History

Beginnings

In 1990 Robert Barrow, an Edinburgh University student, conducted a survey to gauge interest in Edinburgh having its own student radio station. Through this, Barrow met Eric Wilkinson, and together they formed the Edinburgh Student Radio society, initially hoping to set up a permanent radio station. They soon realised that this was a little unrealistic as a starting point, but instead focused onshort term broadcasting, taking advantage of a new Restricted Service Licence scheme from the Radio Authority.

With support from the Edinburgh Enterprise Centre, ESR recruited possible presenters and ran a training scheme with the help of former BBC Scotland employee John Gray. Sourcing a site from which the broadcast could be attempted, they settled on a name for the station: Fresh Air FM (ignoring possible suggestions which included Outburst Radio, UFM and 'Edinburgh Student Radio'). Finally the issue became that of finance, which was eventually cleared through a grant from the Edinburgh University Development Trust to supplement advertising income: this was sufficient funding to cover the costs of a fortnight's RSL broadcast.

Launch

Fresh Air FM was finally launched on October 3, 1992. It was one of the first student Restricted Service Licenced stations in the UK, and the initial broadcast generated a lot of media interest, though not all positive, with several incidents of bad language drawing criticism from the Radio Authority and media in general. Building on this initial broadcast, a shorter stint followed in December to coincide with the European summit. The first proper broadcast that made full use of the time restrictions allowed by the station's RSL - 24 hours a day, for 28 consecutive days - occurred in October 1994, and Fresh Air FM successfully conducted biannual 28-day broadcasts thereafter, typically in the months of October and May.

2010 - Present Day

2012

• 20th Year Celebrations

To edit the society template, visit the template page.

Society :: About :: History :: Committee :: Awards :: Station :: Members :: Alumni :: Memories :: Meetings :: Constitution :: Achievements :: Technical :: Studio 1 :: Studio 2 :: Equipment :: Broadcast :: Schedule :: List of Significant Shows :: Arts Team :: News Team :: Music Team :: Events Team