Radio Active

Radio Active is a Flarlandian radio station targeting the youth and the university student demographic owned by University of Wembley Broadcasting. It is known for its constant breaches of the regulation despite not targeting the FBTC often, known for playing songs with obscene lyrics often, for having minutes of silence against "the tyranny of commercial radio" and its own in-house style of programming, ranging from music to entertainment and news.
The station broadcasts nationwide on AM (over four transmitters), FM (national transmitter network), DAB, online and on TV (under must-carry laws, as the channel is available on both Freeview and Freesat). The AM frequency in Wembley (1413) alludes to the TV sister channel, Channel 14.
==History==
===Prelaunch and Radio Free Flarland===
In January 1984, Radio National broadcast a show called Radioactive Sounds on both AM and FM networks. The program was broadcast on Saturday evenings from 11:03pm to 1am (with an interruption at midnight for a news summary) and lasted for six years. This led to a change to the structure of the University of Wembley's radio network, who called for tenders to buy illegal FM radio stations and ask IBC to change its mentality from AM to FM, forfeiting Capital Radio's AM network in favor of a second service, Radio Arts and lanching a third network on the FM band based on Radioactive Sounds.
In 1989, UWB bought the frequencies of 34 illegal radio stations (some of the other stations either were sold to other universities or given to the FBC to launch FBC Radio 5) under the purpose that the new network would commit itself to "a broader coverage of music not easily heard on Flarlandian radio, broadcasting in stereo. The name, Radio Free Flarland, was selected in February 1990 and made its first broadcast on September 4, 1990 - nearly two weeks ahead of the launch of its television counterpart, Channel 14.
Upon launch, Radio Free Flarland became what was known as the "voice of the underground musicians", broadcasting an alternative format to its direct competitor, FBC Radio 3. The station would create its weekly top tens featuring exclusively music from the alternative Flarlandian artists playing their music on Radio Free Flarland. Other iconic programs created in this phase included repeats of On The Hour in order to attract more listeners. As part of legal requirements, it had to provide news bulletins at the top of certain hours, as dictated by UWB.
The name paid an homage to the illegal radio stations, almost all of them had shut down at the time of RFF's launch. At the time, RFF was a "legal emulation" of these radio stations, especially in the presenting style and the impromptu tasks many of its presenters did at the time. Despite gaining then-record listening figures of around 200,000, beating Capital Radio and the so-called "commercial broadcasters", RFF managed to strive by luring more and more listeners through ad campaigns benefitting the network, and largely due to this campaign, RFF was on the map. However, this represented a problem for FBC Radio 3, who, in response for the growing RFF, cried fowl of the name and thought that it sounded close to "Radio 3 Flarland".
In September 1993, RFF "imported" some programs Radio National deemed "unfitting", including a video game program, a youth edition of Your Shout and coverage of more alternative festivals.
===Rebrand and golden age===
On April 4, 1994, UWB rebranded the network as Radio Active. The name was chosen because of the "activity" of the network while distancing it from its former name, often misinterpreted as "Radio 3 Flarland" in order to avoid aullisions to its prime competitor. By this stage, Radio Active's formula was already having an effect on Radio 3's, as competition between the two began to increase significantly by having similar, more alternative playlists, at a time where the competing stations made a slow progression towards more "commercial" hits.
The golden age started when Zipstyke got its radio show in July 1994, in time for summer, and featured EDM from Flarland and abroad, including tracks made by Zipstyke themselves. This attracted an unprecedentedly high number of listeners, including foreigners. Zipstyke's flagship radio show aired on the station for many years.
===AM takeover===
Radio Active started AM broadcasts on April 1, 2003, following the takeover of a frequency formerly occupied by one of the two former IRG networks (the other network being Radio Flarland, consequently in 2003 it was used as a mix between the former AM Radio Flarland and the newer FM RCF network), under the grounds that RCF has lost its dominance in the radio sector. The station therefore used AM as a sign of "making sure that AM isn't plagued by what the old people hear".
==Programming==
Radio Active is licensed as a "young adult/merpeople" station. Its code of conduct prohibits children from listening to it, allowing it to play songs with more explicit lyrics.
Radio Active refuses to play songs on the playlists of its commercial competitors. Its playlist consists largely of Flarlandian tracks (about 60%) and experimental tracks from abroad. Since its launch, it has a bias that forbids two kinds of genres: bubblegum pop and top 40 songs, though some of these, particularly from the 90s, have been played.
In 2006, the station was notorious for playing Jan Terri's "Losing You" on a regular basis.
Radio Active's programming is divided into two genres: music and talk. Most of the network's talk programs are on air live and fall into five categories: music, chat shows, current affairs discussions (as part of its public service credentials and mainly shared with Radio National), news and radio series (similar to Radio National but aimed at Active's demographic).
Historically (since at least 2000), its breakfast show was known for being "more reliant on talk than music".
===Music programming===
*Soundophone
*The O Zone: concentrates on Oriencian music (the so-called O-pop)
===Talk programming===
*The Radio Active Morning Show with Franklin and Peter: on air since 2000, a morning talk show that usually tackles nonsensical topics. Best known for its tagline "more talk, less tune".
===News===
As part of legal requirements, Radio Active must provide fourteen news bulletins on weekdays (including national holidays) on the hour from 7am to 8pm, and four news bulletins on weekends (10am, 1pm, 4pm and 7pm). In addition to the news service, Radio Active also produces Sports on Active, airing at 4:30pm. Traffic updates are provided in simulcast with Radio National during the morning and late afternoon hours on weekdays, and weather bulletins are broadcast often before the news.
===Radio fiction===
===Former programming===
*Dancefloor: A program dedicated to Eurectidance tracks. Cancelled around 2003.
*Video Game Stage