KUBE Radio update 1

Tom Darby, press officer for Keele’s award-winning student radio station KUBE Radio, wrote the following update for Keele’s student newspaper Concourse:

“Hi, and welcome to the first (somewhat belated) KUBE update of the year! It has been a very busy semester for us thus far, we’ve had a lot of interesting stuff going on. At the start of the semester we held elections for new committee members, where we appointed a new Head of Marketing and Head of News, as well as opening up a new position on the committee for Press Officer (which was filled by yours truly!). And we also started broadcasting in certain parts of the Union building during the daytime, which is a big step forward.

Over the course of the last few weeks we’ve also had photographers and camera crews in the studio. They’ve been commissioned by the University to film and take photos for next year’s online prospectus, and other promotional materials. For those of you who haven’t ever been in the KUBE studio who are interested in seeing what kind of facilities we have, or just fancy being nosy, keep your attention fixed on the Keele website some time near the beginning of 2009, which is when those materials will be going online.

In slightly more important news, a few weeks ago we went to the Student Radio Association Awards in London, after receiving nominations for awards in two categories. Unfortunately we won neither award, but the awards are very competetive, and these were our first nominations in 10 years, so we are proud to have even gotten that far. There’s always hope for next year’s awards though. Whilst we were all down in London for the awards, we spent the following morning as part of the studio audience for The Wright Stuff on Channel 5 – which was a lot of fun, and an eye opening experience into how television works behind the scenes. Hopefully we’ll be organising similar trips soon, and when we do, I will of course be writing them here.

Speaking socially, this semester we’ve held a successful launch party, which was followed up by a bar crawl social a few weeks later which was a lot of fun, and more recently we held a get together at the Pig and Rat. While we’re on the topic, we have another one in the works right now, and we’re aiming to make it big! On Thursday December 11th we will be holding a KUBE Christmas Party, in either K2 or Sam’s bar (once the venue is set there will be posters around campus, so keep an eye out!), from 9 until late. So far we’ve already organised to get some professional DJs in to entertain you throughout the night, along with give aways to all KUBE members with shows who attend the party. We will also be holding a raffle, which we will be selling tickets for in the week leading up to the party, starting on Monday 8th December, in the union near the box office. Prizes include: Tickets to the Union’s XXXmas party, Alton Towers Tickets, drinks vouchers, plus a ton of other goodies, so it’s well worth getting yourself a ticket. People with raffle tickets will also be able to get a discount on entry to the Christmas Party. Everyone is welcome, even people who aren’t members of KUBE. It’s going to be a great night. And if you’re not a member of KUBE, but perhaps are interested in joining next semester at Refreshers, then this is the perfect opportunity for you to come along, meet us, and get to know who we all are.

That’s quite enough of the catching up, for now anyway. There’s plenty of looking forward to do for KUBE, there’s the aforementioned Christmas party, we’re also in the process of revamping our website to make it more accessible, so keep an eye out there, and as usual keep listening to shows for some quality content, along with plenty of interviews and give aways. Next semester we’re planning to get more goodies sent to us to give away to listeners on air, giving you even more reason to listen. If you’re interested in joining KUBE at all, then keep an eye out for us at Refreshers at the start of next semester, we’d love more people to join, and it means you have an opportunity to have your own radio show! Keep a look out for the next Concourse for further details on all things KUBE, you can also join our Facebook group which you can find by searching for “KUBE Radio” on Facebook, and finally keep an eye on www.kuberadio.com for important updates, news, and to listen to our shows.”