XFM Scotland was a regional radio station broadcasting to

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

's Central Belt, an area surrounding the two cities of

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

and

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

. The station changed format to join the Galaxy Network on 8 November 2008 as Galaxy Scotland.

History

It began on 19 November 1999 as Beat 106, a

dance music Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded dance musi ...

station. The first presenter on-air, at 1:06 p.m. on launch day, was Matt Finlay, who stayed at the station until late 2005. After launch, Beat quickly widened its format to include rock and R&B music. 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 A nightclub or dance club is a club that is open at night, usually for drinking, dancing and other entertainment. Nightclubs often have a Bar (establishment), bar and discotheque (usually simply known as disco) with a dance floor, laser lighti ...

promoters from

. However, just a few months into its existence, in July 2000, it was bought by the Capital Radio Group. In 2005, Capital Radio merged with the

GWR Group GCap Media was a British commercial radio company formed from the merger of the Capital Radio Group and GWR Group. The merger was completed on 9 May 2005. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Inde ...

to form GCap Media, creating the UK's largest commercial radio group. 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. Normal XFM Scotland programmes were launched by breakfast presenter Dominik Diamond on 4 January 2006. The first record to be played on XFM Scotland was 'Loaded' by Primal Scream. (The first record to be played on Beat 106 was "''Revolution''" by

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

.) On 11 February 2008 GCap Media announced that they would be selling the analogue licence for the station. 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.

Re branding to Galaxy (Now known as Capital FM)

On 27 August 2008 new owners

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 ...

announced it would re-brand XFM Scotland as Galaxy Scotland. The re-brand was part of Global Radio's major strategy to expand the brand across the UK. On 8 November 2008 Galaxy Scotland joined the Galaxy Network (Now known as the Capital FM Network) . XFM Scotland's last days on-air were broadcast during the weekend of 25–26 October 2008, with the website warning visitors and listeners that XFM would shortly be no longer available in the area on FM. It advised XFM fans to switch to DAB, the Internet stream or satellite to continue listening, and to visit http://www.xfm.co.uk (XFM London and XFM Manchester's shared website) and not http://www.xfmscotland.co.uk from Monday 27 October.

Relaunch of XFM Scotland

On 7 April 2014, Global Radio relaunched XFM Scotland on 96.3 FM from the Paisley area. XFM Scotland replaced Real Radio XS, Which used to broadcast on the same frequency. This lasted until September 2015, when Global announced that XFM (UK) would be rebranding as Radio X (United Kingdom). Due to the devolved nations rule, Radio X couldn't be fully networked on 96.3FM. Global decided to hand the Scottish FM licence back prior to Radio X's launch.

Former presenters

Weekday

* Julyan Sinclair ''0600-1000 – The Xfm Breakfast Show'' * Jo Good ''1300–1600'' * Des Clarke ''1600–1900 – Xfm Drivetime'' * Steve Harris ''1900–2200 – Music Response''

Weekend

* Eddy Temple-Morris ''Friday 2200-0100 – The Remix'' * Heather Suttie ''0600-1000 – Weekend Breakfast'' * Danny Wallace ''Saturday 1000–1400 – The Danny Wallace Show'' * Steve Harris ''1400–1800'' * Rick Edwards'' Saturday 1800–2100 – The Weekender'' * Marsha'' Sunday 1000–1400 – Sunday Roast''

Notable former presenters

* Dominik Diamond * Jim Gellatly (now at BFBS Scotland) * Zoe Ball (now at BBC Radio 2)

References

External links

Xfm Scotland official site

Xfm.co.uk – London & Manchester official site

Galaxy Scotland

GCap Media Corporate site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Xfm Scotland GCap Media XFM XFM Rock radio stations in the United Kingdom Radio stations established in 1999 Radio stations disestablished in 2008 Defunct radio stations in the United Kingdom