Galaxy was a radio network owned 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 ...

and broadcast across the British Isles on FM in 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

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, through the digital platform with Sky and DAB and online respectively. Stations included stations:

Galaxy 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 ...

, Galaxy Manchester,

Galaxy North East Capital North East is a regional radio station owned and operated by Global as part of the Capital network. It broadcasts to North East England from studios in Newcastle upon Tyne. The station launched on 1 June 1999 as Galaxy 105–106, ren ...

Galaxy Scotland Capital Scotland (formerly known as Beat 106, XFM Scotland, and later Galaxy Scotland) is a regional radio station owned by Communicorp UK and operated by Global. It broadcasts to Scotland's Central Belt, an area surrounding the two cities o ...

Galaxy South Coast Capital South Coast was a regional radio station owned by operated by Global Radio as part of the Capital (radio network), Capital radio network. It broadcast to Hampshire from studios in Segensworth, Fareham. In 2019, Capital South Coast was r ...

and

Galaxy Yorkshire Capital Yorkshire is a regional radio station owned by Global as part of the Capital network. It broadcasts to South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, the East Riding of Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire from studios in Leeds, West Yorkshire, Englan ...

. Programming was networked throughout the stations from

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

– excluding weekday breakfast/drivetime and weekend mornings. On Monday 28 April 2008, Galaxy was rebranded as a mainstream station by Creative Spark, with a brand new layout including a fresh logo and a completely new show schedule. Galaxy Scotland (formerly known as XFM Scotland), launched on Saturday 7 November 2008, and Galaxy South Coast (rebranded from Power FM), launched on Saturday 22 November 2008, as the two new radio stations to join the Galaxy Network which was part of Global Radio's plans to simplify radio stations they own and expand other radio stations across the UK. Galaxy used RCS Selector and Master Control as its music playout system. According to RAJAR figures, Galaxy was the 7th most listened to radio station in the UK. The network was rebranded and merged with The Hit Music Network on 3 January 2011 to form

The Capital FM Network Capital is a network of twelve independent contemporary hit radio stations in the United Kingdom, broadcasting a mix of local and networked programming. Nine of the stations are owned and operated by Global Media & Entertainment, while the oth ...

, comprising nine stations in London, Scotland, South East Wales, the West & East Midlands and northern & southern England broadcasting under the Capital FM identity. Local programming on the Hit Music stations is now restricted to daily breakfast and weekday drivetime shows.

History

The first Galaxy station, Galaxy Radio was launched in 1990 in

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

broadcasting from studios in Portland Square on the 97.2 FM frequency. The station became a key rival to the city's

GWR FM GWR FM was a network of three radio stations in the south west of England broadcasting to Bristol, Bath, Wiltshire and surrounding areas. All three stations were rebranded and joined the Heart Network on 23 March 2009. The stations in the network ...

station and was operated by the

Chiltern Radio Group Chiltern Radio Network (also known as Chiltern Radio Group) was the parent group of several independent local radio stations in the 1980s and 1990s. These were divided across two networks: ''The Hot FM'' and ''SuperGold''. History Chiltern Radi ...

under the "Hot FM" brand. The line up at the time included Andy Gelder, Rik Scott, Keith Francis (station manager), Andy Beeley, Tristan B, Bob Prince, Tin Tin and Roni Size. It quickly became the most successful dance music station in the UK and was reaching half of all 16- to 24-year-olds in the city every week. In 1994, the station was awarded the licence to broadcast on the new Severn Estuary frequency on 101 megahertz serving South Wales and the West of England areas and was rebranded as

Galaxy 101 Galaxy was a radio network owned by Global Radio and broadcast across the British Isles on FM in regional areas of England and Scotland, through the digital platform with Sky and DAB and online respectively. Stations included stations: Galaxy Bi ...

. Chrysalis Radio purchased the station in 1996 and in 1997 expanded the network by buying the Faze FM operated stations which were Kiss 102 in Manchester (which became Galaxy Manchester) and Kiss 105 in Yorkshire (which became

) respectively. In 1998, black community station Choice FM was acquired in Birmingham and became

. Chrysalis Radio scored another success in 1999 with the Radio Authority's award of the North East regional licence to

. However, Galaxy 101's success in

was starting to falter, and the station was sold to the GWR Group in 2002, becoming Vibe 101 (now

Kiss 101 Kiss 101 was a radio station in Bristol, England that broadcast to South Wales and the West of England, playing pop, dance, hip hop, urban, R&B and electronic music. The radio station broadcast simulcast to Kiss 100. The coverage was made t ...

). On 7 November 2008, Xfm Scotland became

after Global Radio purchased GCap. With Galaxy renaming their stations in 2006 to their respective areas of Birmingham, Manchester, North East, Yorkshire and Digital, they introduced a new "Up for It" image but at the same time being a more grown-up station. This is reflective in Galaxy's demographic now increasing from the 15–29 age range to the 15–34 age range. The owners of Galaxy, Global Radio, did have aims to expand the radio brand across the UK by introducing new stations but only two occurred for Scotland with Galaxy Scotland and for the south coast of England with Galaxy South Coast before it was decided to roll out the Capital FM brand instead. In August 2009, following

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 in ...

being taken off air, Galaxy replaced the station on numerous networks in different areas including Bournemouth, Cambridge, Cardiff, Norwich, Peterborough, Southend and more. Until 14 November 2010, Galaxy Yorkshire was available on Sky channel 0112 and Virgin Media channel 919. Galaxy was due to be available on various platforms like Freeview, (channel 724) and Freesat. but never came into effect.

