EBC 3FM

EBC 3FM is a Euroish national radio station owned and operated by EBC Radio. It specialises in modern popular music, current chart hits, pop, dance and rock throughout it's daytime schedule.

Meanwhile, it's evening lineup provides alternative genres, including electronica, rock, metal, indie and alternative, experimental, drum and bass, instrumental, jungle, ambient, dance, live sessions, current affairs and comedy. It's main sister station - 3XM, plays black contemporary music, including rap, R&B and drill.

3FM also runs two full-time online streams, 3FM Dance, dedicated to dance music, and 3FM Happy, dedicated to feel-good music, both available exclusively on EBC Hub.

3FM broadcasts throughout the Euro Republics on FM between 97.1 MHz and 99.7 MHz, digital radio, digital TV and EBC Hub. 3FM started 24-hour broadcasting on 5 January 1992.

1970-1978: Launch
EBC Radio 3 launched on 12th October 1970, to rival and provide a legal alternative to pirate radio stations that were attracting younger audiences with their mix of modern popular music and light-hearted chat. Charles Falk was the first voice on the station when it came on air at 7am.

1978-1989: Most listened to radio station
By 1978, EBC Radio 3 was the biggest station in the Euro Republics, with DJ's such as Tony Fisher, Phil Osman and Charles Falk becoming household names in the country.

1989-1992: Criticism and privatisation threats
By the late 1980's, EBC Radio 3 began to fall out of favour of younger demographics, with the blame put majorly on the DJ's on the station, who were very out of touch with the 16-34 age demographic of the station, with the youngest daytime presenter on the station at the time (Isla Mahon) being 37.

Younger voices, such as Daniel Rogers and the team of The Audiowave Reception Sound Experiment were shunted towards late night hours with little promotion or respect from the station.

This was not helped by the legalisation of commercial radio in the Euro Republics in 1981, with trendier stations for young audiences launching throughout the country during the 80's. Despite this, Radio 3 remained the country's most popular radio station, although by this time the age of the average R3 listener was 47 years old, 13 years ahead of the 16-34 demographic.

August 1990 saw EBC Radio 3 undergo a major rebranding as EBC 3FM, in an attempt to target the younger audience that were moving towards independent radio stations.

Around this time, the National party threatened to privatise Radio 3/3FM, with Culture and Media Secetary Adrian Freeman slamming the station as "stuffy" and "old fashioned".

1992-2001: Revamping
The EBC ordered a revamp of 3FM to take place throughout 1992, involving a reset of the music playlist, to only allow music from 1987 onwards. Charles Falk - who by this time was age 59, quit the station in frustration about this new music policy, leaving Gary Woolacombe to take over the drivetime show from October 1992.

This did not improve the relationship between 3FM and the country's youth. An experimental "more music week" in which speech output was cut down to be less than a minute long, with the exception of Newsbeat.

Music
Because of it's youth oriented nature, 3FM plays a broad mix of current and potential future hits, including independent/alternative, hip hip, rock, dance/electronica, ambient, drill, grime and pop. This makes the station stand out from other top 40 stations around the world and within the Euro Republics, including it's main rival Play, which notably bans frequent airplay of rock music, and rarely plays black contemporary.

With it's progressive view on new music, EBC 3FM is well known and liked in the worldwide drum and bass, experimental, alternative and chill-out communities.

The station has - throughout the years - recorded many live performances. Studio sesssions also supplement the live performances. 3FM also broadcasts music documentaries and interviews, conducted by station DJ's.

News and current affairs
3FM has a public service broadcasting obligation to provide news and current affairs for 30 minutes on weekdays supplemented by bulletins throughout the day. Newsbeat, broadcast at 13:45 and 17:45, are the main news programmes heard on 3FM, with updates at the half hour (between 6am and 10.30pm) that are shared with 3XM.

Newsbeat in Focus, a half hour investigative journalism slot from the Newsbeat team airs on Sundays at 9pm. 3FM also transmits entertainment news, under the name The Net (Newsbeat Entertainment Transmission), with a daily bulletins at 2.30pm, and updates at every hour from 10am to 4pm.

Comedy
Since the late 1980's, 3FM has established itself as a major source for new comedy talent. The first comedy programme to be transmitted on 3FM (then known as EBC Radio 3) was The Audiowave Reception Sound Experiment in March 1988. This led to more comedy-based programmes being launched on the station within the next few years. ARSE ended in December 1993.

Experimental comedians and ARSE contributers Simon Groves, Justin Coleman and Neil McCole had evening programmes on 3FM in the early 90's, that blended comedy speech content with a music playlist less mainstream and more experimental than the regular 3FM schedule.

UK radio comedy such as ', ', ' and ' also featured on 3FM during this era.

After Simon Groves and Justin Coleman left 3FM to co-present a show together on sister station EBC Radio 6 in January 1996, they were replaced. In place of Simon Groves's Monday night programme, Claudia Keegan, whilst British comedy duo presented in the Tuesday night slot left vacant by Justin Coleman, and would alternate every three months of the year with Lee Rouch's Sound of Nothing.

Sketch comedy returned to 3FM in October 1997 with Bile, which featured Chris Brown, Ashley McCall, Jocelyn Burell and Sanjeev Dudley.