Edge of Jazz     

About phonic.fm

Phonic.fm grew out of five consecutive restricted service licenses (RSL’s) in support of the Vibraphonic festival www.vibraphonic.co.uk held annually in spring in Exeter, Devon the regional sub capital of the South West of England. It aimed to support a wide range of live music styles. Each of the broadcasts attracted continually larger and highly appreciative audiences and in summer 2007 a group set up a company to apply for a longer term community license. This was granted later that year and a search began for a suitable name for the new station.

Thus was born www.phonic.fm which went on-air on 15th February 2008 with a brief to provide ‘a sound alternative’ for the City of Exeter. Since the Company is not allowed to broadcast advertisements or receive sponsorship it became, by default, a ‘no playlist, no format station’. The Company is indebted to a range of funding bodies acknowledged on the site for their support.

Based in the basement of “The Phoenix” www.exeterphoenix.org.uk the station really is at the heart of the City of Exeter. Serving a resident population of 115,000 and a student population of just under 20,000 the evolving style of the stations output reflects the wide arts based programmes available in the City.

It is also fortunate in sharing the basement area with a state of the art recording studio www.sound-gallery.net which in addition to providing a showcase for new and emerging talent allows Phonic to broadcast ‘live’ sessions from the recording studio via a link to the radio studio. It is also possible to feed live acts in other parts of the building to be broadcast as live performance.

From the outset Phonic.fm has received very favourable comments from listeners and the press as this article in Times Online from December 2009 illustrates