Capital Radio, London
Capital
Radio is 28 years old this year, and to celebrate,
vintage broadcasting has several pages, filled with Capital memories.
A special "Thank You" goes to all the contributors that made these
pages possible.
Capital Radio won the franchise for the London "general entertainment"
station,
and started broadcasting at 05:00 on the 16th Of October 1973.
They were the first station to broadcast nearly all programmes in stereo
from their launch date. The VHF frequency has always been 95.8Mhz.
In
those days, Capital Radio sounded very different to Capital FM and Capital
Gold today.
The
IBA were very keen that the new stations did not sound like the 'pirates'
of the 1960's.
The early schedules of Capital contained drama, daily serials, specialist
programmes
and for a time, Capital sponsored the Wren Orchestra
and their concerts were recorded for transmission.
The
first building occupied by Capital Radio was in Piccadilly, facing Green Park.
A few weeks before going 'on air', they moved to Euston Tower,
opposite Warren Street station, and in the 1990's,
Capital Radio moved to Leicester Square, next to the Odeon cinema.
When the
station started broadcasting, the Medium Wave frequency was 557Khz / 539m.
This
frequency was also in use by Radio Veronica,
transmitting from International Waters off the coast of Holland.
On
the 31st August 1974, Radio Veronica closed at 18:00 and during that afternoon
the modulation on Capital's Medium Wave frequency got weaker and weaker,
so by 17:50, Radio Veronica was audible again in London.
Capital
Radio sound clips
The
first day's playlist of Capital Radio
Capital
Radio printed promotion material
Mike Childs remembers pre-launch days at Capital Radio