Scratch Radio
| File:ScratchRadioLogo.png | |
| Broadcast area | Internet |
|---|---|
| Programming | |
| Format | Music radio |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Birmingham City Students' Union |
| History | |
First air date | May 2003 |
| Links | |
| Website | Official website |
Scratch Radio (Scratch) is a community and student radio station based in the Perry Barr area of Birmingham, England, and is the only student and community radio station in the city. It has broadcast on FM and over the internet.
Scratch Radio's studio, from which live broadcasts take place, is located on the first floor of Birmingham City University's Students' Union and contains the broadcasting equipment alongside the main reception. The station previously shared a second studio, on the second floor of the Students' Union, with UCE TV (the union's television station, now Tiger TV) as a production studio for producing jingles, idents and other material. Staff and volunteers of Scratch Radio have access to the facilities in the Students' Union's Media Centre and the university's School of Media.
History
Scratch Radio was conceived in 2003 by the students and community of the University of Central England (now Birmingham City University) under the supervision of then-communications officer Giles Bowmer and Student Activities Officer Clare Edmondson. The name was created to stand for "Student and Community Radio at the Community's Heart" and was officially formatted SCRatch, though this practice was lessened in later years for clarity when reading the website or e-mail addresses on air.
After the first broadcast in the KicFM trailer, the first broadcast in the Scratch Radio studio took place in November 2003, and was a web-broadcast only. This was followed by a simultaneous FM and web-broadcast in May 2004, February 2005 and February 2006—each of these broadcasts lasted one month. Since February 2006, all broadcasts have been web-broadcasts only. During 2007, a month-long broadcast was undertaken in April, a week-long broadcast to cover the university's freshers' week in September, and a week-long broadcast in November.
A re-boot of the station was planned for 2009, involving a new logo and an all-year, five days a week broadcast, instead of the previous one month per year Restricted Service Licence broadcast. This broadcast began on 5 May 2009 from the station's website.
Volunteers
Since its establishment, Scratch Radio has been run by volunteers. Scratch Radio uses a number of ways to recruit volunteers, which it seeks from both the student community at Birmingham City University and the local community. Many volunteers have no experience in radio broadcasting, and Scratch Radio provides free training for them.
There are a number of departments for volunteers to get involved with, the main ones listed below:
- music
- news and sports
- presenting
- publicity
- technical
- website
- events and entertainment
Management structure
The Station Manager reports to the Communications Officer of Birmingham City Students' Union, but is essentially responsible for the running of the station. The volunteer committee is elected annually by Scratch Radio volunteers during April under the supervision of an independent adjudicator from the Students' Union. Any positions that receive no candidates or a majority of RON (Re-Open Nominations) votes are left open until the next committee meeting. The handover period, the transition period between two committees, lasts for one month.
References
External links
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