| City of license | Manchester |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Greater Manchester, Cheshire, Merseyside |
| Branding | 102 Capital |
| Slogan | Manchester's No.1 Hit Music Station |
| Frequency | 102 MHz, DAB, Online |
| First air date | 16 October 1994 |
| Format | Contemporary hit radio |
| Audience share | 6.5% (October 2010, [1]) |
| Owner | Global Radio |
| Sister stations | Capital Birmingham Capital East Midlands Capital London Capital North East Capital Scotland Capital South Coast Capital South Wales Capital Yorkshire |
| Website | Capital Manchester |
Capital Manchester is a Manchester, England radio station owned by the Global Radio as part of the nine-station Capital network specialising in mainstream music. The station broadcasts from studios at Exchange Quay, Salford.
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The transmitter is on top of the City Tower (the former Sunley Building) in Piccadilly in Manchester, the same place as 106.1 Rock Radio and Xfm's transmitter and all 3 services share the same broadcast antenna system which is located on the centre tower and is illuminated with red Aircraft warning lights at night.
The 102 MHz frequency in Manchester has a chequered background, initially it was occupied by Sunset 102 which included regular shows from house music innovators 808 state and a Saturday evening rave show from Sammy B; both were cited by Dave Haslam in City Life to have been instrumental in reflecting and developing the early rave culture in the city. However, due to occasional threats of violence on air and other breaches of the licence the station was closed.
The licence was readvertised and quickly won by Faze FM who launched Kiss 102 on 16 October 1994. The licence win was spearheaded by Eugene Perera's Level Broadcast, aided by Mike Powell's Infinity Radio consultancy, and included shareholders UKRD, Eastern Counties Newspaper Group and 3i.
The station became a victim of its own success when months after opening a second station, the Yorkshire regional Kiss 105, the station's board accepted a £17.6 million takeover bid from the Chrysalis Group for a company that had cost just £600k to set up three years earlier.
Chrysalis rebranded the station as Galaxy, 11 days after transfer of ownership, as a direct result of EMAP, the Kiss brand owners, refusal to franchise the Kiss name to Chrysalis. The music policy was toned down, integrating R'n'B into the playlist and disspensing with many of the specialist programmes and presenters. Nevertheless their investment in advertising and change of music policy was able to grow the audience further.
The station was rebranded as Capital on 3 January 2011 as part of a merger of Global Radio's Galaxy and Hit Music networks to form the nine-station Capital network.[1]
The station's former breakfast presenter Simon Nicks, referred to on-air as Nicksy, left his position in September 2005 and has presented an overnight show on rival station Key 103. He was replaced by former BBC Radio 1 Top 40 chart show presenter Wes Butters in November 2005 who was moved to the station's afternoon slot in June 2006 and replaced by Rob Ellis.
Breakfast presenter Rob Ellis and drivetime presenter Sally Hudson retain their jobs and present the only locally produced programmes alongside weekend mornings output with redeployed Galaxy network presenter Any Payne on a Saturday and Hudson on a Sunday. The majority of networked programming is carried from Capital studios at Leicester Square, London with overnight specialist output at weekends from sister stations Capital in Glasgow and Capital in Birmingham.[2]
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For others on Sunset & Kiss see relevant pages.
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