Frequency 87.7 FM (limited) | ||
City Southampton, United Kingdom Broadcast area Worldwide (online)
Southampton (FM, limited) Slogan Your Student Soundtrack First air date February 1976 (February 1976) Format Student radio, internet radio | ||
Surge (also known as Surge Radio) is an English student radio station based at the University of Southampton. Founded in 1976 as Radio Heffalump, the station was renamed Radio Glen the following year and originally broadcast from the university's Glen Eyre Halls complex.
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The station was rebranded as Surge in 2001 and in 2005 was relocated to Highfield Campus. Surge is now owned and funded by the University of Southampton Students' Union, and celebrated its 40th birthday in February 2016.
Surge is currently led by Station Manager, Toby Leveson, and is supported by Georgia Rytina who acts as Assistant Station Manager.
History
Surge Radio began broadcasting in the autumn term of 1976 as a pirate station, before it was agreed in March 1977 to form a legal radio station at Glen Eyre. The station was founded as Radio Glen and initially broadcast from a studio in Glen Eyre "F-Block", transmitting on AM by means of induction-loop systems installed on building rooftops on 963, and later on 1602, kHz. The early 1980s brought major developments, including the station's first regular service of student news, a consistent programme schedule, the construction of a second studio and new music library, refurbishment of the main studio with cartridge machines and a new student-built mixer, and a sung jingle package. The station relocated to larger premises in New Terrace in 1998. In 2000 the station began broadcasting on 1287AM, having before only reached Glen Eyre tenants, and in 2001 it commenced FM transmissions for one week per year. Also in 2001, Radio Glen was renamed Surge, which initially stood for "Southampton University Radio from Glen Eyre".
In 2003 the station won its first Student Radio Award, awarded by the UK Student Radio Association: station Webmaster Nicholas Humfrey picked up the Technical Innovation Award for his "Total Request" system, while the website was awarded silver in the Website of the Year category. Surge News was founded in February 2004 by James Laidler, and in 2005 won first place in the SRA News & Talk category, with Nick Bevan picking up Surge's third award, for Newcomer of the Year. In June 2005, Surge successfully received funding of £25,000 from SUSU for construction of a new studio, which was completed and launched in October. In April 2006 the station hosted the Student Radio Conference, and in June hosted the BBC 6 Music Breakfast Show with Phill Jupitus. Surge picked up an award for Best Entertainment Show in November 2006, when Nick Bevan, Thomas Morgan and Zander Bell won with "The Nick & Mogs Show".
In the 2011 Student Radio Awards Surge's Technical Manager Ben Morton received two nominations for the station, both in the category of Best Technical Achievement; he won the silver award at the ceremony for his work on the Surge Facebook application.
Committee members
Surge is run on a day-to-day basis by the committee of fourteen members elected at the Surge AGM. All committee members are current students at the University of Southampton. Toby Leveson and Georgia Rytina currently lead the committee as Station Manager and Assistant Station Manager respectively. The committee is also joined in the running of the station by the Student Union's Vice-President Democracy and Creative Industries, currently Cameron Meldrum, who oversees their work as Director General.
The remaining members of the Surge Radio committee for 2016-17 are as follows: