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46-400: Radio X is a British national commercial radio station focused on alternative music , primarily indie rock , and owned by Global . The station launched in 1989 as a pirate radio station named Q102 , before being renamed Xfm in 1992. The station became a legally licensed London-wide station in 1997, and in 2015 began national broadcasting under the name Radio X . As of September 2024,

92-524: A legal radio station even though it could only be on the capital's airwaves for short periods of time. Xfm was officially created in London in 1992 by Jacob and Parry, with the station broadcasting at festivals and legally from Fiction's Charlotte Street headquarters on short-term licences. When the station faced difficulties in 1993, Smith and Parry organised a one-off open air festival titled XFM Great Expectations in London's Finsbury Park on 13 June, with

138-973: A more efficient 40 kbps AAC+ stream. This enabled it to broadcast nationally in stereo on DAB for the first time; the previous DAB broadcast used the less efficient MP2 coding, so although a higher bitrate (80 kbps), it was broadcast in mono. The change was made to make room for LBC News on the Digital One multiplex. During the 2010s, the station progressively included more "classic" records in its output. By 2021, except for six hours of John Kennedy 's Xposure programme, only about twelve recent releases would be playlisted in any one week. On 16 February 2023, Global launched Radio X Classic Rock to play classic rock music via DAB and online. Launched on 12 September 2024 alongside Radio X 90s and Radio X 00s, Radio X Chilled broadcasts exclusively chill-out alternative music. Launched on 12 September 2024 alongside Radio X 00s and Radio X Chilled, Radio X 90s follows

184-483: A re-launched evening show, Music:Response . A new "local" slot was introduced. Broadcaster Richard Skinner left the station after two years. The show Import:Export , produced and directed by Redefined Media, was resurrected and linked to KROQ-FM Los Angeles. Further weekend signings included The Sun journalist Gordon Smart starting a three-hour Sunday show. Smart's show ended in October 2013 when he left to join

230-662: A sharp decline. The DJs were no longer able to select some of their own tracks, and specialist shows were dropped. The station soon became more male-orientated and featured football coverage and "laddish" output. This came to an end after the Radio Authority fined Xfm £50,000 for breakfast presenter Tom Binns ' jokes about bestiality on air. Capital Radio attempted to increase Xfm's listening figures, recruiting DJs such as Zoe Ball , former BBC Radio 1 presenter, and re-recruiting comedians Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant , who took voluntary redundancy when Capital bought

276-547: A writer on Trigger Happy TV , for which he earned "best comedy moment" and "TV moment of 2001" awards. His first television appearances were Friday Night Armistice (BBC2) and Lee and Herring 's Fist of Fun , and has gone on to further appear in the Channel 4 -based late night sports talk show Under the Moon , with Danny Kelly where he regularly referenced his love of Sunderland AFC . He has also had stage appearances at

322-659: Is a British comedian best known for his character of Hospital Radio DJ Ivan Brackenbury. He has made multiple TV and radio appearances. In 2023, Binns was convicted of possession of child pornography . Binns was nominated at the Edinburgh Festival for the Edinburgh Comedy Award 2007 for his hospital radio DJ character Ivan Brackenbury. He has been twice nominated for the Adelaide Fringe Comedy Award, in 2010 and 2011. He

368-560: Is available and WorldSpace Satellite Radio was available. The best and most known commercial broadcasters in Asia are the South Korean radio and television networks SBS , Hong Kong television networks TVB , Taiwanese television networks FTV and Philippine radio and television networks GMA Network . Contemporary hit radio in bold . & Borno Radio Television (BRTV) Tom Binns Christopher Thomas Binns (born 1970)

414-598: Is known as leased access . Other programming (particularly on cable television) is produced by companies operating in much the same manner as advertising-funded commercial broadcasters, and they (and often the local cable provider) sell commercial time in a similar manner. The FCC's interest in program control began with the chain-broadcasting investigation of the late 1930s, culminating in the "Blue Book" of 1946 , Public Service Responsibility For Broadcast Licensees . The Blue Book differentiated between mass-appeal sponsored programs and unsponsored "sustaining" programs offered by

460-619: Is now 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 any local output on the Manchester station, and the only variance between the UK, London and Manchester services is split advertising and top-of-the-hour news intros. In October 2019, Radio X's DAB station switched to DAB+ using

506-503: Is primarily based on the practice of airing radio advertisements and television advertisements for profit. This is in contrast to public broadcasting , which receives government subsidies and usually does not have paid advertising interrupting the show. During pledge drives , some public broadcasters will interrupt shows to ask for donations. In the United States, non-commercial educational (NCE) television and radio exist in

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552-659: The IT Crowd on Channel 4, in Knowing Me Knowing Yule with Alan Partridge , and, in character as Ivan Brackenbury, on The Jason Byrne Show . In 2017, he appeared in the comedy movie Eaten by Lions . As Ian D Montfort he had a BBC Radio 2 series called Ian D Montfort is Unbelievable , broadcast in February 2013. Besides writing comedy for television and radio, Binns has appeared on other television shows, such as RI:SE , Bullrun , Oblivion and as

598-582: The Bloomsbury Theatre and Garrick Theatre . Binns has worked on Radio 1 , Virgin , BRMB and GLR , Talksport UK , Hallam FM and Key 103 , appearing either as himself or as hospital radio character Ivan Brackenbury. Binns is the co-writer of BBC 1's Hospital People , part of the BBC's Comedy Playhouse , in which he plays the five lead characters Ivan Brackenbury, Ian D Montfort, Susan Mitchell, Terry Boyle and Father Kenny. He has written

644-494: 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 dropped its wide-ranging music policy, which was replaced by a format based on USA college stations . The first audience figures after this change showed

690-516: The Saturday afternoon show . Karl Pilkington was assigned to them as a producer, to "just push the buttons", but eventually became the focal point of the show. By 2002, the station had added many specialist shows, such as London Express , The A-X of Alternative Music presented by Steve Taylor and generating a book published in 2004, and The Remix . Although the daytime playlist consisted of forty current releases, these were changed frequently, and

736-720: 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 with Lliana Bird on afternoons. 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. 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 ,

782-401: The audience measurement of a station or network. This makes commercial broadcasters more accountable to advertisers than public broadcasting , a disadvantage of commercial radio and television. In Europe, commercial broadcasting coexists with public broadcasting (where programming is largely funded by broadcast receiver licenses , public donations or government grants). In the UK, Sky UK

828-631: The British monarchy can't be as good for tourism as some people claim because "the French executed theirs and people still visit France" and played a George Michael record with the link "from one queen to another". Binns admitted five counts of making and one of possessing indecent images of children when he appeared in court on 21 November 2022. He was found possessing over 35,000 indecent images of children, including 104 Category A, 411 Category B and 34,946 Category C indecent images. On 17 August 2023, he

874-517: The Cure at the top of the bill. The XFM Great Expectations event was covered by the media including TV channels which talked about the XFM radio in interviews with Smith. In 1994, Xfm unsuccessfully applied to broadcast full-time across London. However, two years later, Xfm was awarded what was to be the final London-wide FM licence, and the station went on air on a permanent basis on 1 September 1997. During

920-476: The London output and all three stations were streamed online. Xfm rebranded as Radio X on 21 September 2015. The rebrand was carried out 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 presenters on a refreshed schedule. Xfm aired its last day of programming on Sunday 13 September 2015, with Lliana Bird playing out

966-550: The Machine , Razorlight and Mumford & Sons . 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

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1012-582: 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. Up until the end of the Xfm branding, the London, Manchester and Scotland stations broadcast 43 hours a week of local programming – weekday breakfast and drive, and four hours a day at weekends – with networked programming, primarily from London, at other times. TV platforms followed

1058-465: The Radio Authority made it clear to Capital Radio that this would negatively affect the decision to renew the XFM licence. In December 2009, Binns was fired from BRMB by its owners Orion Media after he cut short the Queen's Christmas Message . The Message was played into his show in error instead of the expected two-minute news bulletin. Binns joked, "Two words: bore-ring". He then went on to joke that

1104-630: The US and some Latin American countries. Commercial broadcasting is the dominant type of broadcasting in the United States and most of Latin America. "The US commercial system resulted from a carefully crafted cooperation endeavor by national corporations and federal regulators." The best-known commercial broadcasters in the United States today are the ABC , CBS , Fox , and NBC television networks , based in

1150-460: The United States. Major cable television in the United States operators include Comcast , Charter Communications and Cox Communications . Direct-broadcast satellite (DBS) services include DirecTV and Dish Network . In an hour of broadcast time on a commercial broadcasting station, 10 to 20 minutes are typically devoted to advertising . Advertisers pay a certain amount of money to air their commercials , usually based upon program ratings or

1196-487: The book How to Get Famous - A Cynical Guide . In 1999, London-based radio station Xfm was fined £50,000 by the Radio Authority following complaints regarding the use of coarse sexual innuendo when discussing a bestial pornography video with a listener during the Tom Binns Breakfast Show . Parent company Capital Radio decided not to sack Binns but in a meeting shortly after the fine was issued,

1242-479: The daytime (10 am–4 pm) lineup and replacing them with a jukebox based upon listener requests through their websites. On 6 March 2008 an announcement was made reversing the decision to remove daytime presenters. From 25 March 2008 a new schedule restoring daytime schedules was put in place. On 11 February 2008 GCap Media announced that they would be selling the analogue licence for the Manchester, Scotland and South Wales stations, retaining only XFM London. This decision

1288-523: The final song 'Kick Out The Jams' by MC5 and bidding an emotional farewell to the station. Musicians, listeners and Xfm DJs were invited to share their memories of the station using #wewerexfm. Xfm Scotland ceased broadcasting entirely on the same day, with Global handing back the Paisley licence to Ofcom. A "holding" service of music and announcements began transmitting on national DAB under the Radio X title

