Capital Radio Malta - Station's History

Station's History

Originally, the broadcasting licence was awarded to Alt Services, an organisation created by Alternattiva Demokratika, a nascent local political party that espouses environmentally responsible policies. In fact the radio station, originally called "Radju Alternattiva," started out as a political radio station, competing with other local political radios such as Radio 101 and the state's radio stations.

On July 1, 1998 the radio station changed its name to "Capital Radio", significantly toned down its political activities, and focused more on 80s music. In time, political broadcasts ceased entirely.

At the time, the management of the radio station was in the hands of Mediacoop Ltd, a media cooperative. Mediacoop's director is John Mallia, who is a leading exponent of Alternattiva Demokratika. In July 2005, Mediacoop bought the station's license from its previous owners Alt Services and so came to own the station as well. Since October 2005 Capital Radio has been housed in a state of the art complex in St. Ursula Street, Valletta.

Mediacoop stopped broadcasting as of 00:00 of Wednesday, 1 April 2009, after it agreed to transfer its broadcasting license to new operators. Mediacoop said that it wanted to focus more on other aspects of its commercial portafolio. Since then, Capital Radio has been transmitting non-stop music from all pop generes from the 80s up to the 00s.