Hub Radio [1] is the University of the West of England's (UWE)[2] radio station. The station broadcasts on 1449am on the Frenchay Campus and streams live online via their website. The Station boasts a schedule of varying appeal across a diverse range of musical genres, appealing to both the student population and local community.
Hub Radio has its roots from a joint venture with Bristol University under the banner Fresh FM back in 1994 [3]. This existed for a matter of weeks at a time under a FM Restricted Service License
In 1998, media students at UWE decided to revamp Fresh FM and rebranded the station as Radio Base. The station was relaunched again later in 2002 with an online stream, a five year AM license and moved into a building in Rachay. The station was renamed 'The Hub' to reflect the station's desire to be the centre of the UWE Community.
In 2005, the station had to move out of Rachay due to rental costs and moved into a temporary home in Bower Ashton. After a fall in participation, the station was relaunched once again in 2006 into the current format. The station found space in the UWESU Media Centre (nickname "The Hubboard") until space became available downstairs.
Since the relaunch, listener numbers have increased steadily over the years. In February 2010 Hub Radio recorded its biggest ever listener audience during a live in-studio interview with UWE's Vice Chancellor Steve West that was conducted by the staff and students of UWESU's student newspaper, Western Eye
Hub Radio has appeared in national media. Pete Johnson, station manager for 2010 appeared on BBC6 Music on the 19th of March 2010, talking to Steve Lamacq about the importance of student radio stations.
Hub Radio is currently a radio society broadcasting a variety of content. The station operates two functional studios, one in the Frenchay Campus next to the Escape Bar, and at the post-production studio in Bower Ashton. Though there is still an operational studio at the Bower Ashton campus, only two shows actually come from Bower (those being Get Auganised and Ed Burrell). The rest of the shows are currently broadcast from Frenchay Campus's studio.
The Station is currently run by a committee of students [4], headed currently by Alex Wyatt.