Takeover Radio
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| Broadcast area | Leicester |
|---|---|
| Slogan | No Adult's Required! |
| First air date | 3 March 2002 |
| Frequency | 103.2 MHz |
| Format | Childrens 8-14 |
| Owner | Takeover Radio Children's Media Trust |
| Website | www.takeoverradio.com |
Takeover Radio is a Community Licensed Radio Station broadcasting on FM stereo to Leicester, specialising in helping kids getting involved into radio aimed at the 8-14 age bracket. Takeover Radio first started out as one of the few licensed Access Radio stations in 2001, before being granted a Community License in 2002.
Contents |
[edit] History
Takeover Radio is the first station in the UK that gives children editorial control over their programmes and allows them to present the shows live. This rare gamble of giving them full control has paid off and has taken critics by surprise. Rather than hearing a mish mash of songs and un – structured chatter, programmes worthy of any other commercial or BBC station are being formulated with behind the scenes guidance from a dedicated crew of adult radio professionals.
The brainchild behind Takeover Radio was Philip Solo an entrepreneur and visionary with experience of business in the City of London. Philip’s vision was to allow children to gain access to the media of radio and let them entertain their peers. Philip worked closely with his business partner Graham Coley to generate a station that would make the big players to sit up and notice a new perspective in children’s radio. With Philip’s business acumen and Graham’s experience of broadcast radio they began in 1997 to produce a new dawn in children’s radio history.
The concept of Takeover Radio started back in 1997 when three children took over a Saturday night slot called “In and Out With Philip Solo” on a radio station in Market Harborough, Leicestershire called Valley FM. For 2 hours Ellie (15) Sam (12) and Rayne (10) Menzies took over Philip’s show by bursting in, tying him up and creating a ‘hostage situation’ in the studio. Inspector Lawton of ‘The Radio Police’ had to promise pizza and chocolate before they would ‘release’ Mr Solo and allow him to finish the last ½ hour of his show.
The following year the three kids took over a similar station in Wigston called NOW FM .This time they captured it on 4 consecutive weekends and produced 4 one hour programmes. They recorded a radio version of Roald Dahl's “The Twits”, gave out video game information in The Nerd Zone, local information for kids in Radio Activity and produced competitions and played great music. They convinced local companies including Megazone, Computer Cave and Bounceaway Bouncy Castles to sponsor the four programmes and recruited more mercenaries to help the team including Ruth Truslove (14) as resident kids reporter on Radio Activity and Seth and Louis Bland as actors in The Twits story.
Megazone Laser Adventure and Computer Cave, also gave them games, computer software and promotional event tickets to give away during the programmes. There were also free tickets provided by other organisations that were not able to advertise. These were used for other competition prizes. Both these sponsors also provided experts to join the shows and give interviews about their work from business, personal and technical viewpoints.
In 1998, the “Takeover Radio children” were invited to conduct four programmes on Big Dial Radio 106.6 FM a radio station based in Market Harborough. An article in the local paper about the project increased the crew number to thirteen regular presenters. After an intensive training programme they were all ready took over the station, it was a great success raising money for local charities.
In January of 1999 the children were allowed to work on “The Wall 95.1 FM” another RSL radio station based in Leicester. An advert placed in the local paper ensured that this time 80 more children would be involved in radio production. On 2nd May 1999 the children did their first ever Takeover show on The Wall. “Kids on the Wall” proved a great success and the children returned to take over the airwaves again in June 2000. The proliferation of programmes by the children under the supervising eye of Philip and Graham gained the attention of the House of Lords in London. The Lords invited the children to talk about young peoples use of radio. By August 2000 the group of children had grown so big that it was decided that they needed their own radio station. They took over the studios at the Wall and ran their very own station for 9 days from 9am till 9pm each day. The project was called Radio Activity.
In September 2000 the building of the new Takeover Radio Head Quarters took place and setting up of the Takeover Radio Children's Media Trust rolled into action. The function of the Trust was to enable more children to participate in this unique venture.
In July 2001 Charity status by the Charity's Commission took place and Takeover Radio was chosen to be one of only 15 radio stations to trial the new Access Radio project for the Radio Authority. This took a great deal of time by the children, Philip and Graham to get the station on the air. Finally in March 2002, Takeover radio was officially launched on 103.2 FM across the City of Leicester and live on the web at www.takeoverradio.com
Takeover Radio has now been on the air for over 4 years now. The Government agreed to allow the new radio authority OfCom to issue full time radio licences in 2004. Takeover Radio were successful in applying for one of these called a Community Radio License. This is a true indication of the importance a government backed agency gives to the vision of Children’s radio in the UK. As well as the radio “Takeover Radio” has branched out into other areas. The station is now in the process of looking for funding to set up cells around the country so other children can benefit from the training and life experiences the children have gained as part of Takeover Radio. The station is also looking to set up educational outreach work and make contact with as many schools as possible to make full use of the educational benefits a project such as this can provide. We now publish a magazine called Retune and offer work experience to 15 to 18 year olds.
Takeover Radio, although Adult-orientated during weekday day-time, is the only station in the UK, possibly the world, that let's kids have full control of their programmes. Will you be Taken Over?
[edit] Music
Takeover Radio plays a wide range of music, mainly the latest tracks in the current UK charts along with hits from recent years.
Takeover radio's playlist is designed to suit it's listener base of 8-14 year olds, although during the day a lot of adults tend to make the station their number one choice.
Many of Takeover's "Kids" presenters host specialist music shows. For instance, Monday nights is home to The Big Urban Nites - a show that specialises in Bhangra and R'n'B. Wednesday's Pick'n'Mix specialises in Rock and Friday's Trash specialises in Heavy Metal. There are many more on other days too!
