Capital Gold - Medley

As FM became universally available at last, radio’s then regulator the IBA, gave the ILR franchisees an ultimatum. AM and FM had to be used separately if a licence holder were to retain both licences.

A few stations enthusiastically began experiments in occasional splitting: 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.

With concept ‘proven’, mechanically at least, stations moved to identify permanent alternative formats for AM, with many choosing oldies, with more than a nod to the stations which had spun the very same songs as new releases, as Tony Blackburn relates here.

County Sound launched County Sound Gold in June 1988, replete with re-sings of familiar PAMS jingles. GEM.AM in the East Midlands came second in October 1988, and was the first to be a full 24 hour alternative. Capital Gold entered the fray in November 1988, and proved a home for a whole host of slightly greying, familiar talent, displaced from trendy FM. Who else but the likes of Blackburn and Burnett, David Hamilton and, as heard here, dear Kenny. Meanwhile, other stations, like Manchester’s Piccadilly, chose to launch a new format on FM instead, and thus Key was born in September 1998.

The AM oldies stations attracted huge audiences. In fact, with the oldies spice and spirit sucked out of the FM counterparts, and, in some cases, a lurch too far to hot CHR, a Heart-shaped AC hole was left between. There then followed a generation of format-hopping for ILR’s first tier, as more focussed music brands attacked sectors of the audience once casually owned by those ‘heritage’ stations. Just maybe so many of today’s toughest programming challenges are really all the fault of Martha Reeves. And Dusty.