Private company

GCap Media

British radio broadcasting company

GCap Media was a British commercial radio company formed from the merger of the Capital Radio Group and GWR Group. The merger was completed on 9 May 2005. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.² Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

2005Founded¹

IndustryMedia¹
HeadquartersLondon¹

See how the biggest companies compare on our leaderboards

GCap Media was a British commercial radio company formed from the merger of the Capital Radio Group and GWR Group.²

Products and brands

This was a network of local radio stations in various towns and cities around the UK. It comprised the local stations previously part of GWR's Mix Network and the Capital Radio Group's local stations.

2CR FM (Bournemouth)

2-Ten FM (Reading)

Beacon Radio (Wolverhampton)

Read the full text

Beat 106

BRMB (Birmingham)

Radio Broadland (Norwich)

Buzz 97.1 (Wrexham)

95.8 Capital FM (London)

Champion 103 (Bangor)

96.9 Chiltern FM (Bedford)

97.6 Chiltern FM (Dunstable)

Coast 96.3 (Bangor)

Essex FM (Chelmsford)

Fox FM (Oxfordshire)

Gemini FM (Exeter & Torbay)

GWR FM Bath

GWR FM Bristol

GWR FM Wiltshire (Swindon)

Hereward FM (Peterborough)

Horizon Radio (Milton Keynes)

Invicta FM (Whitstable)

Lantern FM (Barnstaple)

Leicester Sound

Marcher Sound (Wrexham)

Mercia FM (Coventry)

Mercury FM (Crawley)

Northants 96 (Northampton)

Ocean FM (Fareham)

Orchard FM (Taunton)

Plymouth Sound

Power FM (Fareham)

Q103 (Cambridge)

RAM FM (Derby)

Red Dragon FM (Cardiff)

Severn Sound (Gloucester)

SGR Colchester

SGR Ipswich

South Hams Radio (Kingsbridge)

Southern FM (Portslade)

Ten 17 (Harlow, Essex)

Trent FM (Nottingham)

Wyvern FM (Worcester)

From Wikipedia’s article on GCap Media, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.³

Acquisitions

Pre-merger

Capital Radio Group

Capital Radio Group was, until May 2005, a London-based British radio group. The company was originally set up to operate a General Entertainment Independent Local Radio service in October 1973. Capital Radio was the second legal commercial radio station to launch in the UK, a few days after London news station LBC. In the 1980s, the station was allowed to operate separate services on the AM and FM stations.

Changes in the media ownership laws meant, that Capital Radio Group was able to acquire other stations throughout the UK, becoming a powerful player in the UK's commercial radio industry; before the merger with GWR. In 1993, Capital bought BRMB, and in 1994, the Southern Radio Group which owned Southern FM in Sussex, Invicta FM in Kent, Power FM and Ocean FM in Hampshire, Fox FM in Oxfordshire and Red Dragon FM in South Wales, were also purchased in the 90s. Capital also acquired the Century FM stations in 2000, as well as Border Television to acquire its radio stations (subsequently selling the station to Granada plc, a year later). All in all, Capital Radio Group controlled 22 analogue and 59 digital radio licences. In July 1998, Capital Radio Group bought the financially troubled "alternative" radio station, Xfm.

In the early 21st century, Capital Radio Group expanded its range of FM stations, and also started broadcasting digital-only stations, such as Capital Disney and Capital Life.

GWR Group

GWR Group was a British radio company with major assets, including the nationwide station Classic FM and an extensive network of independent local radio stations in the UK.

Read the full text

Between 1996 and 1999, GWR was a major shareholder in London News Radio, which owned and operated London's LBC and News Direct radio stations. These stations were sold to Chrysalis Radio in 2002.

GWR was owned by Daily Mail and General Trust plc (majority share), various asset management firms, Sir Peter Michael, and other small shareholders. Until the merger, the group was chaired by Ralph Bernard, and its head office was in Passage Street, Bristol.

During its existence, GWR acquired the Marcher Radio Group, Mid Anglia Radio Group, Chiltern Radio Group and East Anglian Radio Group, to name but a few.

Key dates

1981: Wiltshire Radio is founded.

1982: Wiltshire Radio begins broadcasting.

1985: Wiltshire Radio merges with Radio West to form GWR.

1987: GWR Group goes public.

1988: GWR joins Classic FM partnership.

1992: Classic FM begins broadcasting.

1996: GWR acquires full control of Classic FM.

1998: GWR wins Digital One license.

1999: Digital One begins broadcasting; launches Internet radio broadcasts.

2000: GWR acquires DMG Radio.

Programming

GWR attempted to revolutionise local radio with its policy of branding its stations with similar phrases, initially "today's better music mix", later "today's best mix" and "the best mix of the 80s, 90s and today". This was after a landmark ruling in July 1995 by The Radio Authority had given GWR permission to begin programme-networking across many of its FM stations.

By 2008, it had four main syndicated programmes: a weekday mid-morning programme which started in 2008 hosted by Phillippa Collins (this show was only carried on a few stations, when taken over by Global radio, the show was rolled out to all stations), a week-nightly music and showbiz based programme, (formerly called 'Core Control' and then 'Music Control') (weekdays 7 pm to 10 pm) presented by Kam and Sally, (Kam was replaced by Kevin Hughes), 'Late Night Love' (Sunday to Thursday 10pm to 1am) presented by Graham Torrington (later the show was replaced by 'the wind down' presented by Cat James), and Music On Demand (1am till Breakfast, 7 days a week) presented by Tony Wright (Now Celador Radio), then James Clayton and latterly Dan Wood (now Gem) and at weekends Andy Henly. On Friday and Saturday evenings, the network splits, with most stations taking Non-Stop Party (Friday 10pm to 1am) and Party Anthems (Saturday 7pm to 10pm), while the other stations take School Daze (Friday 10 pm to 1 am) and Hairbrush Divas (Saturday 7 pm to 10 pm). All stations then take a Non-Stop Party show (Saturday 10 pm to 1 am).

Classic Gold acquisition

In April 2007, GCap Media announced that it was acquiring 18 AM and DAB 'Classic Gold' radio stations from Unique Broadcasting Company Media Group. Many of these licences had formerly been operated by GWR Group before being sold to Unique. It was announced that the stations would be merged with existing Capital Gold AM licences to form a new station, Gold, which launched on 3 August 2007.

Takeover by Global Radio

The Office of Fair Trading conducted an investigation into the take-over of GCap by Global, and cleared it in August 2008, on the condition that BRMB, Beacon Radio, Mercia FM, Wyvern FM, and Heart East Midlands were sold to satisfy the competition concerns.

On 23 September 2008, it was announced that Fun Radio had been sold to Folder Media, leaving Chill as GCap's only digital station.