Radio X (United Kingdom)

Radio X

Broadcast area	London and Manchester (FM) United Kingdom (DAB)
Slogan	Get Into the Music
Frequency	104.9 MHz (London), 97.7 MHz (Manchester), RDS: RADIO_X_ DAB 11D (England, Wales, Northern Ireland) 12A (Scotland) Channel 0113 (Sky) Channel 723 Freesat Channel 621 (TalkTalk TV) Channel 960 (Virgin Media) Channel 923 (Virgin Media Ireland)
First air date	1 September 1997 (as XFM) 21 September 2015 (as Radio X)
Format	Alternative music, rock music
Owner	Global
Sister stations	Capital FM Heart Classic FM Smooth Radio Capital Xtra LBC Gold
Website	www.radiox.co.uk

Radio X is a commercial radio station brand focused on alternative music, primarily indie rock, which is owned by Global Radio. Radio X launched nationally on 21 September 2015 as a rebrand of Xfm and superseded Xfm London and Xfm Manchester.^[1]

The station has previously employed a number of DJs that have since gone on to even greater fame including Ricky Gervais, Karl Pilkington, Stephen Merchant, Simon Pegg, Christian O'Connell, Russell Brand, Justin Lee Collins, Adam and Joe, Alex Zane, Tim Lovejoy, Dermot O'Leary and Josh Widdicombe.

History

Xfm was created in London in 1992 by Sammy Jacob (who founded its precursor Q102)^[2] and Chris Parry. The station became full-time on 1 September 1997. During the following year the station played a range of music from its studios in 97 Charlotte Street, but mass appeal was thwarted by the lack of awareness due to an unsuccessful marketing campaign. Jacob would later go on to co-found NME Radio and CDNX (Camden Experience) in 2008 and 2015 respectively.

In 1998, Xfm was acquired by the Capital Radio Group (now part of Global Radio) and was relocated from Charlotte Street to Capital's headquarters at Leicester Square, where Radio X remains based today. On 23 August of that year was closed down for four days, during which a test tape featuring mainstream soft-rock acts was looped. The station subsequently relaunched with a more mainstream format, and a new advert featuring a cartoon radio saying "Don't be afraid!", which referred to the perceived inaccessibility of its old format. The soft-rock revamp was not a success, culminating in listener-led protests 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 specialist shows.

Following the take-over by Capital, the station became more male-orientated and featured football coverage and "laddish" output. This came to an end when the Radio Authority fined XFM £50,000 for breakfast presenter Tom Binns's joking about bestiality on air.

Capital Radio attempted to increase XFM's listening figures, recruiting DJs such as Zoë Ball, former BBC Radio 1 presenter Kevin Greening, and re-recruiting comedians Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant who took voluntary redundancy when Capital Radio bought the station, after the pair rose to significance with the first airing of The Office. 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. The music was, and is today, a play-listed mix of popular indie and soft rock.

Expansion of the Xfm Network

XFM logo used from 2004–15.

XFM has held 28-day Restricted Service Licence FM broadcasts in a number of British cities, including Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff and Glasgow.

In 2000, XFM London was added to a number of DAB multiplexes around the country, and in January 2006 its reach expanded when it replaced The Storm on a number of other local multiplexes, creating near-national coverage. It was at one point reported that this 'national' version of XFM London (known as XFM UK) would have local content drop-ins within it (e.g. news, travel) over time, but this ultimately never came to pass. Most DAB coverage of XFM carried the London version of the station, but for a time some multiplexes in the North of England instead received a feed of XFM Manchester.

In 2001, XFM rehired Ricky Gervais and Steve Merchant to run the Saturday afternoon show. Karl Pilkington joined them to 'just push the buttons' but eventually became the focal point of the show. The trio often called the station a 'tin pot station', 'shoddy' and 'not just a small station in London but the smallest station in that building'.

On 9 June 2005, the group was awarded a permanent FM broadcasting licence to serve the city of Manchester as XFM Manchester. This station went on air in March 2006.

Also in 2005, XFM was among the bidders for the regional North East franchise on 97.5 FM,^[3] but this licence was ultimately awarded to Smooth Radio by Ofcom.

On 4 January 2006, GCap Media relaunched its Central Scotland regional station Beat 106 as XFM Scotland.

In 2007, a fourth station joined the network with the launch of a new regional XFM for south Wales, based at the Cardiff studio also home to Red Dragon FM (now Capital South Wales).

