| Broadcast area | Birmingham, County Durham, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Manchester, Northumberland, Scotland, Tyne and Wear, Yorkshire, UK |
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| Branding | '*TSA's* No.1 Hit Music Station' |
| Frequency | 100Mhz-106Mhz, DAB in some areas, Virgin Media - 919 RDS: _Galaxy_ or Galaxy__ |
| Format | Rhythmic CHR |
| Language | English |
| Audience share | 4.6% (May 2009, [1]) |
| Owner | Global Radio |
| Sister stations | The Heart Network, The Hit Music Network |
| Website | Galaxy |
The Galaxy Network was a radio station brand owned by Global Radio and broadcast across the British Isles on FM in regional areas of England and Scotland, through the digital platform with Sky and DAB and online respectively. The Galaxy Network included stations: Galaxy Birmingham, Galaxy Manchester, Galaxy North East, Galaxy Scotland, Galaxy South Coast and Galaxy Yorkshire. Excluding Breakfast and Drive, all Galaxy shows were networked between all stations. On Monday 28 April 2008, Galaxy was rebranded as a mainstream station by Creative Spark with a brand new layout including a fresh logo and a completely new show schedule.
Galaxy Scotland (formerly known as XFM Scotland), launched on Saturday 7 November 2008, and Galaxy South Coast (rebranded from Power FM), launched on Saturday 22 November 2008, as the two new radio stations to join the Galaxy Network which was part of Global Radio's plans to simplify radio stations they own and expand other radio stations across the UK.
Galaxy used RCS Selector and Master Control as its music playout system. According to RAJAR figures, Galaxy was the 7th most listened to radio station in the UK.
The network was rebranded and merged with The Hit Music Network on 3 January 2011 to form the 'The Capital FM Network', comprising nine stations in London, Scotland, South East Wales, the West & East Midlands and northern & southern England broadcasting under the Capital FM identity.[1] Local programming on the Hit Music stations is now restricted to daily breakfast and weekday drivetime shows.
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The first Galaxy radio station, Galaxy 101, was launched in 1990 in South West England broadcasting from Bristol and was operated under the Chiltern Radio Group. 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 FM was available on Sky channel 0112 and Virgin Media channel 919.
On Friday 21 March 2008, the radio station has 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".
In 2007, Galaxy released a three disk box set called Galaxy Dance Anthems featuring 50 club classics.
The first chart Galaxy Radio broadcast was Hit40UK. After this, the Fresh 40 chart was broadcast across the brand, but soon after the chart was cancelled. A replacement chart, The Galaxy 40, was introduced and produced by Galaxy Radio. It was networked across all Galaxy radio stations. The chart show was produced and made up of the latest and most popular dance, RnB/Rap and pop hits from Galaxy stations and the public. The Galaxy 40 did its last show on Sunday 7 June 2009, leaving the commercial Big Top 40 Show to take over the airwaves, although unlike the Fresh 40 and the Galaxy 40, Big Top 40 is based on iTunes downloads and airplay. The official UK Top 10 is also available, on each station website, but not announced on air.
After Michael Jackson's death was announced, Galaxy tributed by playing Michael Jackson songs every 4-6 songs played. Andi Durrant also produced a 10 minute mini mix / mash up of Jacksons biggest hits. On 28 June, after The Big Top 40 Show, Galaxy aired a 1 hour Michael Jackson tribute known as Michael Jackson the 'King of Pop'. This was basically a 1 hour run through of his life from Jackson 5 up to his death.
The Galaxy Network schedule in December 2010 was:
Monday–Friday
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Friday variation
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Saturday
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Sunday
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On 3 January 2011, The Galaxy Network and The Hit Music Network merged to create The Capital FM Network, with the branding of “95 – 106 Capital FM, The UK’s No.1 Hit Music Station” but the stations ID locally as [freq] Capital FM. Local news hours have been extended and local advertising remains locally sold. All programming, with the exception of Capital Breakfast, The Home Run and weekend mornings, originates from Capital FM studios in Leicester Square, London. Specialist dance music programming remains during weekend overnights.
Howard Ritchie[3] and Kelly Ann Smith[4] are the voice over artists for Capital FM.