Luton FM

Luton FM is a student radio station, managed, produced and presented by students at the Luton town centre campus of the University of Bedfordshire in Luton, Bedfordshire (formerly known as the University of Luton).

Introduction

The station's initial day - May 1 1997 was overshadowed by more national events. Each year throughout May, Luton FM broadcasts on 87.9FM from a transmitter in Farley Hill, Luton. The studio and production area was based in the School of Media, Art and Design within the Luton campus of the University of Bedfordshire. Luton FM also broadcasts on the internet from the station's website. http://www.lutonandbedsradio.com/

Personnel

The station is managed each year by final-year students, and their final university grade based on their performance organising, promoting and running Luton FM. Final responsibility for the running of the station, however, rests with senior radio lecturer at the university, Janey Gordon.

A lecturer in Radio and Senior Fellow of the University of Bedfordshire, [http://www.beds.ac.uk/research/rimad/people/janey-gordon Janey Gordon] is the overall Licencee for Luton FM.

Output each year

The different style of Luton FM each year reflects the final year projects. A stipulation of the project must be that the students make the station their own. In 2007 Luton FM celebrated ten years with the slogan "This is History". 2006, the focus was on unsigned bands with the slogan "Putting new music first", while in 2005 the main priority was rock music.

Luton FM 2008

This year in 2008, Luton FM is changing to LAB Radio (Luton and Bedfordshire Radio), which incorporates Luton and Bedfordshire.

Luton FM 2007

In May 2007, Luton FM celebrated its 10th anniversary. To reflect the birthday celebrations, Luton FM played music from the last decade, along with cutting-edge new music, chat and a bigger dedication to national and local news from its brand-new current affairs and news studio.

Luton FM 2006

Throughout 2006, Luton FM broadcasted 24/7 on the internet. In previous years, the station had only broadcasted online during Freshers' Week and for a week before the May FM broadcast.

Luton FM 2003

In 2003 the Luton FM management decided that the station would promote more urban musical content in a fashion similar to BBC's digital Radio station 1xtra. To coincide with this the station's brand had a total redesign by then student Dale Martin. 2003 was the first year that a Media production/ Multimedia student worked alongside the radio management team to design new promotional tools such as fliers, a new logo and interactive website.

The Luton FM website in 2003 became a major tool in the promotion of the station as it was the first year that the station was streamed online for the duration of the stations 28 day Restricted Service License (RSL). Additionally, 2003 was the first year the website contained an archive of previous broadcasts which could be downloaded in MP3s. The website's design reflected the station's 2003 urban image by having graffiti styled navigational links. The website was also search engine optimised using natural SEO techniques so that the site appears at number 1 in Google's search results for Luton FM.

2003 still remains one of Luton FM most successful years as the website had over 300,000 hits and the station attracted acts such as the Heartless Crew and Chong family to perform live on the station.

Managers/presenters in 2003 included Matt Fisher, Gemma Hunt and Aelina Antona

Alumni

Past Luton FM Managers/Presenters include Tim Humphries - now at Ten 17 FM; Matt Fisher & Dellessa James both at (Radio 1); Dan Prior at NME Radio (sound imaging); and Melvin Odoom and Rickie Haywood Williams who both are the morning presenters of Kiss 100 London.

ee also

* Three Counties Radio

External links

* [http://www.lutonfm.co.uk Main station website]
* [http://www.beds.ac.uk Main University website]
* [http://www.beds.ac.uk/news/2007/may/070503-radio Celebrating ten years]