Xfm London

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Xfm

Broadcast area	London
First air date	1 September 1997
Frequency	104.9 MHz Block 12C 227.360 MHz (DAB) Channel 0111 (Sky) Channel 965 (Virgin Media)
Format	Mainly indie
Owner	GCap Media
Website	www.xfm.co.uk

Xfm London is a commercial radio station in the United Kingdom. The station is owned by GCap Media and broadcasts on 104.9 FM in London, on digital radio via 30 DAB multiplexes across the country, Sky Digital and Virgin Media

Xfm built its reputation on playing a wide range of alternative music, particularly indie, hip-hop, rock and a wide range of dance music, but since the merger between GWR Radio and Capital Radio Group, which led to the creation of its parent Gcap Media, the range of music it plays has narrowed markedly and the station now focuses primarily upon commercially successful indie.

1 History
2 Expansion of the Xfm Network
3 Current Presenters
4 X-Ray
5 Notable Former Xfm presenters
6 See also
7 External links
8 References

[edit] History

The station's roots go back to 1989 and a pirate-turned-Restricted Service Licence London station called "Q102", which was famed for launching the career of BBC Radio 1 DJ Steve Lamacq.

Following further RSLs under the Xfm moniker, the station became full time on 1 September 1997, under the management/marketing directorship of Chris Parry and programming director/founder Sammy Jacob. During the following year the station played a diverse range of music from its studios in Charlotte Street, but mass appeal was thwarted by the lack of awareness due to a poor marketing campaign which was compounded by the death of Princess Diana the day before its launch.

It was taken over by the then Capital Radio group in 1998, and on 23 August of that year was abruptly closed down for four days (during which a test tape featuring mainstream soft-rock acts was looped). The station subsequently relaunched with a vastly more mainstream format, and a new advert featuring a friendly cartoon radio saying "Don't be afraid!" (Referring to the perceived inaccessibility of its old format). However, the soft-rock revamp did not prove a success, culminating in listener-led protest 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 restored, particularly through night-time playlists and cutting-edge specialist shows.

The station found itself in hot water again the following year. Since the take-over by Capital, the station had become more male-orientated and featured football coverage and "laddish" output. This came to an abrupt end when the Radio Authority fined Xfm £50,000 when then breakfast presenter Tom Binns joked about bestiality on air.

Capital Radio set about increasing Xfm's listening figures, recruiting famous DJs such as Zoë Ball, comedians Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, and former BBC Radio 1 presenter Kevin Greening. 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.

In May 2007 the parent company of XFM, GCap Media, announced that they would be removing all presenters from the daytime (10am-4pm) lineup and replacing them with a jukebox based upon listener requests through their websites^[1].

[edit] Expansion of the Xfm Network

In recent years, Xfm has held 28-day Restricted Service Licence broadcasts in a number of British cities, including Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff and Glasgow. On June 9, 2005, the group was awarded a permanent FM broadcasting licence to serve the city of Manchester as Xfm Manchester. This service commenced on March 15, 2006. On 4 January 2006, GCap Media relaunched its Central Scotland regional station Beat 106 as Xfm Scotland.

In 2000, Xfm London was added to a number of DAB multiplexes around the country, and in January 2006 it replaced The Storm on a number of local multiplexes, creating near-national coverage. It is reported that this 'national' version of Xfm London (known as Xfm UK) will have local content on it (e.g. News, Travel) increasing with time.

[edit] Current Presenters

Ian Camfield The Rock Show; Xfm Drivetime
Paul Tonkinson Saturday Lunchtime
Alex Zane The XFM Breakfast Show
Steve Harris Music Response, The Weekender
John Kennedy X-Posure
Eddy Temple-Morris The Remix
Samanthi Sunday evenings
Marsha Shandur Weekend Breakfast Show
Phil Williams Sunday Mornings
Graeme Smith Weekend Afternoons

[edit] X-Ray

X-Ray was Xfm's short lived sister publication. Initially a free quarterly magazine, it later changed format and became commercially available. The magazine was issued monthly, in an unusually small format, now associated with "handbag size" women's magazines and came bundled with a CD demoing various signed and unsigned artists. After what seemed like a dispute with the publishers, the magazine went out of print, although Xfm still offer readers reassurance of its return on their website. [1]