The launch and growth of Capital Radio The beginning of #CapitalRadioHistory starts in London, where the Capital station was launched as an alternative to the BBC monopoly that had owned the airwaves since the beginning of UK broadcasting. Capital Radio owns channels like #CapitalFM, which currently has more than 3 million regular listeners spread across the London area alone.
Capital Radio first launched in 1973, about 16 years after the British government banned some of the first commercial stations and pirate radio companies. It was those pirate radio stations, floating off the coast of Britain, that helped to shape the radio environment in the years to come, prompting the arrival of BBC 1, and stations like Capital FM that followed the Radio 1 Top 40 format.
Capital Radio was one of the first companies in the UK broadcasting world to operate on revenue collected from advertising and promotional packages.