Strapline

On Friday 21 March 2008, the radio station has changed their '' "Passion for Music, Passion for Life" '' strap-line slogan to '' "Love Music"''. As of 11 July 2010, Galaxy changed its slogan to "TSA's No. 1 Hit Music Station" inline with Capital London.

Galaxy Dance Anthems

In 2007, Galaxy released a three disk box set called ''Galaxy Dance Anthems ''featuring 50 club classics.

Galaxy Chart Shows

The first chart ''Galaxy Radio'' broadcast was Hit40UK. After this, the

Fresh 40 ''Fresh 40'' was a networked dance and urban music singles chart show broadcast on a number of UK commercial radio stations every Sunday from 4pm to 7pm. The show was produced by Somethin' Else. The radio show was launched on Sunday 22 Octobe ...

chart was broadcast across the brand, but soon after the chart was cancelled. A replacement chart, ''The Galaxy 40'', was introduced and produced by ''Galaxy Radio''. It was networked across all ''Galaxy'' radio stations. The chart show was produced and made up of the latest and most popular

dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

, RnB/Rap and pop hits from Galaxy stations and the public. ''The Galaxy 40'' did its last show on Sunday 7 June 2009, leaving the commercial Big Top 40 Show to take over the airwaves, although unlike the ''Fresh 40'' and the ''Galaxy 40'', Big Top 40 is based on

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

downloads and airplay. The official UK Top 10 is also available, on each station website, but not announced on air.

Programming

The Galaxy Network schedule in December 2010 was:

Networked presenters

*Greg Hughes (weekday overnights & early breakfast) * Sacha Brooks (weekday and Saturday mornings) *Ant Payne (weekday and Saturday afternoons) * Adele Roberts (Sunday to Thursday nights, Sunday overnight) * Andi Durrant (Friday mid-evening, Saturday evening) *Martyn 'Mash' Henderson (Friday night) * David 'Nu Cool' Dunne (Saturday overnight) *Adam O'Neil (Saturday drivetime) * Steve Sutherland (Saturday night) * Tiësto (Sunday early overnight) *James Cusack (Saturday breakfast) *Carl Hughes (Saturday afternoon) *Wayne C McDonald (Tuesday night)

Syndicated presenters

Rich Clarke Richard "Rich" Clarke (born 19 August 1978) is an English radio presenter and DJ from Worcester, England, currently presenting with Global. Student radio At Royal Holloway, University of London he co-operated with future BBC journalist Ed Harry ...

(''

The Vodafone Big Top 40 ''The Sky VIP Official Big Top 40 from Global'' is a radio chart show broadcast every Sunday from 4 to 7pm on Global's Capital and Heart networks, presented by Will Manning. It was started in May 2009 but the show is the descendant of ''The Net ...

'') *Kat Shoob (''

'')

Former presenters

Miranda Rae Miranda Rae (born in the United Kingdom) is a British radio DJ, best known for her pioneering show on Galaxy Radio & Radio 5, Ujima Radio, and Soul Train Radio. She was the first full-time female radio presenter on UK radio. Radio career At ...

(British radio DJ)

Note(s)

*Philippa Collins, Mark Chadwick, Lola Rose-Maxwell and Dan Lee were the voiceover artists on Galaxy. *The Monday to Friday 0100 – 0400 slot was presented by Tom Ferguson until his departure to

Channel 4 Radio Channel 4 Radio was a radio brand in the United Kingdom, launched by Channel Four Television Corporation in January 2007. On 11 October 2008 its closure was announced. It incorporated Oneword, in which Channel 4 purchased a 51% share in 2005, alt ...

. *Matt Spokes was the presenter of Monday to Saturday afternoons until his departure to Key 103.Matt Spokes leaving Galaxy
Radio Today. Interim cover was provided by Sunday afternoon presenter Ant Payne from November 2010 with Payne's
original slot covered by various DJ's. *Michael Blades, Matt Foister, Carl Hughes and Will Smith were cover presenters in the latter half of 2010; with contracted DJ's leaving or absent.

Capital

On 3 January 2011, The Galaxy Network and The Hit Music Network merged to create

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 ...

, with the branding of “95 – 106 Capital FM, The UK’s No.1 Hit Music Station” but the stations ID locally as

req Ian Cassar (born 20 February 1966), better known as Req (stylized as REQ), is an English DJ, record producer, and graffiti artist. Career In the words of AllMusic's Sean Cooper, Req began in his native Brighton as "one of the U.K.'s most respec ...

Capital. Local news hours have been extended and local advertising remains locally sold. All programming, with the exception of weekday breakfast/drivetime and weekend afternoons, originates from

studios in

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 ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. Specialist dance music programming remains on overnights excluding Sunday. Galaxy fell silent on 30 June 2015 when a MXR Yorkshire ensembles was closed and Capital moving to local multiplexes.

References

External links

Capital
(was Galaxy) {{DEFAULTSORT:Galaxy (radio network) 1990 establishments in the United Kingdom 2011 disestablishments in the United Kingdom Capital (radio network) Former British radio networks Radio stations disestablished in 2011 Radio stations established in 1990