Capital East Midlands was a regional

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 radio ...

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 Chrysa ...

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 f ...

radio network, broadcasting to the

East Midlands The East Midlands is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. It comprises the eastern half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. It consists of Leicestershire, Derbyshire, Li ...

from studios in

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...

. It launched on 3 January 2011 following the merger of

Trent FM 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) on M ...

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

and

Ram FM Ram FM was an Independent Local Radio station, which broadcast to central and southern parts of Derbyshire on 102.8 FM. The station merged with two other East Midlands stations, Trent FM and Leicester Sound to form Capital FM East Midlands (p ...

. In April 2019, the station was merged with a sister Capital station in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

to form

Capital Midlands Capital Midlands is a regional radio station owned and operated by Global as part of the Capital network. It broadcasts to Birmingham, parts of the Black Country and the East Midlands from studios at Brindleyplace in Birmingham City Centre. ...

History

The regional station originally broadcast as three stations – Radio Trent began broadcasting to

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The traditi ...

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 Centre Radio (officially known as Leicester and Leicestershire Local Radio plc) was the first independent local radio station to serve Leicestershire. It was based at Granville House, Leicester, England. History Centre Radio was launched on ...

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

, which was later taken over by Global Radio. In June 2008, Global launched

The Hit Music Network The Hit Music Network was a collection of five Independent Local Radio stations operating in the United Kingdom and owned by Global Radio. Created on 25 June 2008, the stations were formerly owned by GCap Media prior to its takeover by Global a ...

on Trent, Leicester Sound and Ram FM alongside

Ten 17 Ten-17 was an Independent Local Radio station, broadcast from studios at the Latton Bush Centre in Harlow. The station launched in May 1993 and served Harlow, East Herts and West Essex until its closure on 25 July 2010. History Ten 17 came int ...

in Essex,

Hertfordshire's Mercury 96.6 Heart Hertfordshire (previously known as ''Hertfordshire's Mercury 96.6'') is a local radio broadcasting, radio station owned by Communicorp UK and operated by Global Group, Global as part of the Heart (radio network), Heart network. It broad ...

and

Mercury FM Mercury FM was a radio station in the Surrey and Sussex area of the United Kingdom that was founded on 20 October 1984 and closed on 25 July 2010. The station broadcast on FM 97.5 MHz in Horsham and 102.7 MHz in East Surrey and Nor ...

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 Capital London is a radio station owned and operated by the Global media company as part of its national Capital FM Network. As Capital Radio it was launched in the London area in 1973 as one of Britain's first two commercial radio stations. I ...

and

Red Dragon FM Capital South Wales is a regional radio station owned by Communicorp UK and operated by Global as part of the Capital network. It broadcasts to Cardiff and Newport and the surrounding areas from studios in Cardiff Bay. History The statio ...

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 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 System. ...

network stations to form the nine-station Capital radio network. The merger led to the closure of studios in Leicester and advertising offices in Derby. On 26 February 2019, Global confirmed the station would be merged with

Capital Birmingham Capital Birmingham is a local radio station owned and operated by Global Radio as part of the Capital radio network. It broadcasts to Birmingham from studios at Brindleyplace in Birmingham City Centre. In April 2019, Capital Birmingham was merg ...

. From Monday 8 April 2019, regional output will consist of a three-hour Drivetime show from Birmingham on weekdays, alongside news bulletins, traffic updates and advertising.Global to network Capital, Heart and Smooth breakfast shows
RadioToday, 26 February 2019 Local breakfast and weekend shows were replaced with network programming from London. The last local programming from Capital East Midlands aired on Friday 5 April 2019. Local news, traffic and advertising for the region continues to air as opt-outs - the station also retains offices in Nottingham.

Notable former presenters

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 102.2 i ...

(now at

Capital XTRA Reloaded Capital XTRA Reloaded, is a Global-owned radio station operated as a sister station to Capital XTRA. It broadcasts from Birmingham and is available on DAB Digital Radio in London and on the Global Player app. Its output consists primarily of ...

) *Emma Caldwell Presenters announced for new regional radio station
Nottingham Post, 18 November 2010Show swap at Capital FM East Midlands
RadioToday, 16 March 2012 * Rich Clarke (now at

Heart South Heart South is a regional radio station owned and operated by Global as part of the Heart network. It broadcasts to the south and south east of England from studios in Fareham, Hampshire. The station launched on 3 June 2019 as a result of a me ...

) *

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 ...

*Dave Kelly *

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 ...

*Andy Twigge 96–106 Capital jock in tandem skydive
Radio Today, 15 September 2011 (now at

BBC Radio Derby BBC Radio Derby is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Derbyshire. It broadcasts on FM, AM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios on St Helens Street in Derby. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audien ...

)

References

External links

Capital East Midlands
{{DEFAULTSORT:Capital East Midlands

Defunct radio stations in the United Kingdom Radio stations in Derbyshire Radio stations in Leicestershire Radio stations in Nottinghamshire Radio stations established in 2011

Media Media may refer to: Communication * Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass el ...

Mass media in Nottinghamshire