96.2 Touch FM was an

Independent Local Radio Independent Local Radio is the collective name given to commercial radio stations in the United Kingdom. As a result of the buyouts and mergers permitted by the Broadcasting Act 1990, and deregulation resulting from the Communications Act 2 ...

station serving

Coventry Coventry ( or rarely ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands county, in England, on the River Sherbourne. Coventry had been a large settlement for centurie ...

and

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...

, in the West Midlands,

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. The station broadcast from studios at

Honiley Honiley is a small village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Beausale, Haseley, Honiley and Wroxall, in the Warwick district, in the county of Warwickshire, England. It is from Kenilworth, and from Coventry on the A4177 road. The ...

, near

Kenilworth Kenilworth ( ) is a market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Warwick (district), Warwick District of Warwickshire, England, southwest of Coventry and north of both Warwick and Leamington Spa. Situated at the centre of t ...

, on 96.2 FM and online.

History

The station originally launched as Radio Harmony on 28 August 1990 on 102.6

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base u ...

FM. In January 1995, it rebranded as Kix 96 and changed frequency to 96.2 MHz FM. Under the management of

Muff Murfin Murfin Music International and Murfin Media are companies run by Muff Murfin, and are based at The Old Smithy Studios in Kempsey, Worcestershire, England. Murfin owns several radio stations in the UK, and also hires time at its studios to pr ...

, Kix earned a reputation as a training ground for some of the UK radio industry's up-and-coming talents including Chris Brooks, Dave Kelly, and Perry Spillar. Nic Tuff was the station's launch programme controller and breakfast presenter, who is probably best-remembered for a 1998 April Fools' joke in which he called

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela ( , ; born Rolihlahla Mandela; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist and politician who served as the first president of South Africa f ...

at home, pretending to be

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He was Leader ...

. The stunt attracted some attention from the international press.

CN Group acquisition

The

CN Group CN Group Limited was formerly an independent local media business based in Carlisle, Cumbria, England, operating in print and radio. It is now owned by Newsquest and their newspapers are printed in Glasgow. The company was formerly known as t ...

lobbied the government regulatory body

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 ...

in 2005 to amend the station's format in order to bring it closer to the adult-contemporary formats of its sister stations in the South Midlands (all later rebranded as Touch FM). One of the proposed changes included a request for the removal of the obligation to provide a weekly programme of

Irish music Irish music is music that has been created in various genres on the island of Ireland. The indigenous music of the island is termed Irish traditional music (or Irish folk music). It has remained vibrant through the 20th and into the 21st ...

. An objection from Coventry rivals Mercia FM contributed towards Ofcom rejecting the request. As a result, the station's format obligations dictated a different

playlist A playlist is a list of video or audio files that can be played back on a media player, either sequentially or in a shuffled order. In its most general form, an audio playlist is simply a list of songs that can be played once or in a loop. ...

to that of the other members of the Touch network, but nonetheless, the station adopted at that point a more adult sound than that prior to CN ownership. The station was issued a 'yellow card' by Ofcom in April 2006 for a violation of the 'spirit of its format' following a decision to move the Irish music programme to an 'inaccessible' overnight time slot.

Quidem acquisition

On 18 June 2009, it was announced that a group fronted by former G-Cap Media Operations Director Steve Orchard had bought the CN Radio Midland Stations. He set up the group known as 'Quidem'. On 1 December 2009, Touch Radio was rebranded to Touch FM.

Flip to Adult Hits Format

On Friday, 21 March 2014 at 5:10 pm the station was "seized" during normal programming and a loop of the Queen hit

Bohemian Rhapsody "Bohemian Rhapsody" is a song by the British rock music, rock band Queen (band), Queen, released as the lead single from their fourth studio album, ''A Night at the Opera (Queen album), A Night at the Opera'' (1975). Written by Queen's lead si ...

was played consistently until 10 am the following Monday morning. At this point, a launch sequence played, confirming the station was relaunching with a new, male-skewed rock format, giving it a distinctive sound compared to the more female-skewed

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 ...

and

Orion Media Orion Media was a UK commercial radio group, founded in 2009 after a management buy-in, with backing from Lloyds Development Capital. It was created from the enforced sale of several radio stations in the English Midlands previously owned by Gl ...

operated brands in the area. It then only had presenters between 6 am and 9 am and 4 pm and 7 pm weekdays, and 8 am to 2 pm weekends, and there was no longer any networking taken. In 2016, Touch FM reverted to its original Adult Contemporary theme, applying the slogan of its sister stations 'Classic Hits and the Best of Today'. In October 2016, the station started broadcasting a local arts magazine programme, ''The Coventry Culture Show''. This was a hit with listeners, and in January 2017, the show was extended to four hours. In January 2019, ''The Coventry Culture Show'' also aired on Sunday morning in addition to its traditional Saturday slot. Presenter Neil Wilkes announced via social media that he had ended the radio show early, due to changes at the station. Shortly after this, it was publicly announced that Touch FM would cease broadcasting.

Station rebrand and merger

In September 2019, Quidem announced it had entered a brand licensing agreement with Global, citing financial losses. Two months later, following permission from regulator,

to change the station's format, it was confirmed Touch FM (Coventry) would merge with its Quidem-owned sister stations and launch as

Capital Mid-Counties Capital Mid-Counties is a regional radio station owned and operated by Global as part of the Capital network. It broadcasts to Coventry, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, south Staffordshire, the Cotswolds and north Oxfordshire. The station launch ...

on 2 December 2019.Global confirms Capital FM to replace Quidem stations
Radio Today, 27 November 2019 Local output for the Mid-Counties region consists of a three-hour regional Drivetime show on weekdays, alongside localised news bulletins, traffic updates, and advertising for Coventry and Warwickshire. Touch FM ceased broadcasting at 7 pm on Friday 29 November 2019.

References

External links

Official websiteLive Internet Feed
{{coord missing, West Midlands 1990 establishments in England 2019 disestablishments in England Radio stations established in 1990 Radio stations disestablished in 2019 Defunct radio stations in the United Kingdom Radio stations in the West Midlands (region) Culture in Coventry 20th century in Coventry 21st century in Coventry