Galaxy (radio network)
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| Broadcast area | Birmingham, County Durham, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Manchester, Northumberland, Glasgow for (Scotland), Tyne and Wear, Yorkshire, UK |
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| Branding | '*TSA's* No.1 Hit Music Station' |
| Slogan | The UK's No.1 Hit Music Station |
| Frequency | 100Mhz-106Mhz, DAB in some areas, Virgin Media - 919 RDS: _Galaxy_ or Galaxy__ |
| First air date | 28 April 2008 |
| Last air date | 3 January 2011 |
| Format | Rhythmic CHR |
| Language(s) | English |
| Audience share | 2.5% (December 2010, [1]) |
| Owner | Global Radio |
| Sister stations | Heart, The Hit Music Network |
| Website | Galaxy |
Galaxy was a radio network owned by Global Radio and broadcast across the British Isles on FM in regional areas of England and Scotland, through the digital platform with Sky and DAB and online respectively. Stations included stations: Galaxy Birmingham, Galaxy Manchester, Galaxy North East, Galaxy Scotland, Galaxy South Coast and Galaxy Yorkshire. Programming was networked throughout the stations from Leeds - excluding weekday breakfast/drivetime and weekend mornings. On Monday 28 April 2008, Galaxy was rebranded as a mainstream station by Creative Spark with a brand new layout including a fresh logo and a completely new show schedule.
Galaxy Scotland (formerly known as XFM Scotland), launched on Saturday 7 November 2008, and Galaxy South Coast (rebranded from Power FM), launched on Saturday 22 November 2008, as the two new radio stations to join the Galaxy Network which was part of Global Radio's plans to simplify radio stations they own and expand other radio stations across the UK.
Galaxy used RCS Selector and Master Control as its music playout system. According to RAJAR figures, Galaxy was the 7th most listened to radio station in the UK.
The network was rebranded and merged with The Hit Music Network on 3 January 2011 to form 'The Capital FM Network', comprising nine stations in London, Scotland, South East Wales, the West & East Midlands and northern & southern England broadcasting under the Capital FM identity. Local programming on the Hit Music stations is now restricted to daily breakfast and weekday drivetime shows.
The first Galaxy station, Galaxy Radio was launched in 1990 in Bristol broadcasting from studios in Portland Square on the 97.2 FM frequency. The station became a key rival to the city's GWR FM station and was operated by the Chiltern Radio Group under the "Hot FM" brand. The line up at the time included Andy Gelder, Rik Scott, Keith Francis (station manager), Andy Beeley, Tristan B, Bob Prince, Tin Tin and Roni Size. It quickly became the most successful dance music station in the UK and was reaching half of all 16 - 24 year olds in the city every week. In 1994, the station was awarded the license to broadcast on the new Severn Estuary frequency on 101 megahertz serving South Wales and the West of England areas and was rebranded as Galaxy 101. Chrysalis Radio purchased the station in 1996 and in 1997 expanded the network by buying the Faze FM operated stations which were Kiss 102 in Manchester (which became Galaxy Manchester) and Kiss 105 in Yorkshire (which became Galaxy Yorkshire) respectively. In 1998, black community station Choice FM was acquired in Birmingham and became Galaxy Birmingham. Chrysalis Radio scored another success in 1999 with the Radio Authority's award of the North East regional licence to Galaxy North East. However, Galaxy 101's success in Bristol was starting to falter, and the station was sold to the GWR Group in 2002, becoming Vibe 101 (now Kiss 101). On 7 November 2008, Xfm Scotland became Galaxy Scotland after Global Radio purchased GCap.
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