Capital South Coast

Radio Victory

Radio Victory launched as the first local commercial radio service in the South of England in 1975, transmitting to a small area around Portsmouth. The licence was re-advertised by the Independent Broadcasting Authority The extended licence, now to include Southampton and Winchester, was won by Ocean Sound Ltd. Radio Victory ceased operations in June 1986, a couple of weeks earlier than the expiry date of its franchise, with a test transmission informing listeners of the closure.

Ocean Sound

Ocean Sound launched on 12 October 1986 from a new purpose-built broadcast unit, built in just a year, in a business park in Segensworth West, outside Fareham, Hampshire and near the M27 motorway, a strategic location to prevent bias towards the two major cities of Southampton and Portsmouth, as well as removing association with Radio Victory, who were Portsmouth biased, however, some staff were hired from Radio Victory, such as sales managers and a Head of News.

Two services were launched, Ocean Sound (West), using 103.2 MHz FM and 1557 kHz AM covering Southampton and Winchester, and Ocean Sound (East) using 97.5 MHz FM, moving from Radio Victory's 95.0 MHz FM, and 1170 kHz AM serving Portsmouth and the surrounding area. Two stations launched, rather than one station, as then Managing Director David Lucas identified two potential audiences, the East area familiar with commercial radio (in the East area) and the West area familiar with BBC, specifically the popular BBC station, BBC Radio Solent. The East area sounded livelier and there was a more softer sound for the West. The two stations were later joined by a separate service provided for Winchester and the surrounding areas on 96.7 MHz FM, entitled Ocean Sound (North) - The Light FM, launched on 6 December 1987,

The two original stations shared daytime output with specialist programmes for each station, such as a Saturday evening Isle of Wight programme with Jean-Paul Hansford on the West station on 103.2, while Guy Hornsby's Saturday Soul Club on East, with the North service having its own programmes initially for 6am-2pm and then 5-9pm also, but relayed West at other times. The new station were well received and relevant, as suggested by slogan "We're on your wavelength."

In 1987, as part of IBA's demand to end simulcasting on FM and AM, the services were reorganised. The FM West service became The Power FM and East service became Ocean Sound, with the respective AM services becoming The Gold AM. The North service became The Light FM.

Power FM

Power FM launched on Sunday 4 December 1988 at 10 am. Power FM was designed as a direct competitor to BBC Radio 1 in the area, with a heavy rotation of chart and Top 40 pop and mainstream dance, with quick hourly news and information. The station was a music-intensive approach designed to get at the emerging demand for chart music which wasn't available locally, whereas sister station Ocean Sound now provided significantly more speech, coupled with slightly older adult contemporary music. The opening presenter line-up included Pete Wardman, Bernie Simmons, Chris Kelly, Adrian Lovett, Chris Pearson and Judy James. The launch of Power FM was one hour after that of Ocean Sound and The Gold AM so that the presenters on Power could say that they were Britain's newest radio station.

Power FM went on to become a very popular radio station, hosting many events including Power in the Park on Southampton Common. Ten in all were held between 1995 and 2004. 1997 proved to be the most popular, over 100,000 people watched Ocean Colour Scene perform live.

The stations best remembered presenter was Rick Jackson, now with Wave 105. Rick joined the station in 1996 from 2CRFM in Bournemouth, having started his career at Isle of Wight Radio as Richard Pocock.

Rick hosted the breakfast show for 11 years, firstly known as Rick's Rude Awakening, then co-hosting with Ana Schofield, Rachel Brookes and Donna Alos. Handy Andy (Andy Telling) produced the show with also featured 'street-boy' Maximum Bob. Rick moved to sister station Ocean FM before leaving altogether to join the rival regional station to host its drive time show.

Mergers and Acquisitions

In 1992, the station and its sister stations were subsequently merged with Sussex radio station Southern Sound to form Southern Radio plc, which was due to its location in a prosperous and commercially attractive area of England. The merger saw Ocean Sound and The Light FM merging to create Ocean Sound - Classic Hits, later Ocean FM, and The Gold AM and Southern Sound's AM frequencies merging to create South Coast Radio.

In 1994, Capital Radio Group, looking for expansion possibilities, purchased Southern Radio plc, which led to on-air sound changes. Whilst sister-station Ocean FM would take on a softer sound, Power FM took on Capital FM's long-established, successful and highly polished sound, with news bulletins at the top of the hour finishing with the sentence "And that's the way it is at ". In 2005, GWR and Capital Radio Group merged to form GCap Media. In 2008, GCap Media was bought by Global Radio.

