Capital XTRA (formerly Choice FM) is a

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 ...

-owned

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 ...

that broadcasts on 96.9 FM and 107.1 FM in

Greater London Greater may refer to: *Greatness, the state of being great *Greater than, in inequality (mathematics), inequality *Greater (film), ''Greater'' (film), a 2016 American film *Greater (flamingo), the oldest flamingo on record *Greater (song), "Greate ...

. Nationally, it is heard 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 ...

Freesat Freesat is a British free-to-air satellite television service, first formed as a joint venture between the BBC and ITV plc and now owned by Digital UK. The service was formed as a memorandum in 2007 and has been marketed since 6 May 2008. Free ...

Sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from outer space. In the field of astronomy, ...

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 Global Player. It specialises in hip hop,

grime Grime may refer to: * Dirt, in the form of black, ingrained dust * Grime (music genre), a genre of music * ''Grime'' (album), a 2001 album by Iniquity * ''Grime'' (video game), a 2021 Metroidvania video game * "Grime", a 2022 song by Dallas Woo ...

and R&B music, and is a commercial competitor to

BBC Radio 1Xtra BBC Radio 1Xtra is a British digital radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It broadcasts black music and urban music, including hip hop and R&B and is a sister station to Radio 1. Launching at 18:00 on 16 August 2002, it had been cod ...

History

Choice 96.9

Choice 96.9 began as an independent company in March 1990, broadcasting from studios in Trinity Gardens,

Brixton Brixton is a district in south London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Brixton experienced a rapid rise in population during the 19th ce ...

. It was Britain’s first 24-hour black music radio station with a licence, covering

South London South London is the southern part of London, England, south of the River Thames. The region consists of the Districts of England, boroughs, in whole or in part, of London Borough of Bexley, Bexley, London Borough of Bromley, Bromley, London Borou ...

. The group won a second licence (see

Buzz FM Buzz may refer to: People *Buzz (nickname), a list of people * J. Buzz Von Ornsteiner (born 1967; aka ''Dr. Buzz''), American forensic psychologist and journalist Fictional characters *Buzz, a character in the 1987 American comedy movie '' Rev ...

) in 1995, bringing a local version of their London offering to

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 ...

, on 102.2 FM - in place of

. The advent of digital radio in the UK saw Choice, which already had an active webstream, joining the new MXR consortium and launching a DAB service which anchored London output with news inserts produced by the consortium's news service DNN. The Birmingham licence was sold to

Chrysalis 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 ...

in 1999 and became Galaxy Birmingham, but Choice expanded within the capital in May 2000 when a largely independent

North London North London is the northern part of London, England, north of the River Thames. It extends from Clerkenwell and Finsbury, on the edge of the City of London financial district, to Greater London's boundary with Hertfordshire. The term ''nort ...

licence was awarded for Choice 107.1, with the intention of reaching a larger Afro-Caribbean audience outside the limited range of the coverage from Brixton. The station was now broadcasting from Borough High Street,

Borough, London Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed d ...

. Having previously been a minority shareholder, Capital Radio Group took full control of the station in February 2004 and moved the station's base from the target service area to the group's central studios in London's

Leicester Square Leicester Square ( ) is a pedestrianised square in the West End of London, England. It was laid out in 1670 as Leicester Fields, which was named after the recently built Leicester House, itself named after Robert Sidney, 2nd Earl of Leicester ...

. The move resulted in a community march from the coverage area and their studios. It was accused of

selling out "Selling out", or "sold out" in the past tense, is a common expression for the compromising of a person's integrity, morality, authenticity, or principles by forgoing the long-term benefits of the collective or group in exchange for personal gai ...

as some of their DJs were removed and replaced by their

Kiss A kiss is the touch or pressing of one's lips against another person or an object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely. Depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, romance, sexual attraction, ...

counterparts who play some electronic music. By 12 October 2004, Capital had received and implemented a merger of their FM licences, operating a service across the capital on the two frequencies and cutting back on the North London-specific music requirements. The DAB service also became a simulcast of the London station, with the demise of local drop-ins. Following their takeover of Choice, Capital Radio Group merged with GWR 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. ...

in 2005. Choice was flagged up as one of the key brands of the new larger network, and the station was made available to digital TV viewers via its addition to

(and later to

). GCap were subsequently taken over 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 ...

, who already owned the Galaxy Network of dance/urban music stations. Despite the separate music format and branding, Choice was marketed to advertisers as part of the Galaxy network for package advertising deals. In 2010 Global Radio announced that the Galaxy network stations would be networked with

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 ...

, leaving Choice as a standalone brand again.

Capital XTRA

On 3 October 2013, Global announced that Choice would be rebranded as Capital XTRA on 7 October.Sister to Sapital XTRA Which is a similar twin station to Capital XTRA. A number of high-profile signings were made, at launch including former

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...

and 1Xtra DJ

Tim Westwood Timothy Westwood (born 3 October 1957) is a British DJ and presenter. He is often referred to by other DJs and artists appearing on his shows simply as Westwood. He was described by ''The Guardian'' in 2022 as "a veteran of the hip-hop scene ...

, and subsequently

Kiss FM Kiss FM, Kiss Radio or variants may refer to: Asia-Oceania * Various Kiss FM-branded stations in the Philippines ** 95.1 Kiss FM, Lucena, Quezon ** 102.3 Kiss FM, Tagbilaran, Bohol * Kiss92 FM, Singapore * KISS 969, Sri Lanka * Kiss Radio Taiwan ...