Output changes

In May 2007, in an attempt to cut costs, the parent company of XFM, GCap Media, announced that they would be removing all presenters from the daytime (10 am–4 pm) lineup and replacing them with a jukebox based upon listener requests through their websites.^[4] On 6 March 2008 an announcement was made reversing the decision to remove daytime presenters.^[5] From 25 March 2008 a new schedule restoring daytime schedules was put in place.^[6]

A new schedule was launched on 12 January 2009. Changes at this date included Jo Good leaving the Afternoon Show, including Afternoon X List, 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 a two-hour show (previously a three-hour show) and the afternoon show becoming a four-hour show (previously a 3-hour show). The weekend schedule was also adjusted at this time, with Rick Shaw moving to present the Weekend Morning Show on Saturday and Sunday from 10 am to 2 pm and Lliana Bird taking over the afternoon slots. This led to other changes in the weekend schedule, such as Marsha Shandur's 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, but rejoined at the end of 2012.

On 11 February 2008 GCap Media announced that they would be selling the analogue licence for the Manchester, Scotland and South Wales stations,^[7] 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. The sale of the south Wales station went ahead, with Town and Country Broadcasting relaunching this as Nation Radio; the sale of the Scotland and Manchester stations was suspended when Global Radio entered into discussions to purchase GCap Media.

The re-appointment of a previous Programme Controller in 2011 led to a number of changes to XFM's output. Specialist shows such as Music:Response and Mix Master Mike Show returned, as did presenter Danny Wallace.^[8] In September 2011 the completed new XFM schedule launched, and included Mary Anne Hobbs moving to a re-launched evening show, Music:Response. A new "local" slot was introduced. Broadcaster Richard Skinner left the station after two years.^[9] The show Import:Export, produced and directed by Redefined Media, was resurrected and linked to KROQ Los Angeles.^[10] Further weekend signings included Sun journalist Gordon Smart starting a three-hour Sunday show. Smart's show ended in October 2013 when he left to join the Scottish Sun as editor. As part of the 2013 schedule Jon Holmes took over the breakfast show. Comedian Josh Widdicombe presented a show on Saturdays between 10 am and 1 pm. It was announced in March 2015 that Russell Brand would be hosting a new Sunday night show, which was to first air on 15 March.^[11]

Following Heart and Galaxy owner Global's takeover of GCap Media, XFM Scotland became Galaxy (it went on to become Capital Scotland in 2011, leaving just Manchester and London with local XFM stations.

Following Global's acquisition of Real and Smooth Ltd, the Paisley/Renfrewshire 96.3 FM service previously broadcast as Real Radio XS became a new XFM Scotland in 2014. This service was available across central Scotland over DAB.

As of 2015, the London, Manchester and Scotland stations broadcast 43 hours a week of split local programming - weekday breakfast and drive, and four hours a day at weekends - with networked content, primarily from London, at other times. TV platforms followed the London schedule, and all three stations were streamed online.

Rebrand as Radio X

On 7 September 2015, it was announced that XFM would be rebranded as Radio X on 21 September.^[12] The rebrand was done in partnership with creative agency We Are MBC. The rebranded station launched with new presenters including Chris Moyles, Vernon Kay, Johnny Vaughan and Ricky Wilson joining some existing XFM DJs on a refreshed schedule. The new-look station is available nationally via Digital One national DAB, with all local-layer XFM carriage dropped (replaced in many cases by Gold). The new national Radio X also replaced XFM on FM in London and Manchester, and on other platforms including TV and online. There is no longer split content local to Manchester, and the only variance between the UK, London and Manchester services is the advertising and news opening.

XFM Scotland closed on 13 September 2015, with Global Radio handing back the Paisley licence to Ofcom.

XFM's last programmes aired on 13 September 2015. A 'holding' service of music and announcements began transmitting on national DAB under the Radio X title on 14 September, with this service also taking the place of XFM on FM, TV and online until the full launch of the new Radio X on 21 September.

The first song played on the rebranded Radio X, by Chris Moyles just before 7am on 21 September 2015, was "Love Machine" by Girls Aloud, an off-format nod to media reports of a male bias by the new station.^[13]

Stations

The stations which once comprised the XFM network were:

• XFM London, which has been broadcasting on 104.9 FM in the Greater London area full-time since 1997 (and by Restricted Service Licence from 1992).
• XFM Manchester, which was launched on 97.7 FM on 15 March 2006.
• XFM South Wales, which broadcast to Cardiff & South Wales between 29 November 2007 and 30 May 2008, was sold to Town and Country Broadcasting. It then launched Nation Radio on its frequency.
• XFM Scotland, which in its more recent form launched on 96.3 FM from the Paisley area on 7 April 2014 and closed on 13 September 2015. An earlier XFM for Scotland had run from 2006 on the frequencies now assigned to Capital Scotland.

Programming and presenters

Current presenters

Former presenters

Former hosts on the network include:

References

External links

• Radio X