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. This has since been reversed and new presenters
have been hired and networked across the stations.
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 9 June
2005, the group was awarded a permanent FM broadcasting licence to
serve the city of Manchester as Xfm Manchester. This service commenced
on 15 March 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, 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 Show & Presenters
On 6 March 2008 an announcement was made to reverse the decision to
remove daytime presenters. From Tuesday 25 March 2008 a new
schedule restoring daytime schedules was put in place. .
The current schedule was launched on the 12 January 2009. Changes
at this date included the returning
Ian
Camfield taking over the
Afternoon Show, including
Afternoon X List from
Jo Good, and new
signing
Richard Skinner taking over
the
Morning Show from
Rick Shaw.
The times of the shows were also adjusted, with the morning show
only becoming an 2 hour show (previously an 3 hour show) and the
afternoon show becoming an 4 hour show (previously an 3 hour show).
The weekend schedule was also adjusted at this time, with
Rick Shaw moving to present the
Weekend
Morning Show on a Saturday and Sunday from 10 am - 2 pm. This
led to other changes in the weekend schedule, such as
Marsha Shandur Sunday Brunch ending,
and the air times of
Marc Haynes
Certificate X changing (from 1 pm - 3 pm to 6 pm - 8 pm).
Jo Good left the station during these
changes.
XFM London airs 43 hours of exclusive London only programmes (per
week), and at all other times, it airs XFM network programmes
(produced for all the XFM Stations in the same London studios of
XFM London). The local only London programme in XFM London are
The No Nonsense Breakfast Show presented by
Ian Camfield, the
XFM Weekend Breakfast
show presented by
Phil Clifton and
XFM weekday Drivetime Show presented by
MTV
and
T4 presenter
Dave Berry. These programmes air in
place of the similar programme presented on XFM Manchester by
Mike McClean,
Clint Boon and
Gareth
Brooks
Schedule
MondayAs below except: 12-4am -
Shak
Tuesday- Thursday
FridayAs above except: 10-2am - The Remix with
Eddy Temple-Morris
Saturdays
| Station |
2-7am |
7-11am |
11-3pm |
3-6pm |
6-10pm |
10-2am |
| Xfm London |
Pete Donaldson |
Rick Shaw |
Rich Walters |
Saturdays with Steve Harris |
The Weekender with Marsha |
The Rock Show with Ian
Camfield |
| Xfm Manchester |
Pete Donaldson |
Gareth Brooks |
Rich Walters |
Saturdays with Steve Harris |
The Weekender with Marsha |
The Rock Show with Ian
Camfield |
Sundays
| Station |
2-7am |
7-11am |
11-3pm |
3-6pm |
6-8pm |
8-9pm |
9-10pm |
10-12pm |
| Xfm London |
Pete Donaldson |
Rick Shaw |
Rich Walters |
Christian Nash |
Sunta Templeton |
The Live Hour |
The Sunday Service with Jonny
Borrell |
Razor Cuts with Pete
Mitchell |
| Xfm Manchester |
Pete Donaldson |
Gareth Brooks |
Rich Walters |
Christian Nash |
Sunta Templeton |
The Live Hour |
The Sunday Service with Johnny_Borrell |
Razor Cuts with Pete
Mitchell |
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.
[60533]
Notable Former Xfm presenters
See also
External links
References
Wikis
Quiz
Map
Search
