Editing Capital Manchester (section)

==History==

The 102&nbsp;MHz frequency in Manchester has a chequered background. Initially it was occupied by [[Sunset 102]] which included regular shows from [[house music]] innovators [[808 State]] and a Saturday evening [[rave]] show from Sammy B; both were cited by [[Dave Haslam]] in City Life to have been instrumental in reflecting and developing the early rave culture in the city. However, due to occasional threats of violence on air and other breaches of the licence the station was closed.

The licence was re-advertised and quickly won by [[Faze FM]] who launched [[Kiss 102]] on 16 October 1994. The licence win was spearheaded by Eugene Perera's Level Broadcast, aided by [[Mike Powell (UK radio entrepreneur)|Mike Powell]]'s Infinity Radio consultancy, and included shareholders [[UKRD Group|UKRD]], Eastern Counties Newspaper Group and [[3i]]. Gary Burton, who had presented at [[Radio Trent]] for much of the 1980s and early 1990s, was Kiss 102's first breakfast presenter.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.justin-case.co.uk/simon/gburton.htm|title=GARY BURTON|website=www.justin-case.co.uk|access-date=2018-09-25}}[https://letsgomanchester.com]</ref>

The station became a victim of its own success when just months after opening a second station, [[Kiss 105]] in Yorkshire, the station's board accepted a £17.6 million takeover bid from the [[Chrysalis Group]] in 1996 for a company that had cost just £600k to set up three years earlier.

Chrysalis rebranded the station as Galaxy 102 in 1997. Eleven days after the transfer of ownership, as a direct result of EMAP, the Kiss brand owners refused to franchise the Kiss name to Chrysalis. The music policy was toned down, integrating R'n'B into the playlist and dispensing with many of the specialist programmes and presenters. Nevertheless, their investment in advertising and change of music policy was able to grow the audience further.

The station was rebranded as Capital on 3 January 2011 as part of a merger of Global Radio's [[Galaxy (radio network)|Galaxy]] and [[The Hit Music Network|Hit Music]] networks to form the nine-station Capital network.<ref>[http://www.brandrepublic.com/news/1028137/Global-Radio-takes-Capital-national/?DCMP=ILC-SEARCH Global Radio takes Capital national], Brand Republic, 13 September 2010</ref>

On 1 June 2017, local programming moved from Salford to new studios at the XYZ Building in the Spinningfields district of Manchester City Centre. Capital Manchester shares facilities with sister station [[Heart North West]] and two [[Communicorp]]-owned stations, [[Smooth North West]] and [[Radio X (United Kingdom)#Radio X 90s|Radio X 90s]].

On 26 February 2019, Global confirmed the station would be merged with [[2BR]] in East and Central Lancashire. As of April 2019, local output consists of a three-hour Drivetime show on weekdays, alongside news bulletins, traffic updates and advertising.<ref>[https://radiotoday.co.uk/2019/02/lancashires-2br-to-join-capitals-new-national-radio-network/ Lancashire’s 2BR to join Capital’s new national radio network], RadioToday, 26 February 2019</ref> Capital Manchester's local breakfast and weekend shows were replaced with network programming from London.