woohooo! i lub Xfm. T'is me fave station.

I bet it will get some stick here, but getting a digital radio and hence Xfm was the best purchase I ever made.

During the day it's 'playlist indie' a lot of the time, but that's still infinitely preferable to daytime Radio 1, and John Kennedy's evening show is ace.

I'm not much of an Xfm lover, but I'm glad it's been awarded the Manchester licence. It's certainly an improvement on Galaxy 102 and Key 103, both of which are pure garbage.

I yesterday found out that XFMs been broadcasting in Cardiff for the past few weeks, it's only like a one month deal tho. Going to an XFM night tomorrow at the Barfly, Martini Henry Rifles & The Rakes, plus disco dancing till late. Huzzah!

It's about time, here in Leeds there is no radio station worth listening to

While I prefer XFM to a lot of other commercial radio stations, that quote from the MD makes it sound as though they're selling themselves primarily on being less broadminded than the BBC. I know what he means but still...

What is wrong with people? Why do people only want to listen to one kind of music? Radio 1 isn't exactly perfect, but it's the only pop station in the country that plays music from a variety of genres and treats them all the same. XFM is the lowest common denominator for people who think guitar="real".

Christian O'Connell's a wanker too.

the trouble with xfm is that in the day you just get the same 7 songs on loop - even if they are indie, and preferrable to the crazy frog, you soon get sick of them...

the later shows kick arse tho..

So now, the rest of the UK now gets to hear Coldplay, Keane, The Kaiser Chiefs, Pete Doherty's solo single and Oasis repeated ad nauseum until the graveyard shift when the good shows are on? Woop.

Xfm is only on air in Cardiff for a month as an RSL (restricted service license).

Unless you're pretty central you might not get it very well. Roath, Canton etc. should probably get it alright - it's aiming at Studentsville for obvious reasons.

X is running a number of random months on FM in big cities where it's available on digital radio in an attempt to get people to make the switch and add some clout to any full time licenses they might go for in the future.

By the by, there's a full time semi-regional Cardiff/Swansea license (or Cardiff only) in the offing in the next few years. An rock/alt station's expected to take it but a talk station could be an outside possiblity. XFM, Kerrang! and possibly Virgin radio would be the main bidders.

Sadly, it's the nature of *commercial* radio that we have to put up with such broad daytime playlists. But them's the breaks I guess. A pretty tame playlist and attitude is needed to built a reasonably sized audience which attracts the advertisers and pays the bills.

I know a lot of people in radio, myself included, who are hugely frustrated at the lack of variety and need to serve the lowest common demoninator, but at the end of the day - it's a business and that's the way it has to be.

Like a lot of radio stations, XFM plays mainstream, paint-by-numbers indie/rock in the daytime, and you have to listen to shows like Kennedy's and Music Response and Import/Export to hear the decent, underground stuff. Radio 1 do this, as do probaby Radio 2 (I don't know; I don't listen). Even talk radio is often better in the evenings, Radio 5 Live between 1am and 5am is often intriguing and interesting for those nightowls such as myself.

"People who love guitar rock, we know through research, often don't like pop or urban"

Oh wow, so not only are they going to play blandest-of-the-bland indie-lite and chart rock all day, they're not even gonna throw in a bit of pop or hiphop ('urban' pssh) to liven things up. How intensely dull.

I guess John Kennedy is okay.

Yeah, Xfm was good even 5 years ago I reckon. Tom Binns was a genuinely good breakfast show DJ and Bob Geldof was really quite interesting, like or hate what he played. These days it's just adopted such a depressingly 'laddish' attitude...

That said, I *hope* that Bryce is showing more ignorance of his station than actuality. It would, as Matt says, be shame if we're looking at a total loss of anything like even the Beasties because it's not 'guitar' music. At that point it's just going to be Vrigin a little more 'current'.

They already play U2 like they fucking matter which is really hideously upsetting...

this means i will no longer have to wake up to nicksy in the morning

Excellent.

i wont hold my breath, nothing comes to the west country other than old people and tourists.

XFM is the best your country has, so I'd stop whining.

i hate xfm. radio for rock is pathetic. not one good station.
radio 3 all the way now! :D

do they really only pull 500,000 listeners now? it was only 100,000 or so less before that fateful day Capital stepped in all those years ago. Mmm, interesting...
Still, good to know the station's owners aren't raking in the $$, just a shame they've got deeper pockets to afford the losses unlike Sammy Jacobs and [grr] Chris Parry...