Sound System turns thirty-five
The student radio station has broadcast from the sound studio every term since 1991, and it has been run entirely by students the whole time. This week Sound System marks thirty-five years on air with a forty-eight hour broadcast, from six on Friday evening to six on Sunday.
Every presenter who has ever had a show was invited back for an hour. Two hundred and eleven said yes, which is more hours than there are, so the rota is being settled the way it always has been: on the whiteboard by the studio door, in marker, with a great deal of crossing out.
How a student station lasts thirty-five years
It is not a club with a teacher behind it. There is no staff producer and no approved playlist, and the school has never once asked to hear a show before it goes out. What keeps it going is a short set of rules, written in 1991 and taped inside the booth door, which every new presenter reads before their first show.
- Anyone in the school can have a show. There is no audition.
- Nobody is on air for more than an hour at a time.
- If you say you will be there, be there. Dead air is the only thing the station does not forgive.
- The station belongs to whoever is running it this year.
Ines Moreau, who looks after the sound studio, keeps the equipment working and the whiteboard wiped. Everything else, from the schedule to the jingles to the arguments about the jingles, belongs to the students.
Thirty-five years, in five moments
- 1991. The first broadcast goes out from a storeroom next to the music department, on a transmitter that reaches the end of the corridor.
- 1998. The station moves into the sound studio, and gets a door with a lock — still the only one on that floor.
- 2004. Long Player starts: one album, start to finish, no talking over the songs. It has never missed a weekend.
- 2012. The Crit moves from the studios onto the air, and becomes the station’s most listened-to show.
- 2026. Thirty-five years, forty-eight hours, and a whiteboard with no space left on it.
The schedule this weekend
| Show | Normally | This weekend |
|---|---|---|
| Morning Shift | 7:30 – 8:15am, Monday to Friday | Saturday and Sunday, 7:30am, with former presenters |
| The Crit | 8:15 – 9pm, Tuesday and Thursday | Friday, 8pm, live from the main hall |
| Long Player | 3 – 4pm, Saturday and Sunday | Both days as usual, one album each, start to finish |
| Alumni hours | Not normally on air | Every hour on the hour, Friday 6pm to Sunday 6pm |
The only timetable in the school set by seventeen-year-olds.
Sound System, describing itself
Tuning in
In the building, the station plays in the dining hall, the corridors of the digital studio and, famously, the lift. Outside it, the whole forty-eight hours streams from the school site, and former presenters have been told it will be recorded, which some of them regard as a threat.
If you have ever had a show and have not yet been in touch, there is still a waiting list. It is on the whiteboard.
I had a show years ago. Can I still get a slot?
Possibly. The whiteboard is full, but presenters do drop out, and the students running the weekend are keeping a list. Email the school and ask for Sound System.
Can current students still join the station?
Yes, and they do every term. Put your name on the board. The newest presenters usually start with a Saturday afternoon.