1334-400: The following day, with this service also taking the place of Xfm on FM, TV and online until the full launch of the new Radio X at 6:30   am on Monday 21 September 2015. The first song played on the rebranded Radio X, by Chris Moyles just before 7   am on 21 September, was " Love Machine " by Girls Aloud , an off-format nod to media reports of a male bias by the new station. Radio X

1380-498: The following year the station played a range of music from its studios in 97 Charlotte Street . 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 relocated from Charlotte Street to Capital's headquarters at Leicester Square , where it remains today. On 23 August that year, Xfm

1426-444: The form of community radio ; however, premium cable services such as HBO and Showtime generally operate solely on subscriber fees and do not sell advertising. This is also the case for the portions of the two major satellite radio systems that are produced in-house (mainly music programming). Radio broadcasting originally began without paid commercials. As time went on, however, advertisements seemed less objectionable to both

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1472-572: The network include: In 2022, Signature Entertainment released Kick Out the Jams: The Story of XFM , a documentary by The Wee Man's Ray Burdis co-directed with Ian Jefferies, about the history of Xfm. The film features interviews with former Xfm presenters like Gary Crowley, Ricky Gervais, Steve Lamacq, Stephen Merchant and Claire Sturgess, as well as musicians like The Libertines' Pete Doherty and Carl Barat, Alan McGee and Sonya Madan. Commercial radio Commercial broadcasting

1518-426: The overall playlist contained about ninety records. In time the specialist shows gradually declined in number, and the playlist was again restricted. 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, but this licence

1564-746: The public and government regulators and became more common. While commercial broadcasting was unexpected in radio, in television it was planned due to commercial radio's success. Television began with commercial sponsorship and later transformed to paid commercial time. When problems arose over patents and corporate marketing strategies, regulatory decisions were made by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to control commercial broadcasting. Commercial broadcasting overlaps with paid services such as cable television , radio and satellite television . Such services are generally partially or wholly paid for by local subscribers and

1610-493: The radio as a platform to promote the release of a Cure remix album Mixed Up during night-time radio shows, broadcast live on the air By 1991, Q102 was off-air, with Jacob re-organising this rock station as Xfm in Clapton, East London . At this point the station was still a pirate radio station operating out of his parents' flat, though Jacob had plans to get a number of Restricted Service Licences for Xfm, which would make Xfm

1656-475: The radio networks. This sustained programming, according to the Blue Book, had five features serving the public interest: Commercial time has increased 31 seconds per hour for all prime time television shows. For example, ABC has increased from 9 minutes and 26 seconds to 11 minutes and 26 seconds. Programming on commercial stations is more ratings-driven— particularly during periods such as sweeps in

1702-491: 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 . In September 2011 a new Xfm schedule began, and included Mary Anne Hobbs moving to

1748-428: The same alternative music format as Radio X, however exclusively plays music from the 1990s era. Launched on 12 September 2024 alongside Radio X 90s and Radio X Chilled, Radio X 90s follows the same alternative music format as Radio X, however exclusively plays music from the 2000s era. The stations which formerly comprised the Xfm network were: Current Presenters on the network include: Former presenters on

1794-409: The station broadcasts to a weekly audience of 2.1 million, according to RAJAR . In 1989, the pirate radio presenter Sammy Jacob, known as DJ Sammy Jay on London's Horizon Radio and Solar Radio, set up an indie music station called Q102, which started broadcasting rock music on a part-time basis from 1 January 1989, with other hours following the soul format of another local station called CD93. Jacob

1840-450: The station, after the first airing of The Office . Together with Zane Lowe and Christian O'Connell , this yielded growing listening figures. In 2012, host John Kennedy was the only member of the presenter lineup that had been with the radio station since its first broadcasts. His new music show, X-Posure is the station's longest running show and is credited as being the first to give radio play to artists including Adele , Florence and

1886-435: 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

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1932-520: 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

1978-533: 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 ;

2024-470: Was one of the presenters on this forerunner to Xfm alongside Adrian Gibson, Donald Johnson, Steve Lamacq and CD93's Bob Matthews (a DJ also known as Bob Mower), with the format changing to play only indie rock music by 1990. In late 1990, Fiction Records founder, and manager of The Cure , Chris Parry got involved with the London station, even though at that point it still did not have any official authorisation to operate. The Cure's singer Robert Smith used

2070-538: 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 studios of Red Dragon FM (now Capital South Wales ). 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

2116-550: Was voted a Foster's Comedy God in 2010. He also was nominated for a Chortle Award in 2011 and was also named in a list of their 50 Most Memorable Gigs of the decade. He won the Best International Act at the 2013 New Zealand International Comedy Festival and was nominated for Best Comedy Show at FringeWorld, Perth in 2015 and 2016. He appears in the BBC MI5 drama Spooks (Episode 6 Series 6), Series 3 of

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