University Radio Essex is a campus radio station at the University of Essex serving Wivenhoe Park in Colchester. It was one of the original university radio stations in the United Kingdom and with the other pioneering campus radio stations at York, Brunel, Loughborough, Sussex, Surrey the door was opened in the UK for campus radio.
Format
The radio station was funded by the Student Union at the University of Essex, and changed identity to RED - 1404 AM in Autumn 2001. URE first broadcast on the 1 March 1971, on 301 metres medium wave (originally 998 kHz, later 999 kHz AM). It later broadcast on 963 kHz AM, 1404 kHz AM, 1602 kHz AM, and 87.7 MHz FM.
Programming format is predominantly music, with some news programmes including the award-winning Tower to Tower magazine programme.
Early history
Campus radio at Essex University started with the protests that ripped through the campus in 1968, followed by a long blockade of the boundary road surrounding the Wivenhoe Park campus at the University of Essex. One of the demands of the protagonists was that a student radio station may be set up. For its day, this was reported to be not an unusual demand, considering the only alternatives at the time were the BBC Home or Light programmes - or pirate radio, from boats anchored in the North Sea.
It took several years for radio to become a reality in the UK. Essex URE was beaten to air by University Radio York. Preparation and licensing had begun with members of the Students Union and the university's Amateur Radio Society, several members of whom were also members of the station's technical team. There was a close affiliation between the station, the amateur radio society and the Union Technical Organisation (UTO) who did stage lighting and provided disco services on campus.
By the time the station was ready to go on air, the central Student Union building had been built above Square 3, as had the first two towers. As a mark of the importance that the university attached to the station at the time, installation of cables for induction loops was already planned in the construction of the residential tower blocks (they were laid along a duct that runs between the towers).
The original mixer, with rotary volume controls was built by students, and assembled along with inexpensive turntables.
Meanwhile, the Student Union had great plans for their station - and dedicated three rooms in the union corridor for the new station. At the top of the stairs in the union building there was a large reception area and office (also used as the location for the transmission equipment) leading to a corridor with the main on air studio (studio A), and a talk studio (studio B - also known as the passenger studio) with a window between them. The studio B had a table for round table discussions. An article in the university magazine Wyvern in October 2001 written by one of the creators of URE notes that "Sound deadening, was originally provided by egg boxes glued to the wall. After the University fire office found out, the whole lot had to be ripped down, and heavy curtains used instead".
The idea at the time was that for occasional music programmes and news programs presenters would sit in the passenger studio B while an engineer would play the discs and otherwise operate the controls from studio A. In 1976 this layout was changed, with studio B divided so that a further studio, studio C was created, as a small self-op presenters music studio.
At some point later in the 1970s this configuration was changed with a further studio room added. As at UKC Radio this layout soon proved wildly impractical, because most presenters would sit in the self-op studio, leaving the centre and end studio unoccupied except for the daily union discussion programmes, and occasional news broadcasts.
A second studio suite was built at Wivenhoe House (original stately home of Wivenhoe Park on which the university was built, and was the home of the vice chancellor's offices and other admin) with a landline connection to the main studios. The intention was to produce documentary programs and news at Wivenhoe House. The studio was never actively used for broadcasting.
The studios were swapped in 1980 with the arrival of a Magnetic Tapes Ltd 12 channel desk (called "old faithful" by the engineers, due to its longevity), which was ordered specifically from the factory for the purpose, with quad Chilton PPM BBC style meters. This desk was later purchased by a member, and was used for BBC broadcasts. The Studio in Wivenhoe House had meanwhile bitten the dust as early as 1978.