Capital Disney was a British digital

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 ...

aimed at 8 to 16 year olds which used to broadcast across the UK on

DAB Digital Radio Digital radio is the use of digital technology to transmit or receive across the radio spectrum. Digital transmission by radio waves includes digital broadcasting, and especially digital audio radio services. Types In digital broadcasting syst ...

in selected areas. Capital Disney launched on 16 September 2002 as a joint venture between

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. ...

PLC and

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

. It was also broadcast on Sky Digital, Tiscali TV,

Virgin Media Virgin Media is a British telecommunications company which provides telephone, Cable television, television and Internet access, internet services in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters are at Green Park in Reading, Berkshire, Reading, Engla ...

, and streaming online. The station announced on 14 May 2007 that it would close down on 29 June 2007. Capital Disney was one of the first radio stations in the country to use the newly developed Digital radio (DAB) format to provide a radio station specifically aimed at children and teenagers. The station broadcast twenty four hours a day with a series of presenter and music led programming.

Background

In 1998 the Capital Radio Group announced plans to launch a kids-only format radio station, bidding for the North East England FM licence (which was won by Galaxy 105-106). Called Fun Radio it was to be a pop station aimed at 8-16 year olds. Despite this failure Capital still had hopes of launching this station, at the time a brand new format for an underserved audience.

The Cube

The station aired in 2001 under the name of ''Cube'' (the name originally chosen for Century London) in several regional areas of

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

with a purely new pop music format aimed at young teens. It was seen as a competitor to GWR Group's Core (radio station), which launched two years earlier. Because Cube was on DAB, at the time very few people listened to the service. Cube was noted for its high tempo music-driven formula, coupled with live DJs (A rarity for digital radio- most were voicetracked) and humorous and informative short clips in between the music (Such as 'How Does a Piano Work?') designed to create a learning environment, possibly to curb outside criticism that Cube was just a mindless music station. It shared studio space with

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...

and Century London and shared Kevin Palmer as the senior manager.

History

In February 2002, Disney announced a joint venture with Capital Radio to create and develop Capital Disney, replacing Cube. Capital Disney started broadcasting on 17 October 2002. It was announced in May 2007 that Capital Disney would close down in June 2007 after five years airing. A statement on the Capital Disney website told that 'both parties (GCap Media and The Walt Disney Company) had agreed to pursue their interests individually.' A number of petitions were started by fans of the station arguing against its closure but these were ultimately unsuccessful. Capital Disney started to leave DAB multiplexes across the UK in June 2007, in most areas being replaced with

Traffic Radio Traffic Radio was a digital radio station based in England. It was a 24-hour rolling traffic and travel service for motorways and major roads in England, run for the Highways Agency by Global Traffic Network. Traffic Radio could be heard on ...

or XFM. The final DAB MUX to lose Capital Disney was London

CE Digital CE Digital is an operator of digital radio in the United Kingdom. It is the licensee for local DAB ensembles in London, Birmingham, and Manchester, and is a joint venture between Bauer Radio and Global Radio. It was originally a joint venture be ...

, with Capital Disney being switched off shortly after 1pm on 29 June 2007. In an unintentional move, the final song played by Capital Disney on this DAB MUX was McFly with their cover of

Queen Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

's ''Don't Stop Me Now''. Due to an operational freeze at Sky, Capital Disney remained on air until July 2007, however, with the original name of 'Cube', as the Walt Disney Company had agreed with GCap Media to only contract their name until June 2007. The website remained for a short time after presenters were taken off air, but this also closed on the same day, replaced by a message and redirect to London's Capital Radio website. 13 years after Capital Disney’s closure, the American

Radio Disney Radio Disney was an American radio network operated by the Disney Radio Networks unit of Disney Branded Television within the Disney General Entertainment Content, headquartered in Burbank, California. The network broadcast music programming ...

would later cease operations as well in early 2021.

The Playlist

Capital Disney played a range of chart music and new acts. Originally, talking story books could be heard often during school hours, but were replaced by non-stop music from 9am until 1pm and then a DJ, James Beckingham, from 1 to 4pm, under the name of "Daytime". They also played artists that didn't get any airplay on mainstream radio such as

The Lovebites ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

and album tracks from artists that appear on the playlist. Overnight, Capital Disney played non-stop hits, however previously to this overnight was the home of non-stop chillout music. This ceased in 2003 and now this type of music can be heard on sister station

Chill In computing, CHILL (an acronym for CCITT High Level Language) is a procedural programming language designed for use in telecommunication switches (the hardware used inside telephone exchanges). The language is still used for legacy systems i ...

Presenters

The final line up of presenters at closure was Adam Morris, known on air as The General, James Beckingham, Matt James, Val Mellon, Leigh Purves,

Nigel Mitchell Nigel Mitchell is a British television and radio presenter and voice-over artist. Early life and education Nigel was born in Kingston Upon Thames. He attended Shrewsbury House School in Surbiton, from where he gained a scholarship to Reed's ...

, Andrew Rendle, known as Radio Rendle, Adam O'Neill, Saffron Oddy and Sophie Bruce. Previous presenters on the station have included Allan Lake, Tim Lichfield, known as Tiger Tim, Korry Denison, Andy Kench, Dan Marsh, Kelli Nelson, Will Chambers, Carl Carter and Gema Ensenat.

Awards

In 2004, the station won the

NTL NTL may refer to: Companies * NTL Incorporated and NTL Internet, later Virgin Media, communications media company ** NTL Ireland, later Virgin Media Ireland * Arqiva, UK company formerly ''NTL Broadcast'' and ''National Transcommunications L ...

Digital Radio station of the year award. In 2005, the station was nominated for and won the

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

Radio Academy award 'Digital Terrestrial Radio Station' of the year, against

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