96.2 Touch FM was a local radio station serving

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the West Midlands (county), 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 ...

and

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-Avon an ...

, in the

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

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 ...

. The station broadcast from 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 ...

, near

Kenilworth Kenilworth ( ) is a market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Warwick (district), Warwick District in Warwickshire, England, south-west of Coventry, north of Warwick and north-west of London. It lies on Finham Brook, a ...

, on 96.2 FM and online.

History

The station originally launched as Radio Harmony on 28 August 1990 on 102.6

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one he ...

FM. In January 1995, it rebranded as Kix 96 and changed frequency to 96.2 MHz FM. Under the management of Muff Murfin, Kix earned a reputation as a training ground for some of the UK radio industry's up-and-coming talents including Chris Brooks, Dave Kelly and Perry Spillar. Nic Tuff was the station's launch programme controller and breakfast presenter, who is probably best-remembered for a 1998

April Fools' April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day is an annual custom on 1 April consisting of practical jokes and hoaxes. Jokesters often expose their actions by shouting "April Fools!" at the recipient. Mass media can be involved in these pranks, which may b ...

joke in which he called

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist who served as the President of South Africa, first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1 ...

at home, pretending to be

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...

. The stunt attracted some attention from the international press.

CN Group acquisition

The

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 ...

lobbied government regulatory body

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 ...

in 2005 to amend the station's format in order to bring it closer to the adult-contemporary formats of its sister stations in the South Midlands (all later rebranded as Touch FM). One of the proposed changes included a request for the removal of the obligation to provide a weekly programme of

Irish music Irish music is music that has been created in various genres on the island of Ireland. The indigenous music of the island is termed Irish traditional music. It has remained vibrant through the 20th and into the 21st century, despite globalis ...

. An objection from Coventry rivals

Mercia FM Free Radio Coventry & Warwickshire is an Independent Local Radio station based in Birmingham, England, owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Hits Radio network. It broadcasts to Coventry and Warwickshire. As of September 2022, the stati ...

contributed towards Ofcom rejecting the request. As a result, the station's format obligations dictate a different

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 ...

to that of the other members of the Touch network, but nonetheless the station now has a more adult sound than that prior to CN ownership. The station was issued a 'yellow card' by Ofcom in April 2006 for a violation of the 'spirit of its format' following a decision to move the Irish music programme to an 'inaccessible' overnight time slot.

Quidem acquisition

On 18 June 2009 it was announced that a group fronted by former G-Cap Media Operations Director Steve Orchard had bought the CN Radio Midland Stations. He set up the group known as 'Quidem'. On 1 December 2009, Touch Radio was rebranded to Touch FM.

Flip to Adult Hits Format

On Friday, 21 March 2014 at 5:10 pm the station was "seized" during normal programming and a loop of the Queen hit

Bohemian Rhapsody "Bohemian Rhapsody" is a song by the British rock band Queen, released as the lead single from their fourth album, '' A Night at the Opera'' (1975). Written by lead singer Freddie Mercury, the song is a six-minute suite, notable for its lack ...

was played consistently until 10 am the following Monday morning. At this point, an launch sequence played, confirming the station was relaunching with a new, male-skewed rock format, giving it a distinctive sound compared to the more female-skewed

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

Orion Media Orion Media was a UK commercial radio group, founded in 2009 after a management buy-in, with backing from Lloyds Development Capital. It was created from the enforced sale of several radio stations in the English Midlands previously owned by Gl ...

operated brands in the area. It now only has presenters between 6 am and 9 am and 4 pm and 7 pm weekdays, and 8 am to 2 pm weekends. There is no longer any networking taken. In 2016 Touch FM reverted to its original Adult Contemporary theme, applying the slogan of its sister stations 'Classic Hits and the Best of Today' In October 2016, the station started broadcasting a local arts magazine programme, ''The Coventry Culture Show''. This was a hit with listeners, and in January 2017, the show was extended to four hours. In January 2019, ''The Coventry Culture Show'' also aired on Sunday morning in addition to its traditional Saturday slot. Presenter Neil Wilkes announced via social media that he had ended the radio show early, due to changes at the station, shortly after this it was publicly announced that Touch FM would cease broadcasting.

Station rebrand and merger

In September 2019, Quidem announced it had entered a brand licensing agreement with Global, citing financial losses. Two months later, following permission from regulator,

to change the station's format, it was confirmed Touch FM (Coventry) would merge with its Quidem-owned sister stations and launch as Capital Mid-Counties on 2 December 2019.Global confirms Capital FM to replace Quidem stations
Radio Today, 27 November 2019 Local output for the Mid-Counties region consists of a three-hour regional Drivetime show on weekdays, alongside localised news bulletins, traffic updates and advertising for Coventry and Warwickshire. Touch FM ceased broadcasting at 7pm on Friday 29 November 2019.

References

External links

Official websiteLive Internet Feed
{{coord missing, West Midlands Defunct radio stations in the United Kingdom

Touch In physiology, the somatosensory system is the network of neural structures in the brain and body that produce the perception of touch (haptic perception), as well as temperature (thermoception), body position (proprioception), and pain. It is ...

Coventry Radio stations established in 1990