Capital, first AM/FM split - 1986
Episode 111, Aug 29, 2011, 10:29 PM
As FM became universally available at last, the Home Office gave some ILR franchisees the chance to participate in an AM/FM splitting experiment. Until then, the two wavebands had transmitted the same programming for each station; and the regulator was reluctant to agree to any departures.
The question was what to do. Create something new on FM? Or on AM? Where do you leave the heritage brand? And should your new offering be older - or younger in appeal? For the first time, stations were creating their own competition. Another unknown was where the audience lay. At Trent, a phone experiment (different phone numbers for a competition question) discovered that well over 80% of listeners responded to FM.
Six stations experimented: some with Welsh programming, others with classical music. Leicester Sound broadcast experiments in evening Asian programming; Clyde tried out a weekend ‘Clyde FM’ alternative to ‘Radio Clyde’; and Capital tried a weekend CFM as can be heard here from 95.8 on May 4th 1986: "May the 4th be with you".
Once the regulator's curiosity had been sated, and the facts uncovered of AM/FM habits, it then applied pressure to all licensees to split their frequencies - 'use it or lose it..
Capital's ultimate split in July 1988 (weekends) before a full time split later that year - was, like much of the industry, a split into a gold oldies format on AM and a contemporary service on FM. Capital Gold was not the first gold format station.
Six stations experimented: some with Welsh programming, others with classical music. Leicester Sound broadcast experiments in evening Asian programming; Clyde tried out a weekend ‘Clyde FM’ alternative to ‘Radio Clyde’; and Capital tried a weekend CFM as can be heard here from 95.8 on May 4th 1986: "May the 4th be with you".
Once the regulator's curiosity had been sated, and the facts uncovered of AM/FM habits, it then applied pressure to all licensees to split their frequencies - 'use it or lose it..
Capital's ultimate split in July 1988 (weekends) before a full time split later that year - was, like much of the industry, a split into a gold oldies format on AM and a contemporary service on FM. Capital Gold was not the first gold format station.