History GMG Radio o ...

and

XS Manchester XS Manchester is an Independent Local Radio station serving Greater Manchester, broadcasting a mix of indie and alternative rock music, speech and news output. The station is owned and operated by Communicorp UK and broadcasts from studios at Sp ...

. On 26 February 2019, Global confirmed the station would be merged with

in East and Central Lancashire. As of April 2019, local output consists of a three-hour Drivetime show on weekdays, alongside news bulletins, traffic updates and advertising. Capital Manchester's local breakfast and weekend shows were replaced with network programming from London.

Technical

The transmitter is on top of the City Tower in

Piccadilly Piccadilly () is a road in the City of Westminster, London, to the south of Mayfair, between Hyde Park Corner in the west and Piccadilly Circus in the east. It is part of the A4 road that connects central London to Hammersmith, Earl's Cou ...

in Manchester, the same place as

and Radio X's transmitter and all 3 services share the same broadcast antenna system which is located on the centre tower and is illuminated with red

Aircraft warning lights Aviation obstruction lighting is used to enhance the visibility of structures or fixed obstacles which may conflict with the safe navigation of aircraft. Obstruction lighting is commonly installed on towers, buildings, and even fences located i ...

at night.

Breakfast show presenters

Capital Manchester (2011–2019) * Rob Ellis (''Capital Breakfast with Rob Ellis'', 2011–2019) Galaxy 102 (1997–2011) * Rob Ellis (''The Rob Ellis Show'', 2007 - 2011) **Co-presented with Rachel Burke-Davies, Nigel "Wingman" Clucas, and 'Stand Up' Alex Boardman * Wes Butters (2005–2007) **Co-presented with Alex Boardman and 'Irish Alan' Toner *Simon "Nicksy" Nicks (''Nicksy in the Morning'', 2000–2005) **Co-presented with Lynsey Horn and 'Irish Alan' Toner *Adam Cole (1997–2000) Kiss 102 (1994–1997) *Adam Cole (1997) *Gary Burton (1994–1996)

Notable presenters

* Mike Cartwright Radio CK travel reporter *

Sacha Brooks Sacha Brooks is a British radio presenter and DJ from Nottingham, England. She is currently employed by Global Radio. Sacha's radio career started on the pirate radio station Globe 107.7fm in Nottingham and she went on to launch Choice 102 ...

Wes Butters Wesley Paul Butters (born 4 May 1979, in Salford), is a radio broadcaster, formerly of BBC Radio 1, and writer. Early life Butters attended Buile Hill High School in Pendleton, Salford, and studied at the University of Salford between 1995 an ...

Rich Clarke Richard "Rich" Clarke (born 19 August 1978) is an English radio presenter and DJ from Worcester, England, currently presenting with Global. Student radio At Royal Holloway, University of London he co-operated with future BBC journalist Ed Harry, ...

Andi Durrant Andi Durrant (born 1981) is an English radio presenter, company co-founder, disc jockey and record producer from Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Durrant currently hosts The Dance Music Archive radio show on Kisstory in the UK Radio presenter He ...

* Rob Ellis *

Stephanie Hirst Stephanie Hirst is an English radio & TV presenter currently heard 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 age 12 at 96.3 Ra ...

* Dave Kelly *

Adele Roberts Adele Claire Roberts (born 9 March 1979) is a British broadcaster and reality TV personality and disc jockey, DJ. Roberts worked for BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 2. Her best known television appearances were in ''Big Brother (TV series), Big Brother ...

* Steve Sutherland *

Margherita Taylor Margherita Taylor (born 26 April 1972) is an English TV and radio presenter. She is a freelancer with Global Group and currently presents on stations Smooth Radio and Classic FM. Taylor studied media and communications at the University o ...

Margherita Taylor swaps Capital for Heart
Radio Today, 22 December 2011 *

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

References

External links

Capital Manchester

''Wes@Breakfast''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Capital Manchester

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

Defunct radio stations in the United Kingdom Radio stations in Manchester Radio stations established in 1994 1994 establishments in the United Kingdom