FreshAir RadioFreshAir Radio

Robert Barrow surveyed his fellow Edinburgh students in the autumn of 1990 to find out whether anyone wanted a campus station, then teamed up with Eric Wilkinson to build one. Fresh Air FM went out for the first time on 3 October 1992 under a restricted service licence, in October and May bursts rather than continuously. Debt shut it down in 2002; it came back in April 2004 simulcasting online, dropped the FM from its name, and when Ofcom refused it a licence in 2006 the internet became the whole of it.

The weekly grid is student-built and half of it is talk — news, sport and arts hubs, comedy, a slot handed to The Student newspaper. The music half is society-led and specific: Soul Soc, Indie Soc, Smith's Jazz Hour twice a week, Cuban Mixtape Crisis, Rock the Ages. Every August since 2007 FreshFringe takes over, reviewing the Festival Fringe show by show.