Every year, the whole University gears up for another intake of students. As one lot of third years pile out clutching bits of paper, another eager bunch of first years join BCU and the fun starts all over again!

Freshers ‘11 has been in Scratch pipeline for months and we’ve had a revamp to end all revamps to make sure we’re 100% ready to make it an event to remember!  When we moved studios 12 months ago, the furniture in our new home was only meant to be temporary and our engineers have spent the Summer ripping our old studio out and replacing it with brand new equipment.

All the gadgets and technology inside makes us comparable to any other station out there and truly cements us as ‘Birmingham’s Favourite Student Station’. We’ve got a brand new sound and a brand new image to move into the new academic year and we really are your one stop shop for EVERYTHING from daytime chart music through to our evening and weekend specialist output.

Whether you love Olly Murs or Wretch 32, or if you’re more a fan of Reggae, Dub Step or Jazz - there’s a home for you on Scratch. We’ll keep you up to date on student life, and if you have a topic you want to talk about then let us know!

Keep your eyes peeled for a couple of amazing competitions over Freshers too. With tickets to all the big events to give away, you’d be silly not to keep listening if you can’t get some last minute!

All in all, Scratch is the place to keep your ears glued to for your time at BCU. Have a brilliant 3 years here and we hope to talk to you soon!

Scratch x

The guys from RaW on Tour stopped by the Scratch studios as part of their mammoth journey visiting every single student station in the country…

The challenge is to visit all 52 student radio stations in the country, so Scratch had to be on the list. Earlier today the RaW crew were welcomed into the BCU bosom by Ben Stones - he even managed to slip a quick PPPOTW in there!

It’s not just for fun though, Raw on Tour is all about raising as much money as possible for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research, whose work is invaluable in helping to save countless lives which otherwise might be taken by cancer.

Check out the audio from the whistle-stop visit to Scratch earlier today above, or head to www.rawontour.co.uk to find out more and donate!

A few words from Programme Controller, Dan Richards:

It’s been a funny old few weeks at Scratch. We moved studios just before the new term started, and it’s been a bit hectic trying to sort that side of things out and get all the freshers excited about the station. The studio is all but finished, hence being on the air again, but still needs a little bit of TLC to get it to where it should be.

We finally moved into our new media centre space last week (affectionately known as “the office”) which we share with Tiger TV and Spaghetti Junction. It’s pretty cool having us al in one place - and as soon as the others get settled int then it’s your one stop shop for student media at BCU. If you want us to do record, film or write something about or for you, or you want to join one of the groups yourself then stick your head round the door and say hi! It’s just next to our studio on level 2, opposite Lounge North.

We’re getting a good selection of shows in the schedule, from daytime chart output packed full of features and competitions right down to the less talk, more music specialist shows - Scratch Niche. Here you’ll find every conceivable genre of music to get your head around, from indie and rock to live sessions and from comedy to the Official Flirt! warm up on Saturdays whilst you’re getting dressed up. We also welcome our newest addition - Solaris International. This worldwide brand gives us 2 hours of progressive house and trance to wind down to and is well worth a listen.

Also, we’ve set up the all new Scratch Crew and have tickets to Arcade fire and hopefully Pendulum to give away in the coming weeks, as well as free tickets to all the SU nights every week - if you don’t listen, you can’t win! So make sure you’re tuned to us and dancing your heart out to the songs you love each week!

Dan x

Whilst it’s been a while, Scratch is back for good on Monday! And there’s plenty to keep you going online…

In-case you’ve not seen the revamped website, there’s plenty to explore over there - just head over to www.scratchradio.co.uk!

Right now all our presenters are updating their brand new show pages with all sorts of exciting stuff about themselves and their shows. Head over to the website and check out the ‘Shows and DJs’ pages.

You can also find tracklistings for our specialist shows on their pages. Take a look at the schedule to find out what’s on when!

Listen online to Scratch Radio

You may not have seen the brand new Listen Live Player online now! You’ll see something like this, where you can listen live to Scratch and see what’s happening in the studio (albeit just and arm or two).

Now you can also have your say in what gets played on Scratch! You can vote on some of the latest releases on the homepage now and let us know if you like or dislike the latest tunes.

Having trouble listening? Make sure you check out the Listen Live Help pages where you can find plenty of tips and advice on how to you can listen to Scratch.

