Xtreme Radio
Encyclopedia
Xtreme Radio is a Student radio station society at Swansea University
Swansea University
Swansea University is a university located in Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom. Swansea University was chartered as University College of Swansea in 1920, as the fourth college of the University of Wales. In 1996, it changed its name to the University of Wales Swansea following structural changes...
in Swansea
Swansea
Swansea is a coastal city and county in Wales. Swansea is in the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan. Situated on the sandy South West Wales coast, the county area includes the Gower Peninsula and the Lliw uplands...
, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, run by a team of elected volunteer executive members, and is located in Union House. Xtreme broadcasts on the station's website (previously on 1431AM), and can also be heard around the student village of Hendrefoilan, the University campus itself, and Swansea.
About
The station is primarily designed to be a communication medium for students at Swansea UniversitySwansea University
Swansea University is a university located in Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom. Swansea University was chartered as University College of Swansea in 1920, as the fourth college of the University of Wales. In 1996, it changed its name to the University of Wales Swansea following structural changes...
, with the station also aiming to provide experience of radio broadcasting to its student volunteers. This not only includes presenting but production, playlisting and other aspects of radio as well.
Guests have included The Automatic
The Automatic
The Automatic , are a Welsh rock band. The band is composed of Robin Hawkins on vocals, bass and synthesizers, James Frost on guitar, synthesizers, backing vocals and occasional bass, Iwan Griffiths on drums and Paul Mullen on vocals, guitar and synthesizer - since 2007...
, Scouting for Girls
Scouting for Girls
Scouting for Girls are a Brit and Ivor Novello nominated band from London, formed in 2005 by Roy Stride, Greg Churchouse and Peter Ellard. Stride and Ellard met in the Cub Scouts and Churchouse met Stride on their first day at school. They have sold over 1.2 million albums and over 1.5 million...
and Phill Jupitus
Phill Jupitus
Phillip Christopher Jupitus is an English stand-up and improvised comedian, actor, performance poet, musician and podcaster....
, amongst others, and has also included outside interviews with Lenny Henry
Lenny Henry
Lenworth George "Lenny" Henry, is a British actor, writer, comedian and occasional television presenter.- Early life :...
, Fightstar
Fightstar
Fightstar are an English alternative rock band from London. They formed in 2003 and their lineup comprises lead vocalist, guitarist and keyboardist Charlie Simpson, guitarist and vocalist Alex Westaway, bass guitarist Dan Haigh and drummer Omar Abidi...
, Feeder
Feeder
-Technology:* Feeder , any of several devices used in apiculture to supplement or replace natural food sources* Feeder , another name for a riser, a reservoir built into a metal casting mold to prevent cavities due to shrinkage...
, Bombay Bicycle Club
Bombay Bicycle Club
Bombay Bicycle Club are a British indie rock and folk band from Crouch End, London. The band comprises: Jack Steadman , Jamie MacColl , Ed Nash and Suren de Saram ....
, Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Edward Christopher "Ed" Sheeran is an English singer-songwriter who is currently signed to Asylum / Atlantic Records. Sheeran broke through commercially in June 2011, when his debut single "The A Team" debuted at number 3 on the UK chart.-Early life:Sheeran was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire to...
amongst others.
The station was opened in November 1968, (making it the second oldest student radio station in the UK after 1967's University Radio York
University Radio York
University Radio York is a campus radio covering the campus of the University of York. It was the first legal independent radio station in the United Kingdom.-About:...
and before 1971's University Radio Essex
University Radio Essex
University Radio Essex is a campus radio station at the University of Essex serving Wivenhoe Park in Colchester. It was one of the original University radio stations in the United Kingdom and with the other pioneering campus radio stations at York, Brunel, Loughborough, Sussex, Surrey the door was...
). Prior to becoming known as Xtreme Radio, the station had three previous incarnations - Action Radio, URA and C-Air.
