Capital Liverpool streams contemporary hit radio into Merseyside at 107.6 FM, the current identity of a station that started life as a restricted-license broadcast backed by two unlikely patrons: Bob Geldof and Boy George.
Crash FM to Juice to Capital
The station launched as Crash FM in 1995, running on a temporary restricted service license built around alternative music, according to Wikipedia. It went full-time on 107.6 FM in 1998 with backing from Bob Geldof and Boy George, then rebranded as Juice 107.6 in 2000 and held that name for the next sixteen years while passing through the hands of Forever Broadcasting, Absolute Radio, and UTV Media.
A Sale Into the UK's Biggest Hit Radio Chain
Global Radio bought the station from UTV Media and folded it into the Capital network as Capital Liverpool in 2016. The Capital brand itself dates to January 3, 2011, when Global relaunched a string of local stations under one national identity; the network now runs twelve stations across the UK, ten of them owned outright by Global according to Wikipedia's history of the network.
Local Drivetime, National Breakfast
Since 2019, Capital Liverpool has carried Global's national breakfast show, hosted by Jordan North, Sian Welby, and Chris Stark out of London, rather than local hosts, while keeping its own drivetime programming and local news distinct. That split, network mornings paired with a local afternoon voice, is now standard across most of the Capital chain, alongside network-wide staples like The Official Big Top 40 on Sundays.
Why Tune In
Capital Liverpool carries three decades of Merseyside radio history under a single, polished national brand, from Crash FM's celebrity-backed launch to its current run as Liverpool's No.1 Hit Music Station. For listeners who want chart hits with a local drivetime voice still in the mix, it splits the difference between hyperlocal and national radio.