Branding 107.6 Capital Owner Global City of license Liverpool | Format Contemporary hit radio First air date March 27, 1998 Audience share 6.6% | |
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Broadcast area Merseyside, West Cheshire, West Lancashire Slogan Liverpool's No.1 Hit Music Station Frequency FM: 107.6 MHz
DAB: 11B (Liverpool)
RDS: Capital Parent organization Global Radio Holdings Limited | ||
Capital Liverpool is an Independent Local Radio station serving Liverpool. It is owned and operated by Global Radio and relaunched as part of the Capital FM network early in 2016, replacing 107.6 Juice FM.
Contents
History
The station launched on Friday 27 March 1998 as 107 Crash FM on 27 March 1998 from studios at 27 Fleet Street in Liverpool. It developed from a handful of RSL broadcasts in the city and was driven by Janice Long with backing from Bob Geldof, Primal Scream, Urban Splash and Kiss 102's Mike Gray and Boy George.
In the application for a full-time licence, Crash FM said it would provide an alternative rock and dance station, aimed at 15- to 34-year-olds, with a target audience of over 80,000 tuning in for around eight hours per week in the first year. The original shareholders also included CLT, although they withdrew before launch with the 25% stake taken by Channel Radio.
Crash was brought out by Forever Broadcasting in late 1999 and relaunched as Juice 107.6 on 26 March 2000. By September of the same year, the station's RAJAR had increased significantly, after the station's format had been altered to include more mainstream pop and dance music.
In September 2003, Juice was sold to Absolute Radio (UK) Limited (AR-UK), a consortium made up of UTV Media and Eurocast, for £3.1m. AR-UK were, at the time, making moves in the FM radio licence world, notably in the West Midlands and Glasgow. The new owners aimed to develop more local programming, news and marketing but sold off the station to UTV less than two years later.
On 12 January 2012, Juice switched from its former Fleet Street studios to a new £1.1m facility at One Park West in Liverpool One, overlooking the Albert Dock.
On 5 June 2015, Juice FM was sold again to Global Radio for £10 million. The sale was given regulatory approval from the Competition and Markets Authority exactly three months later, following a consultation.
On the same day as the sale was cleared, Global announced it would rebrand and relaunch Juice FM as part of the Capital FM network of contemporary hit radio stations. The relaunched station carries networked programming from Capital's London headquarters, although local shows continue at breakfast and drivetime on weekdays and on weekend afternoons, alongside local news bulletins.
The Juice FM brand was phased out at 4pm on Sunday 10 January 2016, with the station entering a transition period ahead of the full relaunch as Capital, which took place at 6am on Monday 18 January 2016.
Digital radio
As Juice FM, the station was not present on the Bauer-operated central Liverpool DAB multiplex, but did subsequently procure a slot on MuxCo's more recent multiplex serving Cheshire, the Wirral and northeast Wales.
Following the relaunch of Juice as Capital Liverpool, this station took the place of Capital's 97.1 FM Wirral service on Bauer Liverpool DAB. (The Wirral service is now no longer transmitted on DAB as a result of the switch.)
Transmission of Capital Liverpool in the former Juice capacity on MuxCo's multiplex continued until August 2016, when the slot was turned over to the 103.4 FM Wrexham/Chester version of Capital.
Programming
Local programming is produced and broadcast from Capital's Liverpool studios from 6-10am and 4-7pm on weekdays and 12-4pm at weekends. All other programming originates from Global Radio's London headquarters, including the syndicated Vodafone Big Top 40 on Sunday afternoons.
The station's local presenters are Adam Weighell, Gemma Cutting & Dylan Evans (Capital Breakfast), Graeme Smith & Sarah Story (weekday drivetime), Baz Todd, Liam Hincks and Anton Powers.
News
Capital Liverpool broadcasts hourly local news updates from 6am-7pm on weekdays and 6am-12pm at weekends with headlines on the half-hour during Capital Breakfast on weekdays.
The station's journalists are Chris Chambers (editor) and Anna Hodges.