The first Galaxy station, Galaxy Radio was launched in 1990 in
Bristol broadcasting from studios in Portland Square on the 97.2 FM frequency. The station became a key rival to the city's
GWR FM station and was operated by the
Chiltern Radio Group under the "Hot FM" brand. The line up at the time included Andy Gelder, Rik Scott, Keith Francis (Gooden) Station and programme 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
MHz serving South Wales and the West of England areas and was rebranded as
Galaxy 101. 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
Galaxy Yorkshire) respectively. In 1998, black community station
Choice FM was acquired in Birmingham and became
Galaxy Birmingham. Chrysalis Radio scored another success in 1999 with the
Radio Authority's award of the North East regional licence to
Galaxy North East. However, Galaxy 101's success in
Bristol was starting to falter, and the station was sold to the
GWR Group in 2002, becoming
Vibe 101 (now
Kiss 101). On 7 November 2008, Xfm Scotland became
Galaxy Scotland 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 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 Galaxy has gone through various strap-lines. From "''Today's Dance Non-Stop
", to "Today's Best Dance & More"
to "The New Mix"
to "No. 1 for Dance & RnB"
. Then, on Friday 21 March 2008, the radio station 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.
Revival within Global Player On 7 July 2023, the Galaxy brand, having retired twelve years prior, returned to use with the launch of a new 'Live Playlist' stream on
Global Player called "Galaxy of Stars", including predominantly chart dance and RnB tracks from Galaxy's heyday in the 90s and 00s. ==Galaxy Dance Anthems==