Less Than Capital

The latest set of radio audience figures are going to make grim reading for GCap, as their flagship station, Capital, has sunk badly. The once-impregnable FM network is now the fourth-placed commercial station in London, having been bested by not just Magic and Heart, but also by Kiss. Johnny Vaughan's breakfast show is feeling Neil Fox's Magic breakfast snapping at its heels. GCap's Fru Hazlitt is trying not to panic:

Fru Hazlitt, the GCap London managing director, said Capital was still in the process of transition from "the Capital of the past to the Capital of the future".

"The positive is that we have done pretty well with 15- to 34-year-olds. We have shed a number of our 45-pluses," said the former Virgin Radio chief executive who joined GCap three months ago.

"It is not an easy process to transform a station that has basically become your parents' brand into a contemporary hit music station. The fact that actually we are still up there is testament to the power of the brand.

"There is no easy path and I knew that when I joined."

To be fair, she has a point - Capital's malaise is down to years of not being quite sure how to refresh the network, but we don't remember her announcing her plan as being to destroy the place before rebuilding.