GCap Media

GCap Media plc is a British commercial radio company formed from the merger of the Capital Radio Group and GWR Group. The merger was completed in May 2005. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

For the first five months the group was run by Ralph Bernard (ex-GWR) as Executive Chairman, and David Mansfield (ex-Capital Radio Group) as CEO. David Mansfield stepped down on the afternoon of September 19th 2005, with Ralph Bernard taking over both roles.

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 AM and FM.

Changes to 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, 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.

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.

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 allowed it to syndicate a number of programmes across its network of radio stations. It currently has four main syndicated programmes: Music Control (previously Core Control, weekdays 7pm to 10pm (and 7 to 9 on Fridays)), Late Night Love (Sunday to Thursday 10pm to 1am) presented by Graham Torrington, Party Friday/Saturday (previously Vibe Nation and then Ministry of Sound) presented by Howard Ritchie (Friday and Saturday nights) and James Clayton (Music on Demand) on Monday to Thursday overnights. The stations are usually the commercial market leader in the areas in which they operate, and GWR enjoyed much financial success as a result.

GCAP - The Merger

The two groups officially tied the knot in May 2005, with GCap employees being given branded 'GCap' digital radios to commemorate the launch. Within weeks of the merger rumours abounded about disagreements between Executive Chairman Ralph Bernard and Chief Executive David Mansfield about the future direction of the company and this was compounded by a £184m loss in the stock market capitalisation of the two combined entities by the time merger was sealed. Many market commentators felt that the savings brought about by cost cutting and elimination of duplicated departments across the company were far outweighed by large drops in audience and advertising revenue across the newly formed group. Over the following months, amid rumours of a GWR putsch and continuing dissatisfaction from the City, a stream of executives from the former Capital Radio Group side of the business left the company, including David Mansfield himself.

Restructure and the 'failed sale'

In October 2005, GCap Media announced around 100 job losses and the sale of nine non-core radio stations as part of a restructuring initiative. By this time, over £300m had been wiped off the market capitalisation of GCap Media and the group was frequently touted as a take over target by City commentators. The nine stations, which included the Marcher Group stations in North Wales and Orchard FM in the West Country, came with a price tag of £75m. Eventually, after bids as low as £25m were placed and interest waned, GCap Media called off the sale.

As for programming, some of the former stations owned by the Capital group are now taking some of the networked programmes that previously ran exclusively to GWR stations. All ex-Capital stations except Capital FM now take Late Night Love, and a small number of these stations now take Music On Demand either during the week or at the weekend (or both), and BRMB takes Party Friday/Saturday. On the other hand, many of the One Network stations, particularly those on the old GWR side with slightly older audiences, have either dropped the Party show on the Friday, the Saturday, or both. Instead they are taking networked programmes from Century FM Network (owned by Capital at the time of the GCap merger) from Century FM's Manchester studios. On Friday nights they have Skool Daze with David Heane, which is purely 80s tunes, while on Saturday nights some take Hairbrush Divas with Jo Lloyd, a show focused on sing-along tunes like Duran Duran, Sister Sledge, Kylie Minogue, etc. All former One Network stations take a show called Entertainment Weekly (formerly Seven) from Capital Radio studios on a Sunday evening, along with Cash Call, a premium phone-in quiz show on Sunday nights and the Vodafone Live Hour on Monday nights, a one hour show focusing on live music.