Float My Boat, Capital (Capital 95.8 FM)

Member Name: chriswotton

Product:	Capital 95.8 FM
Date:	23/07/03 (227 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fantastic Variety Of Music & Shows, Friendly, Interesting DJs, Great Competitions

Disadvantages: Songs Sometimes Repeated A Little Too Often, Advert Breaks Are Often

On the radio in the kitchen, on the radio in my bedroom, on the alarm clock in my bedroom, and on my Sky Digital telly on channel 925. These are the four place in my house where Capital FM will regularly be found blaring out the top chart hits.

Capital is a part of a group of radio stations that broadcasts across the country, but Capital FM is devoted specifically to London quite obviously, hence the name. They play a variety of music types from current charts and some older tracks too.

95.8 Capital FM offer a nice range of radio shows that offer a varied taste in music, whether you want to be woken up gently but with a laugh in the morning from Who Wants To Be A Millionaire star Chris Tarrant and his radio sidekick former BBC Newsround presenter Becky Jago, or whether you want to listen in on Margherita Taylor's unmissable morning mix of the latest tunes and all her regular entertainment updates. Then there's the Big Drive Home with Foxy who's absolutely fantastic - tonnes of competitions, hot music and regular news updates along with travel from the mad woman travelling above the City in a helicopter! The variety of what goes on at Capital just goes on and on, and I haven't even mentioned shows like pop star Danii Minogue's weekly dance music show Neon Nights or Schooly's shows.

It is true, to an extent, to say that the DJs at Capital tend to repeat songs on the station and it is not unusual to hear the same song quite a lot and very frequently. But I'm the sort of person who's happy to buy a CD and stick it on repeat for half an hour, so that really doesn't bother me. My past radio station was also Heart 106.2, and there not only do they only play like 45 second clips of songs and not the whole thing (presumably to cut down on royalty payouts) but they also repeat songs worse than anywhere else on the globe! I once heard two songs repeated four times around each other, consecutively!

Even if
Capital do repeat songs, it's because they're the songs that their listeners want to hear! They not only run Total Request Lunchtime, the kind of thing most stations do where listeners can phone in and request songs (and on Heart I swear it's a fix because I e-mailed in and requested a song for my mum, so they read out the message but never played the song!) but Capital also do online surveys to see what songs people like and whether they're bored of hearing them already, so that they can decide what to get their DJs to play in the future.

Capital FM runs amazing competitions, whether it's winning tickets to their unmissable annual charity concert Party In The Park in London's Hyde Park, or their current competition running for a couple of weeks which is All Day Triple Play, where they tell you three songs they're going to play, and you win £500 if you hear one, £1000 if you hear two and £5000 if you hear all three and call in. It's also possible to double whatever you've won by gambling it and answering an easy music-related question on-air. But, of course, answer it wrong and lose everything.

I read a review on here a few minutes ago which was basically slagging Capital off all round and, apart from making me realise that I had to delve in and defend my favourite radio station to the best of my ability, it also mentioned that because they repeat songs a little, there's no room for sparking new talent and alternative music tastes. I have Capital on in the background now and what I'm listening to is someone I've heard of before, because he's new to the music scene and his first single comes out on Monday. I love the song and might actually buy it, so don't accuse them of not playing new talent!

And I'm not the only one who's favourite radio station is, since it is London's number one hit music radio station. 95.8 Capital FM, sounding out London. London's never sounded
better...

Summary: