96.3 Real Radio XS - History

History

Rock Radio launched in Glasgow as Scotland's first classic rock station by GMG Radio when they bought the licence previous owned by UTV Radio and branded as Q96, playing pop music of all ages. At 6pm local time on January 8th 2007 weeks of automated music was ended with Revolution (song) by The Beatles and Rod Stewart saying "You're in my heart, and you're in my soul Scotland, so let's rock"

The first line up of presenters were Kieron Elliott, a former BBC Three Continuity Announcer. Tom Russell, Ted Rock, David 'The Captain' Grant and Big Bad John Burns. in 2009 former Nazareth (band) guitarist, Billy Rankin joined the team. The station shares news and sport coverage with stablemates Real Radio and Smooth Radio but carries emphasis on Renfrewshire issues to fulfill its licensing requirement, such as lead sport stories from St Mirren. The station launched the popular 'Five Word Weather' to remove the nonsense many listeners felt had infiltrated modern weather forecasting.

In January 2008 the station hosted its first annual Birthday Bash at The Garage in Glasgow where The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Thunder and Gun played to raise funds for Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Scotland. The night raised more than £10,000 for the Scottish section of the charity. This event is now credited as the catalyst for the reforming of Scottish rock band Gun. 2008 saw the Scottish station joined by two more sister stations, 106.1 Rock Radio and Rock Radio (Digital) after positive listener reaction to the Scottish service.

In January 2009 the second Birthday Bash took place at The Garage and was headlined by Saxon with support from The Quireboys, Waysted, Danny Bryant and The Haze. Again more than £10,000 was raised for Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Scotland, by now the station's main charity and for whom much other fundraising was taking place over the year. For the first time, in June 2009, Rock Radio provided Download Festival Radio, a RSL service on 87.7FM around the Download Festival site at Donington Park in Leicestershire. In September 2009 networking with Rock Radio Manchester began which resulted in weekday breakfast and drive-time programming coming from Glasgow, but lunchtime and evening programming shared with Manchester. This allowed the station to have more hours of live presenters to improve the listener experience. During this period specialist programming at night, such as the Metal Hammer and Classic Rock Magazine Shows, and the 'Rock Radio Takeover' shows were launched and attract listeners from across the world.

By 2010 the current presenter line-up had been cemented, with Billy Rankin presenting the breakfast show and Tom Russell presenting drive time. Manchester presenters Paul Anthony and Moose were on evenings and lunchtime respectively. The Third Birthday Bash in January 2010 featured Madina Lake, Blaze Bayley and Dan Reed and again raised over £10,000 for Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Scotland. The summer period saw the station's most comprehensive music festival coverage. As with 2009 the station provided the RSL radio broadcast for the Download Festival, as well as producing many network shows from the site, and sent teams to Hard Rock Hell Road Trip in Ibiza, T in the Park 2010, High Voltage Festival, Sonisphere Festival's UK leg at Knebworth and the Leeds Festival.

The fourth Birthday Bash happened at Glasgow's The Garage (nightclub) in January 2011 and showcased Reef (band), The Union (band) and Taking Dawn. The summer festival season was Rock Radio's best yet. Partnering with sister news service RockAAA RSL broadcasting was extended to Sonisphere at Knebworth as well as the third year in succession at Download. Again a team returned to Hard Rock Hell Road Trip in Ibiza and High Voltage Festival. In addition related news service RockAAA provided news coverage for Sonisphere Festivals across Europe with teams at eight of the 11 events.

On 28 July 2011 it was announced that GMG Radio would be rebranding sister station 106.1 Rock Radio as Real Radio XS for its Manchester audience. Around the same, managing director Billy Anderson announced his departure from the station and entered talks with GMG Radio on buying out the station along with a group of private investors. Two months later, GMG announced the station would not be sold off and will be rebranded as '96.3 Real Radio XS' at the end of October 2011.