Xfm London

Infobox Radio station
name=Xfm


airdate=1 September 1997
frequency = 104.9 MHz
Block 12C 227.360 MHz (DAB)
Channel 0111 (Sky)
Channel 621 (Tiscali TV)
Channel 965 (Virgin Media)|area=London
share = 1.2%
share as of = September 2007
share source = [http://www.rajar.co.uk/listening/quarterly_listening.php]
format=Mainly indie
owner=GCap Media
website= [http://www.xfm.co.uk www.xfm.co.uk]

Xfm London is a commercial radio station in the United Kingdom. The station is owned by Global Radio UK and broadcasts on 104.9 FM in London, on digital radio via 30 DAB multiplexes across the country, Sky Digital, Tiscali TV and Virgin Media.

Xfm built its reputation on playing a wide range of alternative music, particularly indie, hip-hop, rock and a wide range of dance music, but since the merger between GWR Radio and Capital Radio Group, which led to the creation of its parent Gcap Media, the range of music it plays has narrowed markedly and the station now focuses primarily upon commercially successful indie.

History

The station's roots go back to 1989 and a pirate-turned-Restricted Service Licence London station called "Q102", which was famed for launching the career of BBC Radio 1 DJ Steve Lamacq.

Following further RSLs under the Xfm moniker, the station became full time on 1 September 1997, under the management/marketing directorship of Chris Parry and programming director/founder Sammy Jacob. During the following year the station played a diverse range of music from its studios in Charlotte Street, but mass appeal was thwarted by the lack of awareness due to a poor marketing campaign which was compounded by the death of Princess Diana the day before its launch.

It was taken over by the then Capital Radio group in 1998, and on 23 August of that year was abruptly closed down for four days (during which a test tape featuring mainstream soft-rock acts was looped). The station subsequently relaunched with a vastly more mainstream format, and a new advert featuring a friendly cartoon radio saying "Don't be afraid!" (Referring to the perceived inaccessibility of its old format). However, the soft-rock revamp did not prove a success, culminating in listener-led protest outside the Capital Radio studios. Listeners also lodged objections with the radio authority, which found Xfm to be acting in a manner contrary to its licence requirements, and a degree of alternative output was restored, particularly through night-time playlists and cutting-edge specialist shows.

The station found itself in hot water again the following year. Since the take-over by Capital, the station had become more male-orientated and featured football coverage and "laddish" output. This came to an abrupt end when the Radio Authority fined Xfm £50,000 when then breakfast presenter Tom Binns joked about bestiality on air.

Capital Radio set about increasing Xfm's listening figures, recruiting famous DJs such as Zoë Ball, comedians Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, and former BBC Radio 1 presenter, the late Kevin Greening. This yielded good results for the station in a period in which it could boast growing listening figures and talent such as Zane Lowe and Christian O'Connell.

In May 2007 the parent company of XFM, GCap Media,now Global Radio, announced that they would be removing all presenters from the daytime (10am-4pm) lineup and replacing them with a jukebox based upon listener requests through their websites [cite web | url = http://www.radiotoday.co.uk/news.php?extend.1967 | title = Radio Today: XFM drops daytime jocks | accessdate = 2007-05-17] . This has since been reversed and new presenters have been hired [cite web | url = http://radiotoday.co.uk/news.php?extend.3134.2 | title = Radio Today: DJs return to Xfm daytime | accessdate = 2008-03-19] .

Proposed expansion of the Xfm Network

In recent years, Xfm has held 28-day Restricted Service Licence broadcasts in a number of British cities, including Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff and Glasgow. On June 9 2005, the group was awarded a permanent FM broadcasting licence to serve the city of Manchester as Xfm Manchester. This service commenced on March 15 2006. On 4 January 2006, GCap Media relaunched its Central Scotland regional station Beat 106 as Xfm Scotland.

In 2000, Xfm London was added to a number of DAB multiplexes around the country, and in January 2006 it replaced The Storm on a number of local multiplexes, creating near-national coverage. It is reported that this 'national' version of Xfm London (known as "Xfm UK") will have local content on it (e.g. News, Travel) increasing with time. However, on 11 February 2008 GCap Media announced that they would be selling the analogue license for the Manchester, Scotland and South Wales stations [cite web | url = http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/feb/11/gcapmedia.digitaltvradio | title = DAB 'not economically viable' | accessdate = 2008-02-11] , retaining only XFM London.

This decision was made in an attempt to shore-up profits and concentrate on 'winning brands', calling the former nationalisation strategy into question. After this announcement, in early 2008, breakfast show host Alex Zane admitted on air that the future of the London station was also being reviewed, even making jokey references to perhaps being out of a job soon.

Current Presenters

On 6 March 2008 an announcement was made to reverse the decision to remove daytime presenters [cite web | url = http://www.musicweek.com/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=1033420&c=1 | title = Music Week - Xfm brings back daytime DJs | accessdate = 2008-03-19] . From Tuesday 25 March 2008 a new schedule will see Dave Berry move to the prestigious drivetime slot, and Rick Shaw re-assigned as new morning host [cite web | url = http://radiotoday.co.uk/news.php?extend.3134.2 | title = Radio Today: DJs return to Xfm daytime | accessdate = 2008-03-19] .

*Alex Zane "The Xfm Breakfast Show"
*Dave Berry "Xfm Drivetime"
*Rick Shaw "Morning Show"
*Jo Good "Afternoon Show"
*Steve Harris "Music Response", "Weekend Afternoons"
*John Kennedy "X-Posure"
*Eddy Temple-Morris "The Remix"
*Jon Hillcock "New Noise"
*Matt Dyson, Lliana Bird and Sunta Templeton "The Fix"
*Katie Parsons "The Rock Show"
*Marsha Shandur "Saturday Breakfast", "Sunday Brunch"
*Jim Coulson "Sunday Breakfast"
*Adam Longworth "The Weekender (Friday)"
*Rick Edwards "The Weekender (Saturday)"
*Danny Wallace "Saturday Mornings"
*Phil Clifton "Early Breakfast"

X-Ray

"X-Ray" was Xfm's short lived sister publication. Initially a free quarterly magazine, it later changed format and became commercially available. The magazine was issued monthly, in an unusually small format, now associated with "handbag size" women's magazines and came bundled with a CD demoing various signed and unsigned artists. After what seemed like a dispute with the publishers, the magazine went out of print, although Xfm still offer readers reassurance of its return on their website. [http://www.xfm.co.uk/xray]

Notable Former Xfm presenters

* Ian Camfield
* Russell Brand
* Adam and Joe
* Jimmy Carr
* Bob Geldof
* Paul Tonkinson
* Jane Gazzo
* Christian O'Connell
* Arthur Baker
* Adam Lowe
* DJ Greenpeace
* Kevin Greening
* Ricky Gervais
* Stephen Merchant
* Karl Pilkington
* Zoë Ball
* Dermot O'Leary
* Zane Lowe
* Lauren Laverne
* Simon Amstell
* Justin Lee Collins
* Guy Garvey
* Iain Baker
* Nick Luscombe
* Shaun Keaveny
* Iain Lee
* Claire Sturgess
* James Hyman
* Tom Binns
* Steve Taylor

ee also

*List of radio stations in the United Kingdom

External links

* [http://www.xfm.co.uk Official site]
* [http://www.mediauk.com/the_knowledge/i.muk/XFM Detailed account of Xfm's history from Media UK's "The Knowledge" wiki]

References