[edit] News
Takeover Radio broadcasts news bulletins at 8am, 1pm and 5pm on Weekdays. Plus, weather and traffic reports are broadcast throughout the day along with news of local events.
[edit] Current Schedule
Will take effect as of November 13th 2006
[edit] Weekdays
07:00 - 11:00 : Mike Watson's Wake Up Call - includes the exclusive features The School Run at 8.15am (aimed at kids making the journey to school), Nursery Time between 9.15 and 10am (aimed at Nursery Children, although anyone can enjoy it as long as they're a big kid at heart) and The Morning Coffee Break between 10 and 11am (aimed at workers, students or people at home taking time out of their day to relax).
11:00 - 15:00 : The Lunchtime Show with David Bott - aimed at the adult audience and students. Includes The Lunch Hour between 12pm and 1pm (aimed at encouraging people that are taking their lunch break to get involved with the show). Also includes the Late Lunch between 2pm and 3pm, playing out live requests for adults only to produce the Real SOUND of LEICESTER!
15:00 - 18:00 : Skoolz Out with Jonathan Green - the drivetime show aimed purely at the kids making their way home and arriving home from a busy day at school.
18.00 onwards : See Monday to Friday below...
[edit] Mondays
18.00 - 20.00 : The Big Urban Nite - Hasmita and DC bring you the best urban music, from Bhangra to Hip Hop!
20.00 - 22.00 : Urban Flavaz - Playing out a further two hours of non-stop Urban vibes!
22.00 - 00.00 : The Curfew Zone - Non-stop music aimed at the huge student population of Leicester.
00.00 - 07.00 : Overnight Takeover - Non-stop music overnight.
[edit] Tuesdays
18.00 - 20.00 : Opinion8 - Shrez and Sonia want your opinions on all sorts of subjects that need to be discussed by the young audience.
20.00 - 22.00 : Planet Pop - Two hours of non-stop pop music around from the likes of McFly, Girls Aloud, Westlife and more!
22.00 - 00.00 : The Curfew Zone - Non-stop music aimed at the huge student population of Leicester.
00.00 - 07.00 : Overnight Takeover - Non-stop music overnight.
[edit] Wednesdays
18.00 - 20.00 : Pick'n'Mix - Hosted by one of Takeover's longest serving members, Lois and also Omar - bringing you the best mix of music from rock to pop!
20.00 - 22.00 : Takeover Radio Rewind - Two hours of fantastic hairbrush classics! Guaranteed to get you singing along, plus there's the old and the new, producing the original followed by the remake!
22.00 - 00.00 : The Curfew Zone - Non-stop music aimed at the huge student population of Leicester.
00.00 - 07.00 : Overnight Takeover - Non-stop music overnight.
[edit] Thursdays
18.00 - 20.00 : Takeover Top 20 - Sam and Suzi bring you the latest chart of music sales in Leicester, along with the Album and DVD charts too!
20.00 - 22.00 : Dance Fusion - Two hours of the best in Dance Music. The perfect warm up for a Thursday Night! From upfront promos, to all time Dance anthems along with the best remixes and the Dance Chart!
22.00 - 00.00 : The Curfew Zone - Non-stop music aimed at the huge student population of Leicester.
00.00 - 07.00 : Overnight Takeover - Non-stop music overnight.
[edit] Fridays
18.00 - 20.00 : Trash - Callum brings you the best in Metal and Rock on an alternative to the usual Friday evening radio.
20.00 - 22.00 : RRR - Dan, Guy and Niki present an action packed show of rock music, Jokes, Ask Oliver and much more!
22.00 - 00.00 : The Curfew Zone - Non-stop music aimed at the huge student population of Leicester.
00.00 - 08.00 : Overnight Takeover - Non-stop music overnight.
[edit] Saturdays
08:00 - 10:00 : Sunny Side Up - Saturday morning music and chat with Maxine and Meera.
10:00 - 12:00 : The Morning Chill - Mercedes and Bonnie liven up your weekend with great music and chat.
12:00 - 14:00 : The Tom Ross Show - Tom brings you up to date with all things chart and showbiz.
14:00 - 17:00 : Hello YOU Sports Fans! - Liam, Harry and Amy bring you all the latest local sport along with music in a show that appeals to all!
17.00 - 18.00 : Oxygen - Anick delivers an hour of great music and interesting entertainment news.
18.00 - 20.00 : RnB Club Classics - Kiran and Sara warm you up for a Saturday night.
20.00 - 00.00 : The Weekend Mix - Resident club DJ, Jon Davies, brings you a 4-hour marathon of dance music to get you up for a Saturday night.
00.00 - 08.00 : Overnight Takeover - Non-stop music overnight.
[edit] Sundays
08:00 - 10:00 : Sweet and Sour - Sunday morning music and chat with Megan and Ceri.
10:00 - 12:00 : The Bizzle - Cory brings you an hour of a show that is truly the bizzle!
12:00 - 14:00 : Chan's Request Show - Chan brings you the R&B request show on a Sunday afternoon (other genres are welcome too!).
14:00 - 16:00 : Pop 2 Rock - Chloe and Jasmine bring you a wide variety of tunes.
16.00 - 18.00 : The Get Away - Adam and Serena bring you two hours of mayhem and music.
18.00 - 20.00 : The Next Generation - The next generation of Takeover's young presenters take to the airwaves for the first time.
20.00 - 00.00 : The Curfew Zone - Non-stop music aimed at the huge student population of Leicester.
00.00 - 07.00 : Overnight Takeover - Non-stop music overnight.
[edit] Former Presenters
- Jamie Wilson - went on to work for CBBC.
- Andrew May - went on to present for BBC Radio Manchester and work on Channel 5 television
- Jim Gray - went on to present on XFM Manchester and work for BBC Radio Stoke
