Classical on Campus FM

In the news it was announced that Campus FM would begin broadcasting 40 hours of classical music, to help fill the gap left by the closing of FM Bronja. This gesture is something I would normally applaud, as I believe musical diversity is a wonderful thing. But substituting the only shows aimed directly at students on a campus radio station for a genre of music that is far from being the most popular among students is a very bad move.

At present Campus FM broadcasts 24 hours a day, and for over 12 hours BBC radio is what is being aired. In a broadcasting week of 168 hours, only 15 hours a week are being dedicated to students' musical tastes, with the other 153 hours are monopolised by talk programmes, and the BBC, which although interesting in their own right, are hardly the type of radio which students would like to preset their sets to.

The proposal now is to completely scrap the 15 hours of drive time (4 to 7 p.m.) student-aimed radio shows (which over the last two years have gained quite a following) and replace them with classical music, with the remaining 35 hours being aired over the weekend. This sort of arrangement will please very few people as 40 hours are hardly replacement for FM Bronja, while at the same time those listeners who have been tuning into Campus FM for some student-oriented music, change to another radio station.

Over the past two years, shows such as The Faculty of Fun, Strictly urban and Quicksilver have been playing the music the students want to hear, while also giving students a place to announce their activities and talk about student issues and problems.

If the University Broadcasting Services Ltd wishes to introduce classical music on to Campus FM, that is all well and good, but not at the expense of the only shows aimed at students. And if they do remove these shows for classical music I would suggest they change the name Campus FM, as they would no longer be serving the tastes and needs of all the campus but instead only of those who teach on campus.