DJ Jez Welham for the station's flagship show, Capital XTRA In The Morning. Initially, the station introduced dance music alongside the urban offering provided by Choice FM. However, ratings, particularly in London, suffered, leading to a move back towards the mixture of primarily black music genres that is now heard on the station, which proved successful between 2016 and 2020 in the UK radio listening measurement system,

RAJAR Radio Joint Audience Research Limited (RAJAR) was established in 1992 to operate a single audience measurement system for the radio industry in the United Kingdom. RAJAR is jointly owned by the BBC and RadioCentre. RAJAR's predecessor was calle ...

. Capital XTRA refreshed its weekend schedule at the start of 2017, hiring

Afrobeats Afrobeats (not to be confused with Afrobeat or Afroswing), or Afro-pop or Afro-fusion (or Afropop or Afrofusion), is an umbrella term to describe popular music from West Africa and the diaspora that initially developed in Nigeria, Ghana, and ...

artist and DJ Afro B to host the Afrobeats show, and student radio winner Robert Bruce for a new UK-music led programme, 'Homegrown'. In a coup for the station, legendary hip-hop presenter

DJ Semtex DJ Semtex (born John Fairbanks; 1974) is an English DJ, author, radio DJ and presenter of Spotify's Who We Be podcast. Between 2002 and 2018, he was presenter for BBC Radio 1Xtra's weekly hip-hop show. Biography Due to complications from ly ...

moved from

to host the same slot on Capital XTRA in October 2018. In September 2019, a new weekday morning show was launched, hosted by former evening presenter Yinka Bokinni, and Shayna-Marie Birch-Campbell. On 5th August 2022, Capital XTRA confirmed that Yinka Bokinni had quit the station. Evening show host Robert Bruce was subsequently confirmed to co-host the breakfast slot with incumbent presenter Shayna-Marie.

Capital XTRA Reloaded

A spin-off station, Capital XTRA Reloaded, was launched on 2 September 2019. It featured former Galaxy Birmingham presenter

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 ...

as host of the station's flagship show. Available nationally on DAB+, the station plays non-stop old skool hip-hop and R&B anthems.

Listening figures

Having launched with 850,000 listeners, Capital XTRA reached a peak of 1.9 million listeners across the UK in 2019. Following management changes in 2020, listenership dropped to an estimated 1.3 million people.

Programming

Capital XTRA plays a mixture of black music genres, including Hip-Hop, R&B,

Grime Grime may refer to: * Dirt, in the form of black, ingrained dust * Grime (music genre), a genre of music * ''Grime'' (album), a 2001 album by Iniquity * ''Grime'' (video game), a 2021 Metroidvania video game * "Grime", a 2022 song by Dallas Woo ...

and Afro-Bashment. Programmes include a mixture of

playlist A playlist is a list of video or audio files that can be played back on a media player either sequentially or in a shuffled order. In its most general form, an audio playlist is simply a list of songs, but sometimes a loop. The term has sever ...

ed shows and specialist strands, hosted by a number of well known DJs and music experts. At Capital XTRA's peak, thematic programming included 'Reloaded', a daily hour of uninterrupted old-skool Hip-Hop and R&B anthems, 'Homegrown', a focus on emerging UK talent including interviews and guest mixes, and 'Chilled', a slow-jamz segment on weeknights on Sunday mornings. Since listening figures began falling in 2021, the majority of such programming has been axed, with output favouring a hegemonic playlist.

Current presenters

Weekdays

* Toni Phillips *

Yasser Yasser (also spelled Yaser, Yasir, or Yassir; ar, ياسر, ''Yāsir'') is an Arabic male name. Notable people with this given name * Yasir ibn Amir (died 615 C.E.) is known in the Islamic traditions as the second person in history to be martyr ...

Weekends

Ras Kwame Ras Kwame is a British musician, record producer, radio DJ and presenter of Ghanaian heritage."'We ...

Afro B Ross-Emmanuel Bayeto (born 25 February 1993) better known as Afro B, is a British DJ, singer and songwriter known for his hit song "Drogba (Joanna)", which peaked at number 23 on the US ''Billboard'' R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart, was certified Gol ...

Events

Between 2016 and 2020, Capital XTRA hosted a number of events to complement its radio broadcasts, including: *Homegrown Live; an artist-led event which featured performances from UK talent at Koko, Camden. Previous performers include

AJ Tracey Ché Wolton Grant (born 4 March 1994), known professionally as AJ Tracey, is a British rapper, singer, songwriter and record producer. He is from Ladbroke Grove, West London. Tracey rose to popularity in 2016 and was listed by ''The Guardian'' i ...

Aitch H, or h, is the eighth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''aitch'' (pronounced , plural ''aitches''), or regio ...

Dappy Costadinos Contostavlos (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Κοντόσταυλος; born 11 June 1987), better known by his stage name Dappy, is a British rapper and singer. He is the lead singer of the Camden-based hip hop and grime trio N- ...

Hardy Caprio Hardy Tayyib-Bah (born 23 May 1996), known professionally as Hardy Caprio, is a British rapper and singer. By 2020, Hardy has released a string of successful releases, broken into The Official UK Top 20, and amassed over 270 million streams onli ...

Stefflon Don Stephanie Victoria Allen (born 14 December 1991), better known by her stage name Stefflon Don, is a British rapper and singer. She rose to fame after her 2017 single " Hurtin' Me" featuring French Montana peaked at number 7 on UK Singles Chart ...

and

WSTRN WSTRN (a disemvoweling of the word Western, which is also pronounced), is a British afroswing collective from West London consisting of Akelle Charles, Haile (born Ras Haile Alexander), and Louis Rei (born Louis-Rae Beadle). Their debut single, ...

References

External links

* {{coord, 51.51007, N, 0.12929, W, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Global Radio Radio stations in London Radio stations established in 1990 Rhythmic Top 40 radio stations 1990 establishments in England Capital (radio network)