Capital East Midlands
 | |
| Broadcast area |
East Midlands (from Nottingham) |
|---|---|
| Branding | 96–106 Capital |
| Slogan | East Midlands' No.1 Hit Music Station |
| Frequency |
FM: 96.2 MHz (Nottingham) 96.5 MHz (Mansfield) 102.8 MHz (Derby) 105.4 MHz (Leicester)[1] DAB: 11B (Leicester) 12C (Nottingham) 10B (Derbyshire) RDS: Capital |
| First air date | 3 January 2011 |
| Format | Contemporary hit radio, News, Entertainment, Speech, Showbiz |
| Audience share | 9.1% (June 2013, RAJAR) |
| Owner | Global Radio |
| Sister stations |
Classic FM Smooth East Midlands |
| Website | Capital East Midlands |
Capital East Midlands is a regional radio station owned and operated by Global Radio as part of the Capital radio network. It broadcasts to the East Midlands from studios in Nottingham. It launched on 3 January 2011 following the merger of Trent FM, Leicester Sound and Ram FM.[2]
History
The regional station originally broadcast as three stations – Radio Trent began broadcasting to Nottinghamshire in July 1975, later expanding its coverage area to central and southern Derbyshire in March 1987 with split local programming introduced for the area. The Derbyshire station was relaunched in 1994 as Ram FM. Leicester Sound was launched in Leicestershire in September 1984, just over 11 months after the county's first ILR station, Centre Radio, went into receivership.
Both Trent FM and Leicester Sound were owned by Midlands Radio until a takeover by Capital Radio plc led to the stations being sold off to the GWR Group in 1993. In 2005, the owners merged with Capital to form GCap Media, which was later taken over by Global Radio. In June 2008, Global launched The Hit Music Network on Trent, Leicester Sound and Ram FM alongside Ten 17 in Essex, Hertfordshire's Mercury 96.6 and Mercury FM in Sussex and Surrey (also Mercia FM and Beacon Black Country until their sale to Orion Media). Local programming was restricted to daily breakfast and weekday afternoon & drive time slots with networked output originating from Nottingham. Two other Hit Music stations – London's 95.8 Capital FM and Red Dragon FM in south east Wales retained local output.
On 13 September 2010, Global Radio announced it would merge Trent FM, Leicester Sound and Ram FM to form a sole regional station as part of a merger between its Hit Music and Galaxy network stations to form the nine-station Capital radio network.[3] The merger led to the closure of studios in Leicester and advertising offices in Derby.
Programming
Local programming is produced and broadcast from Capital's Nottingham studios from 6-10am and 4-7pm on weekdays and 12-4pm at weekends. All networked programming originates from Global Radio's London headquarters, including the syndicated Vodafone Big Top 40 on Sunday afternoons.
The station's local presenters are Dean 'Dino' Weatherbed and Pete Allen (Capital Breakfast), Tom Watts and Claire Chambers (weekday drivetime) and Ryan Arnold (weekend afternoons).
Capital Reports
Capital East Midlands broadcasts hourly local news updates known as Capital Reports, from 6am-7pm on weekdays and 6am-12pm at weekends with headlines on the half-hour during breakfast and drivetime on weekdays. The Nottingham newsroom also produces bulletins for Communicorp-owned Smooth East Midlands.
Former presenters
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References
- ↑ Capital East Midlands Media UK
- ↑ Capital radio broadcasts first East Midlands shows as it replaces Trent FM Nottingham Post, 4 January 2011
- ↑ Global Radio takes Capital national, Brand Republic, 13 September 2010
- 1 2 Presenters announced for new regional radio station, Nottingham Post, 18 November 2010
- 1 2 Show swap at Capital FM East Midlands, RadioToday, 16 March 2012
- ↑ 96–106 Capital jock in tandem skydive Radio Today, 15 September 2011