Almost all music can now be listened to on demand online, if not smugly on vinyl, or smugly on CD. Sometimes it can feel like there’s no room for more methods of consuming music, but here’s why Oxford University’s own Oxide Radio has earned a place in my regular listening habits.
Its highlight is undoubtedly the diversity of shows, reflected in its packed schedule. They’re not always live in the traditional sense; during term time, about half of them are broadcast live from their studio on Worcester Street, while the others are pre-recorded and streamed over the website. While this could be argued to be needlessly complicated, this provides convenience for the hosts’ busy term-time schedules and serves as an imitation of the kind of analogue inconvenience that drives some music-lovers wild.
Each show lasts around an hour and is hosted by its own student volunteer. They provide an expert’s (or at least a passionate enthusiast’s) insight into their own musical niche. For example, Radio Ant, the host of Make Noise!?, describes their show as “a place for all things weird, funky, strange, and unconventional”, testing the boundaries of what is considered music. Cállate focuses on songs from “Latin America, Iberia, and beyond”. Funny Internet experiments with exploration of the humorous and abnormal corners of the internet sonically. The theme of Jamuel L. Jackson is even more fluid, changing from week to week according to the host’s whims.
The enormous variety of shows ensures appeal to every listener and expression to every host, which station manager Luis Hewitt describes as their top priority. He told Cherwell: “Our top priority is giving students an uncensored platform over which they have full creative control. We have over 80 shows and each one is a student expressing the things that are important to them. We do not censor opinions, we do not edit or micromanage any shows, and we’re not pretentious about what kind of content can air – we have everything from tipsy gossip panels, to experimental DJ mixes, to rich journalistic podcasts. During my two terms as station manager, I haven’t rejected a single show proposal on account of its content, and don’t plan to (though let me affirm that we wouldn’t tolerate anything particularly hateful or incendiary).”
Of course, being run by a small group of busy student volunteers, it’s not without its flaws. The automated transitions to and from shows can be stuttery. Additionally, the hosts are occasionally too quiet and difficult to discern behind their tracks, and the hostless Oxide Mix that plays in-between the shows is unfortunately short. However, considering the station acts as a “platform for students to […] learn how to broadcast”, difficulties are understandable.
In Hewitt’s words, the Oxide Mix is a “chance for student musicians (and other local acts) to have their music played on Oxide”. It currently features Keble College student Lucy Peer’s ‘Who Are You’ – a moody and grounded rock song with dramatic bite and plenty of confidence, as well as Oxfordshire band The Scarlet Chevrons’ ‘Why So Robotic?’, a funk song heavy on slap bass, sci-fi synth, and imitatively mechanical vocals. EXHERMITT’s (Hewitt himself) ‘Creu De Gaudí’ features as a more experimental and ambient track. Inspired by the temptation of the devout Catalan architect Gaudí, he wrote it to reflect the language of modern masculinity and the sentiments of the archetypal “stoic male”. The mix is a way of engaging with Oxford’s music scene and providing listeners with local talents, making the station relevant to its student demographic. It could definitely do with expansion, though, and Oxide’s planned Trinity term campaign and future collaborations aim to deal with this.
In the future, Oxide Radio plans to get its show on the road, interviewing students live at big events in the Oxford calendar. Through another of their campaigns, they also aim to be broadcast in some of Oxford’s shared spaces, such as JCRs and local cafés, providing an opportunity for community integration. In addition, the next term should be populated with events hosted by the station.
Oxide Radio is genuinely impressive in its quality and dedication to the sounds of Oxford, be that what its people are producing or what interests they’re sharing. While there are aspects that could do with some polishing, the station seems committed to its improvement. This free station is worth a listen.
