Capital South Wales

Capital South Wales is a regional radio station owned by Communicorp and operated by Global as part of the Capital network. It broadcasts to Cardiff, Newport and the surrounding areas from studios in Cardiff Bay.[1]

Capital South Wales
CityCardiff
Broadcast areaSouth East Wales
Frequency
  • DAB: 12C NOW SE Wales
  • FM: 97.4 MHz Gwent
  • FM: 103.2 MHz Glamorgan
  • RDS: Capital
Branding97.4/103.2 Capital FM
SloganSouth Wales' No.1 Hit Music Station
Programming
FormatContemporary hit radio
Ownership
OwnerCommunicorp
OperatorGlobal Radio
History
First air date11 April 1980 (1980-04-11)
Links
WebcastGlobal Player
Websitewww.capitalfm.com/southwales/

History
Red Dragon displayed on a RDS car radio

The station originally took to the air in Cardiff only. Known as CBC (Cardiff Broadcasting Company), the station launched on 11 April 1980 on broadcasting on 96.0 MHz FM and 1359 kHz AM. Following the closure of neighbouring Gwent Broadcasting in April 1985, CBC began relaying its service as a temporary measure to southern Gwent on 104.0 MHz FM and 1305 kHz AM. This became permanent when CBC re-launched as Red Dragon Radio on 14 October 1985. Initially, there were separate drivetime shows for Glamorgan and Gwent, but these were dropped for a single service by the early 1990s.

Simulcasting on 1305 kHz and 1359 kHz AM ended in 1990, with the launch of Touch AM. Those frequencies are now used by the Smooth Radio network.

On 3 January 2011, the station was rebranded from Red Dragon Radio to Capital South Wales as part of a merger of owners Global's Hit Music and Galaxy networks to form the Capital FM network. On 6 February 2014, Global Radio announced it would be selling Capital South Wales to Communicorp. Capital's network programming and brand name are retained under a franchise agreement. Global's Heart Wales station shares facilities at the Capital studios in Cardiff Bay.[2]

On 26 February 2019, Global confirmed the station's local breakfast and weekend shows would be replaced with networked programming from April 2019. The weekday drivetime show was retained alongside news bulletins, traffic updates and advertising.[3]

Coverage area

Initially, CBC broadcast to Cardiff on 96.0 MHz and Newport on 104.0 MHz FM. These frequencies were switched to 103.2 MHz and 97.4 MHz respectively in 1987, following a national reorganisation of UK FM frequencies.

The 103.2 MHz signal, which is the stronger of the two, comes from the transmitter at Wenallt near Cardiff, with the 97.4 MHz signal being transmitted from Christchurch in Newport. The signals reach as far out as the South Wales Valleys to the north and part of Bridgend to the west.[4]

Capital South Wales also broadcasts on the NOW Digital South East Wales DAB multiplex and online.

Programming

All networked programming originates from Global's London headquarters, including Capital Breakfast with Roman Kemp. Local programming is produced and broadcast from Global's Cardiff Bay studios from 4-7pm,[5] presented by Josh Andrews and Kally Davies.

News

Global's Newsroom broadcasts hourly regional news updates from 5am-7pm on weekdays and 8am-12 midday at weekends with headlines on the half-hour during Capital Breakfast on weekdays.

The bulletins are produced for Communicorp by Global's Cardiff Bay newsroom, which also produces bulletins for Heart South Wales, Heart North Wales and Smooth Wales.[6]

Former presenters
gollark: Yes, probably.
gollark: Lines are a *terrible* metric for actual customisation.
gollark: There are probably better ways.
gollark: *kind
gollark: I'm king of worried that I'll have no chance of running this.

References
  1. Broadcast Radio MCAs maps
  2. Martin, Roy (6 February 2014). "Communicorp buys 8 Global stations". Radio Today. Retrieved 6 February 2014.
  3. Martin, Roy (11 March 2019). "Roman Kemp, Vick Hope and Sonny Jay to go national on Capital". Radio Today. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
  4. http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/radiolicensing/mcamaps/al000020.pdf
  5. Capital FM – South Wales public file
  6. Capital FM – South Wales public file
  7. Dave Kelly to replace Neil Fitzmaurice at Radio City Archived 2 August 2012 at Archive.today at How-do.co.uk
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