SWU.FMSWU.FM

SWU launched in 2020 into the middle of the pandemic, built for 15- to 30-year-olds in Bristol and the music cultures they were already running for themselves. The timing was ruinous: it took heavy losses through COVID, and by September 2022 the rising energy bills had finished it off and the station went dark. Rinse bought it and brought it back in September 2023, exactly a year later — the station's first move outside London, with both the remit and the local roster left intact.

The grid reads like a map of the city. Dazee brings Ruffneck Ting, Chad Dubz brings Foundation Audio, Infernal Sounds handles the soundsystem end, and Axle covers dubstep, grime and garage. Nectax runs jungle into footwork, Stay Up Forever takes the acid techno, and A Sagittariun the ambient hours. The roster leans very hard on Bristol's own people.