New Station Manager for Frequency

By Phil Huxley

Second year BA (Hons) Journalism student Emily Bull has just been appointed the new Station Manager of UCLanís student radio station - Frequency 1350AM. The station is to be relaunched on February 26 after two months off the air.

Emily is excited about her new role and thinks she is up to the challenge. "Iíve always wanted to be the station manager ever since I first joined the radio station in the first year, because I want to go into radio as a career and it just seemed like the natural thing to do for me," she says.

And as she was previously Frequencyís Station Administrator, Emily is more than aware of the struggles that she faces: "At the moment my first task is getting us back on air. Iím running around the Union trying to get a few things sorted and as soon as I can get us on air we will be.

Recording Issues

A lack of the right equipment is also a major headache for Emily and the radio station: "Weíve always had recording issues," she says. "So Iím trying to get us a computer logger system set up. We can get fined up to £10,000 if weíre not recording everything we put out, so it really is our first priority before we can broadcast any sort of shows at all."

Although Frequency was broadcasting throughout most of last term, not many people knew about the station as it had little publicity. But this time around, Emily is conscious of this and hopes that she can boost listener figures.

"Once we get back on air we want to get people listening," she says. "We have a launch week planned for September, so the new intake of first years will know all about us right from the very start. This term we are going to have socials and work on getting the station name known."

New Studio

In September, Frequency is due to move into a brand new studio in the new Student Union building. However, even this is not without its problems as there are no guarantees that the studio and the building itself will be finished by the start of term. This is because the builders have until December to complete the contract. A mid term completion of the building will mean the radio station has to move studios during its run, meaning more time off air.

Unity FM Linkup

Frequency is also linking up with local community radio station Unity FM. Emily says: "Theyíre going to kit us out with a bit more standard equipment and itís going to be very mutually beneficial ñ theyíre going to use our studios and we get the training and equipment."

Emily reveals that there are no plans for Frequency to move onto FM though: "We could apply for a four week licence to broadcast on FM but that takes a lot of money and an awful lot of groundwork, administration and beaurocracy to get through.

"At the moment I think AM is our best option, because there is no way we would ever get a permanent FM licence as that would be direct competition with Rock FM and Emap is not someone I want to take on personally while I am at university ñ especially as they might employ me in future!"

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