Alex Zane: his blokey breakfast show attacts geezers and lads
What if, on the eve of Xfm's September 1997 launch, founder Sammy Jacob could have seen 10 years into the future and read the Wikipedia entry for his station? It begins: "Xfm is a brand of commercial radio stations focused on alternative music, primarily indie, and owned by GCap Media in the United Kingdom," and a separate entry for Xfm London pitilessly goes on to declare: "The range of music it plays has narrowed markedly, and the station now focuses primarily upon commercially successful indie."
Jacob, whose roots were in pirate radio, might have thrown in the towel there and then. Who coulda thunk it back in 1997 - that a station founded as a risk-taking alternative to Radio 1 (which tucked away its only "alternative" programmes, the Evening Session and John Peel, in the nighttime schedule) would end up wedged in the very middle of the mainstream? And that the sole remaining outpost of new and peculiar music, John Kennedy's Xposure show, would be relegated to - this sounds familiar - the late-night slot?
Having said that, Xfm wouldn't have survived to see its 10th birthday if it hadn't been bought by GCap, owner of a large portfolio of mainstream stations, just before its first birthday in 1998. Its diverse indie menu - and this was when "indie" wasn't synonymous with "Snow Patrol" - failed to pull in the punters during its first year, and it would assuredly have closed if GCap hadn't stepped in with a special-measures rescue package. You know the rest - well, you know it if you live in London or the other regions where Xfm now operates (Manchester, Scotland and South Wales).
Aided by both a greatly increased marketing budget and the fact that guitar-rock has been going through one of its cyclical popularity surges, Xfm is now relatively hale and hearty. Despite recently losing its best presenter, Lauren Laverne, and dropping its daytime DJs in favour of listener-created playlists, its diet of Kaiser Chiefs and Killers plus a roster of japesome presenters (think Smashy in skinny jeans), seems to be striking a chord. To judge by listeners phoning Alex Zane's breakfast show, Xfm is pulling in a swathe of people who would have been repelled by its original, Butthole Surfers-playing incarnation. Zane's callers are geezers and lads, attracted as much by Zane's blokey humour as by the music.
Xfm is trundling triumphantly toward next month's anniversary, vigorously promoting it with "intimate" gigs featuring big bands and cash giveaways - though the oft-repeated tagline, "Get YOUR share of £10,000," fails to point out that a share of £10,000 wouldn't keep Amy Winehouse in Tanqueray for a week. Xfm's transformation into a replica of pre-1993 Radio 1 is complete. Oh, Matthew Bannister - where are you now?
