This account of the rise and fall of radio station XFM (by Ray Burdis and co-director Ian Jefferies) will bring rheumy tears of nostalgic wistfulness to the eyes of Gen Xers and older millennials who were living in London in the 1990s. Not that it’s especially sad: if anything it’s a classic story of cool kids who get to live the dream then either sell out to the man or be betrayed by the guys who sold out, but still end up doing all right in the end. Nobody dies, apart from poor Princess Diana who was killed the morning that XFM was starting its first day of legal broadcasting, thus rather dampening the exultant mood.
Founder Sammy Jacob recalls the station’s roots in pirate radio, operating out of his mum’s flat in the east London district of Clapton around 1992. They had to discourage DJs from showing up with too many records lest that tip off fans or the authorities about where the studio was. After an early coup in persuading the Cure, or more precisely the band’s manager Chris Parry, to participate in the station launch, the station grew its audience and reach until it finally acquired a license in 1996/97.