As of 2011 Xtreme broadcasts programmes between 9am and 12pm Monday to Friday and 11am to midnight on weekends, with non-stop music and hourly news updates on air at all other times. Specialist pre-recorded shows are broadcast after 9pm on most days, and during the day live mainstream shows are broadcast.
Xtreme also broadcasts several speech-based programmes, including campus, local and national sports news and results on its live Saturday afternoon sport show 'The Dugout'. The station is also a part of the Student Radio Association
Student Radio Association
The Student Radio Association is a representative body which supports and acts on behalf of the UK student radio community, comprising radio stations that are associated with or linked to a place of education...
, and syndicates the Student Radio Association Chart on Sundays.
Xtreme re-launched on 19 September 2008 with a brand new website, logo and also launched the Xtreme Lounge, part of the Union nightclub on campus.
The station was formerly part of The Student Broadcast Network
Student Broadcast Network
The Student Broadcast Network or SBN was a company who provided a sustaining service, news and advertising for Student Radio stations in the United Kingdom....
. The station also has two advertising slots per hour, these are managed by BAM Student Marketing.
Over the 2010 Summer Holidays, as part of a new agreement between Xtreme and the SU, the Xtreme studios were given their first major facelift in many years.
As of November 2010, the station will no longer be broadcasting on AM due to lack of funds and listenership (on AM).
SU Elections
Xtreme covers the SU Elections live every year until after the final results are called. This has been known to be broadcast until 6AM on occasions, due to close calls and re-counts. Xtreme usually reaches peak listeners during this broadcast as it is usually first at breaking election results on the night. The University newspaper The Waterfront also maintains a live blog during the results.Technical Information
The Waterfront office area also contains the audio distribution and processing units. The station feed is also distributed to speakers around the Students' Union buildings, namely the Level 2 Shop, Waterfront office, Events and Marketing office, Union House computer room, Cafe West and other eating areas. The Student Swansea Box Office also stream the webfeed outside their ticket-purchasing area, and The Wonky Sheep in the Student Village has also been known to stream Xtreme during the day.
Xtreme also links annually with Cardiff University's station Xpress Radio
Xpress Radio
Xpress Radio is a national award-winning student radio station based at Cardiff University in Cardiff, Wales, focussed on current, popular and new music. The station broadcasts from 10am-11pm daily with programming ranging from comedy to film review, to the best in new and local music.Xpress is...
to present live coverage of the Welsh Varsity
Welsh Varsity
The Welsh Varsity takes place every year between Cardiff University and Swansea University. The many sports represented at this event include rugby union, hockey, squash, badminton, lacrosse, rowing, golf, basketball, football, netball, fencing and an array of other sports including many martial...
sporting events between the two institutions, including a full live commentary from the Men's Rugby match in the evening.
In March 2009 the Studios were upgraded to broadcast in Stereo on the web. The studios had previously only been wired for mono due to the station originally only broadcasting on mono AM/MW, and due to mainly a lack of funds the transition never occurred until March 2009, when the then current Chief Engineer headed the transition to stereo, and at the beginning of the Easter break, the studio was re-wired ready for stereo. Studio 1's Playout PC was upgraded to output four stereo outputs and one mono output, for use with mAirList, the live assist playout system. During this work a new streaming server was also installed, which Xtreme now has full control over.
During Summer 2009, Xtreme managed to, mainly due to the then Station Manager and Head of Engineering's respectively efforts, get funding for new equipment, being the first major equipment upgrade for a while.
In November 2009, the station was awarded silver for Best Technical Achievement at the Student Radio Awards
Student Radio Awards
The Student Radio Awards is a UK awards scheme celebrating talent within the UK student radio industry, held annually since 1996 by the Student Radio Association and supported by BBC Radio 1....
for the Onair Loop System which was designed by the Chief Engineer at the time, Brett Jenkins,. In 2010 they won silver for the same award for the iPhone application (which was also designed by Brett) , and they won bronze in 2011 for Station Manager a web based interface for Myriad, which was designed by the current Head of Engineering - Toby Hughes .