Capital Mid-Counties is 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 by and operated by

Global Global means of or referring to a globe and may also refer to: Entertainment * ''Global'' (Paul van Dyk album), 2003 * ''Global'' (Bunji Garlin album), 2007 * ''Global'' (Humanoid album), 1989 * ''Global'' (Todd Rundgren album), 2015 * Bruno ...

as part of the Capital network. It broadcasts to

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a city in the West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its city status until the Middle Ages. The city is governed b ...

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avo ...

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see H ...

, south

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands C ...

, the

Cotswolds The Cotswolds (, ) is a region in central-southwest England, along a range of rolling hills that rise from the meadows of the upper Thames to an escarpment above the Severn Valley and Evesham Vale. The area is defined by the bedrock of J ...

and north

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primaril ...

. The station launched on 2 December 2019 as a franchise owned by Quidem, following the merger of six stations, including Touch FM,

Rugby FM 107.1 Rugby FM was an Independent Local Radio station in Warwickshire. At the time of closure, it was owned and operated by Quidem and broadcast from studios at Honiley, Warwickshire. History Under the directorship of Martin Mumford, 107.1 R ...

and

Banbury Sound Banbury Sound was an Independent Local Radio station serving the Banbury and Brackley areas of north Oxfordshire. At the time of closure, it was owned and operated by Quidem and broadcast from studios at Honiley, Warwickshire. History Banbury ...

. The station transferred to Global ownership in August 2021.

History

Under relaxed

OFCOM The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...

requirements for local content on commercial radio, Capital Mid-Counties is permitted to share all programming between the six licences, all located within the approved area of the Midlands. These licences previously broadcast as separate stations: * Radio Harmony began broadcasting to

and

in August 1990, later rebranding to 'Kix 96' in 1995. * FM102 The Bear began broadcasting to

and

The Cotswolds The Cotswolds (, ) is a region in central-southwest England, along a range of rolling hills that rise from the meadows of the upper Thames to an escarpment above the Severn Valley and Evesham Vale. The area is defined by the bedrock of J ...

from studios in

Stratford-upon-Avon Stratford-upon-Avon (), commonly known as just Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It is situated on the River Avon, north-we ...

in May 1996. * Centre FM began broadcasting to south east

and

South Derbyshire South Derbyshire is a local government district in Derbyshire, England. The population of the local authority at the 2011 Census was 94,611. It contains a third of the National Forest, and the council offices are in Swadlincote. The district ...

from studios in Tamworth in June 1998. * 107.1 Rugby FM began broadcasting to

Rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby league: 13 players per side *** Masters Rugby League *** Mod league *** Rugby league nines *** Rugby league sevens *** Touch (sport) *** Wheelchair rugby league ** Rugby union: 1 ...

and surrounding areas in August 2002. *

began broadcasting to north

in February 2006 as Touch FM. * 107.3 Touch Radio began broadcasting to the

Warwick Warwick ( ) is a market town, civil parish and the county town of Warwickshire in the Warwick District in England, adjacent to the River Avon, Warwickshire, River Avon. It is south of Coventry, and south-east of Birmingham. It is adjoined wit ...

Leamington Spa Royal Leamington Spa, commonly known as Leamington Spa or simply Leamington (), is a spa town and civil parish in Warwickshire, England. Originally a small village called Leamington Priors, it grew into a spa town in the 18th century following ...

and

Kenilworth Kenilworth ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the Warwick District in Warwickshire, England, south-west of Coventry, north of Warwick and north-west of London. It lies on Finham Brook, a tributary of the River Sowe, which joins the ...

areas of Warwickshire in April 2008. By 2006, The Bear 102, Centre FM and Kix 96 were rebranded by then-owners

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 ...

as Touch FM - with similar branding adopted by the Warwick and Banbury stations upon their launch. In the same year, the CN Group acquired Rugby FM and transferred its operations to a regional broadcast centre in

. In 2009, the CN Group sold off its radio interests in the Midlands. The Banbury station was sold to a private consortium in a staff buyout in April and subsequently rebranded as a wholly independent operation, Banbury Sound. In June, the four Touch FM stations and Rugby FM were sold for an undisclosed price to Quidem, a newly established company set up by former GCap Media directors Steve Orchard and Wendy Pallot. The new owners introduced a new format identified on-air as ''Classic Hits and The Best Of Today'' with live breakfast shows and voicetracked Drivetime shows for each licence area. In October 2010, Quidem reacquired Banbury Sound, which co-located to Quidem's main 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 ...

and reintroduced networked output but retained its separate branding. From 2012 until 2016, Touch FM's service for Burton, Lichfield & Tamworth was broadcast from studios in

Coalville Coalville is an industrial town in the district of North West Leicestershire, Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England, with a population at the 2011 census of 34,575. It lies on the A511 trunk road between Leicester and Burton upon Tr ...

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire ...

, shared with

Oak FM The New 107 Oak FM was a local radio station broadcasting in West Leicestershire and Nuneaton North Warwickshire, in the English Midlands. It was owned and operated by Quidem. History Launching on Wednesday 26 March 2008, the station was es ...

(sold off by Quidem in 2015) until shortly after that station's sudden closure, when it moved to the Honiley studios. In September 2019, Quidem announced it had entered a brand licensing agreement with Global, citing financial losses. The agreement allows the group to carry the branding and programming from one of Global's radio networks while retaining ownership of its six licences - effectively being operated as franchises. Two months later, OFCOM granted permission for Quidem to change the licensed Formats of its local stations to "a rhythmic-based music-led service for 15-29 year-olds supplemented with news, information and entertainment" - a move which brought the stations into line with the formats of Global's Capital network. On 27 November 2019, it was confirmed the six Quidem stations would merge and join the Capital network on Monday 2 December 2019. Touch FM, Rugby FM and Banbury Sound ceased broadcasting at 7pm on Friday 29 November 2019. Regional programming on the station consists of a three-hour Drivetime show on weekdays, alongside localised opt-outs for news bulletins, traffic updates and advertising. All other local output was replaced with networked programming from London. Local news output for Capital Mid-Counties is produced by Global.

Programming

Regional programming is produced and broadcast from Birmingham’s Brindleyplace studios from 4-7pm on weekdays, presented by Tom Watts and Claire Chambers. All networked programming originates from Global's London headquarters.

News

Global's Newsroom broadcasts hourly localised news updates from 6am-7pm on weekdays and 6am-12 noon at weekends with headlines on the half-hour during ''Capital Breakfast'' on weekdays. Separate bulletins are produced for the licence areas previously served by Touch FM, Rugby FM and Banbury Sound.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Capital Mid-Counties Mid-Counties Radio stations established in 2019 Radio stations in Warwickshire Radio stations in Staffordshire Radio stations in Oxfordshire Radio stations in the West Midlands (region) 2019 establishments in England