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 WTRK a.k.a. Electric 106 & WNVZ a.k.a. Z104 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 John "J.R Nelson" Marik who was part of the Z100 morning zoo from 1983 to 1986.
Presenters
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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.
See also
- BBC Night Network – all evening radio network on BBC Local Radio stations in Northern England
- Night Network – night time service by ITV network
External links
- northwestradio.info - Red Rose Gold & Red Rose Rock FM Programme schedule showing Superstation listings.
- radioairearchive.googlepages.com - Audio of the Superstation via Radio Aire in 1990