Xfm London

Xfm
Broadcast area	London
Frequency	104.9 MHz Block 12C 227.360 MHz (DAB) Channel 0113 (Sky) Channel 621 (Tiscali TV) Channel 965 (Virgin Media)
First air date	1 September 1997
Format	Mainly indie
Audience share	1.2% (September 2007, [1])
Owner	GCap Media
Website	www.xfm.co.uk

Xfm London is a commercial radio station in the United Kingdom. The station is owned by Global Radio 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 eventually 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. Though the music was still tightly playlisted mix of popular indie and soft rock, not what the original station set out to do, and this continues to the present day.

In May 2007, as an attempt to cut costs, 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^[1]. This has since been reversed and new presenters have been hired and networked across the stations^[2].

There is still a defiantly an alternative music following in London, with new station NME Radio launching and getting a 200,000 listenership after just 3 months on air, similar to that of XFM in 1997. NME, however, was only broadcasting on DAB radio during this time.

Specialist Shows

The XFM network plays hoast to several specialist hows on evenings. Monday-Thursday nights see X-posure with John Kennedy hit the airwaves playing the best new, cutting edge indie and alternative music. The show is famed for playing acts such as Kate Nash (who thanked John at the 2008 Brit Awards), Razorlight and Snow Patrol before any other station. Friday Nights are home to The Remix where Eddy Temple-Morris plays out remixes and mash-ups of notable indie and rock artists. The show also plays out rock/dance crossover music and is noticed for playing bands such as justice and infadels their first uk airplay. Saturaday Nights are home to New Noise with Jon Hilcock, this is noted as XFM's most eclectic show, playing anything from Indie anthems to hip-hop and remixes to new indie. Saturday nights also feature X-Punk, home to the best the punk, emo and hardcore scenes have to offer. Sunday nights have a dedicated rock show playing all things rock.

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^[3], 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.

On 7 November 2008, Xfm Scotland became part of the Galaxy Network and was renamed Galaxy Scotland.

Current Presenters

On 6 March 2008 an announcement was made to reverse the decision to remove daytime presenters^[4]. 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^[5].

• 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 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. [2]

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

See also

• List of radio stations in the United Kingdom

External links

• Official site
• Detailed account of Xfm's history from Media UK's The Knowledge wiki

References