Capital The Capital network consists of eleven contemporary hit stations which are broadcast in numerous areas of England, Wales and central Scotland, alongside a
digital UK-wide version. On 3 January 2011,
Capital London,
The Hit Music Network, and the
Galaxy network joined the
Capital radio network; two former Heart stations became Capital in May 2014. Local news hours were extended as part of the agreement to increase programme-sharing, and advertising remains locally sold. Programming outside local hours is broadcast from Capital's network studios in
Leicester Square, London. Unlike its competitor
BBC Radio 1, Capital primarily plays
dance-pop music and rarely plays rock or alternative music. Capital runs two major multi-artist events each year, Capital's
Summertime Ball and Capital's
Jingle Bell Ball.
Capital Dance Capital Dance is a national
digital radio station, operating as a spin-off from the main Capital station. Like its sister stations, the station broadcasts from Leicester Square in London. The station predominantly plays contemporary
electronic dance music.
Capital XTRA Capital XTRA is an
urban music station. Originally named Choice FM, it was acquired by Global in 2010; it was marketed as part of the Galaxy network, but retained its own separate branding and programming. On 7 October 2013, Choice FM was rebranded as Capital XTRA and made available nationally via DAB radio.
Capital Xtra Reloaded Capital Xtra Reloaded is a digital radio station broadcasting from
Birmingham. Its output consists primarily of
hip-hop, dance,
garage,
R&B, and
grime music from the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s.
Heart Heart is a contemporary radio station which currently broadcasts in numerous areas of England, Wales and central Scotland, alongside a
digital UK-wide version. The network began with a single regional station in the
West Midlands, followed by a second station in London. The third station, Heart 106 in the East Midlands (previously Century 106) was sold to Orion Media and run as a franchise; it retained the Heart name until the start of 2011, when it was rebranded as
Gem 106. Heart stations in
Hertfordshire,
North Wales, and
Yorkshire are owned by
Communicorp and uses the Heart name and format under licence from Global.
Heart South Devon was partly owned by
UKRD Group; all other Heart stations are wholly Global-owned. In 2009, many of the heritage CHR stations which had formed part of the
One Network were renamed Heart, as were Ocean and South Hams Radio (which were not part of the One Network).
Real Radio stations were rebranded as Heart on 6 May 2014. Heart has eight sister stations:
Heart 70s,
Heart 80s,
Heart 90s,
Heart 00s,
Heart 10s,
Heart Dance,
Heart Love, and
Heart Musicals. On 11 April 2023, it was announced that
Heart Scotland would reintroduce local breakfast, daytime and weekend shows as part of an expansion of Global's Scottish radio operations. This saw drive time presenters
Des Clarke and Jennifer Reoch move to the breakfast time slot. Sister station
Capital Scotland (owned and operated under a brand licence by
Communicorp) has also reintroduced local programming.
Classic FM Classic FM is a
classical music station broadcast nationally on FM and
DAB, as well as on
Freesat,
Sky,
Freeview and
Virgin Media. It is one of three
Independent National Radio franchises, and the only one to broadcast on FM. On 3 January 2024, it was announced that
Dan Walker was joining Classic FM to host its breakfast show.
Smooth Acquired as part of the takeover of
Real & Smooth Ltd, Smooth Radio broadcasts
soft adult contemporary music on FM in six areas, and AM in a number of areas previously served by Gold. After taking over Smooth, Global reversed the "national" format that Smooth had taken in 2010, reintroducing local breakfast and drivetime shows. Two of the Smooth areas had previously been
Jazz FM stations, and three had originally been Saga stations; the North East service launched as Smooth on a licence originally awarded to Saga.
LBC LBC is a news and
talk radio station, focusing on UK-wide and international news via phone-in discussion programmes. It launched on 8 October 1973 as the UK's first licensed commercial radio station, with
Capital Radio launching a week later on 16 October. LBC broadcasts nationally on DAB, television, and Global Player, as well as FM in London.
LBC News LBC News is a 24-hour
rolling news station. Its news presenters include
Lisa Aziz and
Martin Stanford, whilst
John Kettley is one of the weather presenters.
Radio X Radio X (formerly XFM) broadcasts
alternative rock and
independent music. Founded in 1997 as an independent London station, it was purchased by Capital Radio Group (now Global) in 1998. Radio X is available nationally on
DAB+ digital radio, Global Player,
Virgin TV, and
Sky, as well as FM in London and Manchester.
Gold Radio Gold is a national DAB station mostly playing music from the 1950s to the 1980s, which grew out of a network of AM and later DAB stations. Many of these were the AM sister stations to heritage CHR stations which are now Heart or Capital stations, though Gold Manchester was originally a standalone station
Fortune 1458 and Lite AM before becoming part of the Big-AM and later Capital Gold networks. In the West Midlands, after the divestiture of some radio holdings to
Orion Media, the Gold brand continued as a franchise, however, in late 2012 these stations were rebranded as
Free Radio 80s and no longer carried Gold network programming. Most Gold stations on AM/local DAB transferred to receive their network programming provision from
Smooth Radio on 24 March 2014; local news, travel and advertising drop-ins into the network programming feed continue as previously provided under Gold, and the former Gold stations in Wales continue to offer a four-hour local show as
Smooth Wales. Three Gold areas where Smooth is already provided on FM – London, Manchester and the East Midlands – retained a reduced Gold service on AM and (bar Manchester, where capacity is unavailable) local DAB, with most presented shows (aside from a daily morning show) ceasing. However these were subsequently switched off as part of Global's decision to withdraw from AM broadcasting - the last to go being
Greater Manchester at the end of April 2024. A number of areas gained or regained Gold as a DAB service in September 2015 in space vacated by XFM, following XFM's move from local to national transmission as Radio X. This was then in turn superseded by the transmission of Gold nationally over
Digital One in the DAB+ format from 2019, with most of the prior Gold capacity outside London reallocated to Smooth Country. With the closure of Gold's last AM transmission in 2024, Gold Radio - as the station was officially rebranded that year - is now a digital-only offering.
Streaming-only stations Global currently operates the following stations exclusively broadcast via web-based platforms:
Smooth Extra Smooth Extra launched at the end of 2014 to broadcast nationally on
Digital One (in the slot previously occupied by the network Smooth Radio service) with a 'melodic music from past decades' format (some programming is simulcast with
Smooth London). A previous plan to launch a service of "music from the 70s, 80s and 90s" in the Digital One capacity ultimately did not go ahead. Smooth added two further digital siblings on 3 September 2019;
Smooth Country (previously a Global Player stream) and
Smooth Chill, the successor to
Chill. A pop-up digital Christmas music station, Smooth Christmas, was operated by R&S in the run-up to Christmas of 2011 and 2012, and having not run in 2013 was revived by Global in 2014 but was in 2015. In 2016, Smooth Christmas was not revived, instead Heart Extra Xmas, a pop-up digital Christmas music station, appeared from 12 November 2016 until 27 December 2016. It returned on 9 November 2017.
Heart brand Heart 80s launched in March 2017; the conversion of these stations to DAB+ in 2019 permitted the launch of further stations including
Heart Dance,
Heart 70s,
Heart 90s, followed by
Heart 00s in 2022 and
Heart 10s,
Heart Musicals &
Heart Love in 2024 as part of Global's network expansion on 12th September.
Capital Buzz Capital Buzz is a cultural platform of interviews, articles, podcast, videos, and GIFs, combined with a music stream of the fastest trending tracks in social media with digital goodness from around the web. Founded in 2014, the brand is targeted to
millennials and
Gen Zs. ==Events==