Galaxy South Coast

As part of the purchase of the station by Global Radio, Ashley Tabor announced on September 16, 2008 that Power would be rebranded and become part of Global's Galaxy Radio network on 22 November 2008. The station was rebranded one day early, 21 November at 15:45, becoming Galaxy South Coast, despite listener concerns about the station networking from other areas of the UK and the reduced localness of its predecessor.

The station's share of audience dropped from 6% before the rebrand to 3.9% by May 2009.

Galaxy South Coast, as Power FM, went digital in 2003, airing on DAB digital radio in Southern Hampshire, along with sister stations Ocean FM, XFM and Gold (formerly Capital Gold), as well as Wave 105, Radio Hampshire (formerly The Saint), Traffic Radio (formerly broadcasting as Channel 9, which included Capital Disney, Southampton Hospital Radio and South City FM) and BBC Radio Solent.

In addition to airing on the former Power FM slot on the South Hampshire DAB multiplex, 2009 saw Galaxy South Coast added to DAB in Bournemouth, Cornwall, Kent, Exeter/Torbay, Plymouth and Sussex Coast, replacing chillout station Chill in these areas; at the same time, a number of other DAB areas switched away from Chill to carry Galaxy stations (generally Galaxy Digital).

103.2 Capital

The station was rebranded as 103.2 Capital FM on 3 January 2011 as part of a merger of Global Radio's Galaxy and Hit Music networks to form the nine-station Capital radio network. Current breakfast presenters Zoe Hanson and Paul Gillies retained their jobs with the relaunched station while Adam Inker moved from his weekday afternoon timeslot to host drivetime. The new station also saw the introduction of a new presenter of weekend mornings, Christian Williams, the former weekend overnight Hit Music network presenter based at Trent FM in Nottingham. The "FM" has since been dropped on air and is simply known as 103.2 Capital.

Capital broadcasts local news updates seven days a week - weekday bulletins air half-hourly between 5am and 9am, then hourly from 9am to 7pm. At the weekend, local news is broadcast hourly between 6am and 12pm.

Capital Breakfast

The localised flagship programme airs weekdays from 06:00 until 10:00 on Capital South Coast, titled Capital Breakfast, It is now presented by Jono Holmes replacing Tom Deacon) and Emma Jo Real-Davis who took over in July 2015. Tom Deacon left in December 2016 after 18 months to go back to comedy. Paul Gillies and Emily Segal previously were the presenters until June 2015. Gillies joined the station, as Power FM, in September 2007, having previously had worked at Capital London. Segal replaced Zoe Hanson in January 2013, who moved to present on South Coast sister station Heart.

Until November 2010, They were joined by Mark 'Sparky' Colerangle a second co-presenter and travel reader. Traffic reports are broadcast every fifteen minutes from the Travel Centre between 6.30am until 9am, with drivers calling in to alert listeners of any problems, as well as Roadcrew reports from the Thunders. Travel previously took place from the Flying Eye, sponsored by O2, which flew at 2500 feet above the South of England in a light aircraft based at Southampton Airport. For many years in the mid 1990s, the Flying Eye reporter was Spencer Kelly (real name Spencer Bignell), known as Commander Kelly, who went on to present Ocean FM breakfast and now presents Click on the BBC News Channel.

The show was previously presented by Rick Jackson, the longest-serving member of the show, joining in 1996, Ana Schofield. Rachel Brookes later replaced by Donna Alos, and Bob Diggles, known on air as Maximum Bob, until July 2007. Another regular member of the team was Handy Andy the Producer, an "expert" guitar player, who organised an unofficial song for England during Euro 2004, sold in shops across Hampshire.

Live Events

Power Amped was a series of three rock-style concerts held by the radio station at Southampton Guildhall as a successor to Power in the Park.

In 2008, Power FM had another live event, Power Jam.

As Galaxy South Coast:

As Galaxy South Coast & 103.2 Capital:

More recently they have had a presence at, and had ticket giveaways for local festivals Bestival, Isle of Wight Festival and Common People Festival. And new for 2016, a Halloween themed night "Capital's Monster Mash Up" and "Up close with Capital" featuring Justin Timberlake.

Slogans