 | |
| Broadcast area | United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Frequency | DAB:11D |
| Branding | The UK's Official Dance Station |
| Programming | |
| Language | English |
| Format | Electronic dance music |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Global |
| Capital Chill | |
| History | |
First air date | 1 October 2020 (2020-10-01) |
| Links | |
| Website | https://capitaldance.com |
Capital Dance is a national digitalradio station in the United Kingdom, owned and operated byGlobal and run as a spin-off fromCapital. The station broadcasts from studios atLeicester Square in London alongside its siblings Capital,Capital Xtra and Capital Chill. The station predominantly plays contemporary and currentelectronic dance music. Capital Dance broadcasts nationally, transmitted onDigital One in the DAB+ format, and online. To enable the addition of the station to Digital One, several other Global stations on the platform, including Capital UK, Heart UK,Capital XTRA Reloaded,Gold andHeart 70s, saw a reduction in their broadcast bandwidth.
As of May 2025, the station broadcasts to a weekly audience of 1.052 million, according toRAJAR.[1]
The station's launch at 4 pm on 1 October 2020[2] followed both the establishment in 2019 of Global'sHeart Dance as an older-skewing classic and contemporary dance and rhythmic music station, and the decision to reorientateCapital Xtra back towards predominantly playing Black and urban music genres. One week after the launch of Capital Dance, theBBC Radio 1 Dance stream was launched onBBC Sounds; the BBC's plans for this had been announced before Capital Dance was revealed.
Following the successful launch of the station, a breakfast show hosted byRio Fredrika was added to the station schedule from 4 January 2021,[3] with former KISS presenter Charlie Powell joining the station as well.[4] Later, in July 2021, shows hosted by Karen Nyame (known on-air as KG) and Jess Bays were added to the schedule.[5]
As part of schedule changes across the whole of the Capital network in October 2022,[6] Matty Chiabi, Meg McHugh, and Zofia all joined the station as presenters. At the same time,Rio Fredrika left Capital Dance to present a weekday show onCapital UK, with Charlie Powell taking over the breakfast show slot.[6]
On 31 October 2023, Capital Dance announced that a new show would launch on Friday and Saturday nights called Club Capital Dance, hosted by two new presenters, Sam Lavery and Sarah Devine.[7] This replaced the Capital Weekender, which still airs onCapital UK.
A revised schedule from February 2025 saw Sam Lavery move to the Capital Weekender and Sarah Devine to Capital Dance weekday afternoons, with cover presenters Max Tyler and Hannah Rose hired to take over Club Capital Dance on weekend evenings permanently.[8]