Mark Findlay – programme director and head of music at Capital's Scottish pop dance station Beat 106 - is to move to the Capital Group's London HQ in a bid to revamp Capital FM's flagging music policy. As listening figures continue to fall for Capital's flagship London station they admitted earlier this year their music policy had become far to pop focussed. Findlay, whose Beat 106 playlists have proved popular North of the border, will have the task of finding a more interesting yet user-friendly music mix. He will take over the music duties of former Radio 1 music guy Jeff Smith, who left his cross-Group music role at Capital earlier this year.
Talking about his new job Findlay told reporters: "I'm looking forward to working closely with the network programme controllers, cementing strong working relationships with record companies and promoters across the music industry that will be beneficial to both the Capital FM Network and the UK music industry as a whole."
Findlay – formerly a flagship presenter at Edinburgh station Forth FM – joined Beat 106 shortly after it was acquired by the Capital group. Originally billed as Scotland’s Xfm when launched as an independent, Beat 106 quickly went down the dance route. When Capital bought the station many expected them to roll out the brand elsewhere in the country to compete with dance stations Kiss and Galaxy. Although they awarded the station the same musical autonomy as Xfm in London they are yet to transfer the Beat brand outside Scotland's central belt.