The Superstation

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The Superstation
Broadcast area	United Kingdom.
Frequency	Various.
First air date	1987–1992
Owner	Richard Branson 1987–1989, then Owen Oyston from 1989 onwards.

For the category of United States television broadcasters, see Superstation. For the Orcadian community radio station, see The Superstation Orkney.

The Superstation (or Radio Radio as it was known in the industry) was set up as an overnight sustaining service for Independent Local Radio. The station broadcast from 10.00pm until 6.00am on many of the UK's commercial radio stations.

Brief history

The concept of the Superstation came from David Campbell and Rob Jones who worked for Virgin's radio arm and was backed financially by Richard Branson.

Technical

The Superstation would leave a gap for local stations who had sold their own advertising air-time to "opt-out" of the national programme. A name check ident and a gap of around 1 second would be the signal for a tech-op to fire the carts containing the local adverts.

The typical duration for one of these ad breaks was either 2.10 or 2.40. So, in order to fill the gap, either four or five 30 second adverts and one 10 second jingle into the end sweeper would be used.

Each station had a log with the exact duration of each break.

Not all stations had their own ad breaks, so music montages would be played down the line so there was continuous output. A 3-5 second sweeper sound followed the montage and signalled the next part of the programme was about to start.

Jingles

The station had a sung jingle package produced by Midlands based music producer Muff Murfin, these jingles were originally created for W.T.R.K-"Electric 106" in the U.S. All of the original presenter line-up had their own name "shouts", the newer presenters generally used their own name idents. The station also had American voice-over style "sweepers" voiced by J.R Nelson who was part of the Z100 morning crew. Some of the more famous ones went:-

"Hot, H - O - T, The hits of today and the hits of tomorrow!"

"Beaming live from the starship voyager 23 thousand miles above the planet earth, this is the Superstation."

"The biggest, the brightest and the best, this is the Superstation."

Presenters

Ruby Wax.
Jonathan Ross.
Johnnie Walker (now at BBC Radio 2).
Bob Harris (now at BBC Radio 2).
Steve Davis.
Chris Evans (now at BBC Radio 2).
Janice Long (now at BBC Radio 2).
Nicky Horne.
Diana Luke (now at BBC Radio Leeds and BBC Radio Sheffield).
NJ Williams.

Jeff Cooper
Peter Grant.
Phil Kennedy.
John Kenning.
Chris Pearson (now with BFBS).
Gary King (later with Atlantic 252 and BBC Radio 1).
Erica Hughes (later with Saga 106.6 FM in the East Midlands).
Deborah Kinch (previously 'Delightful' Deborah in the 1980s Steve Wright Posse on BBC Radio 1, and later at BBC GLR).
Francis Currie.

Miscellaneous

Although the Superstation was initially based in London, it later came from Key 103's studios in Manchester.

Thursday night on Erica Hughes' show was home of 'The Brian Bumble Bee' poetry spot, carrying on the spot initially launched on Red Rose Radio.

External links

Digitalspy.co.uk - The Superstation being discussed on a forum.
tv.cream.org - The Superstation Radio Cream listing.
northwestradio.info - Red Rose Gold & Red Rose Rock FM Programme schedule showing Superstation listings.
community-net.co.uk - Details of Phil Kennedy's involvement.
community-net.co.uk - Details of Diana Luke's involvement.
radioairearchive.googlepages.com - Audio of the Superstation via Radio Aire in 1990

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