Backstage at this year’s V Festival, Ben Stones managed to catch up with Scottish pop-sensation Alex Gardner. You can hear the full interview on Scratch Radio during Freshers, but for now here’s a taster of what’s to come.

Scratch Radio has been out and about throughout the summer, you can hear the highlights of our antics when we’re back on air in September.

Ok, so it’s been a while since our last blog but this one is uber exciting so it’s all ok.

For those of you not up on Scratch festival news, a few weeks ago our very own Wil Vincent managed to get into Sonisphere Festival and got to chat to quite a few well known acts from the lineup. Well, in case you missed the Facebook update, this weekend Rich Skelding has made his way into Bloodstock festival and will be bringing you all the highlights when he gets back!

It’s not just rock and metal that we’re covering though, it was revealed the other week that our very own Ben Stones will be popping along to this year’s sold out V Festival in Weston Park. He’s going to attempt to chat to a few of the big names on the lineup.

You can keep up with news, interviews and pictures from all the festivals we’re covering on Facebook, Twitter and the blog. We’ll also be bringing you all the festival highlights throughout Freshers in September!

It’s not just our festival coverage that’s exciting at the moment, our studio move is now well underway. Whilst we will be off air for a short period of time, this means we can move all our equipment and (carefully) attempt to put together the new studio in time for September.

In other news, for those of you who have recently logged onto the website, you may have noticed that we’ve managed to fix both the webcam and our streaming! We locked Ben in the studio until he fixed everything and he managed to get our webcam going. You can now log onto the website and see live pictures from our studio (or Scratch Studio 1 as it’s lovingly known).

Radio geeks out there will also be pleased to hear that we have now moved over to Shoutcast streaming technologies, which means for those who haven’t been able to connect to our stream before should now be able to listen! All you have to do is log onto the website and click ‘Listen Live’, which will launch our all new listen live player.

So, if that’s not enough exciting news for you then I don’t know what is! Stay tuned to our Facebook page for updates on the new studio, new website and plans for Freshers, in the meantime look out for festival updates right here on the Scratch Blog.

Good Afternoon all!

Despite the ever present threat of rain, all is good here at Knebworth! The live music is due to start within the next hour or so, and there is a great evening of entertainment lined up for the 30,000 campers to enjoy.

Delain will be opening up the festivities at 5pm this evening, but not before a World Record Attempt, to get as many people as possible to do the Time Warp. For those of you who don’t know what the Time Warp (or the Rocky Horror Show) is, SHAME ON YOU! However, you can see Team Sonisphere doing a practise run the other day…

The campsites are buzzing, the beer is being drunk like it’s going out of fashion, and the queues for the toilets are as long as ever… Wish you were here?

For those of you sat at home, we have got a number of interviews lined up this evening, EUROPE will be talking to us in a bit, followed by Karma to Burn, 65 days of Static, Never means Maybe, and Throats.

All interviews will be online at some point, so long as there remains a spare plug socket in the Press area. We’re right in front of Scuzz TV, and it’s hectic stuff! Anyway, enjoy the rest of your afternoon, and remember, It’s just a jump to the left…

Wil Vincent - Head of New Music

It’s exciting times at Scratch towers! After months (possible exaggeration) of waiting and building excitement, we’ve been given the news that over the summer we’re moving! Cheers and celebration all round, I hear.

Today brought an announcement from BCSU that Level 2 of the Students’ Union Building on City North Campus is set for a total revamp over the summer. The good news is that the work includes moving the Scratch studio, along with the other Media Groups.

The plans mean that not only will our studio be easier for everyone to actually find, but you’ll be able to see and hear Scratch across the revamped Level 2. With a rebuild of the studio now in it’s final planning stages, work will start in the over few weeks.

Our new studio sits next to the new Media Groups office on Level 2 (the old Waterstones for everyone returning to BCU) - where Scratch will be working together with Tiger TV and Spaghetti Junction.

Hopefully by now you’re as excited by the move as we are! Come September, we will be up and running from our new studio bringing you a fresh sounding Scratch (not only because we’ll actually have an opening window) with tons of amazing shows and events for Freshers 2010.

And, if this post isn’t long enough already, the move isn’t the only news on the Scratch agenda. Over the summer we’re busy beavering away on some other highly exciting plans which we will reveal in due course.

Make sure you keep up-to-date with all the latest Scratch news on here, on Facebook and on Twitter @ScratchRadio

This Friday and Saturday sees Birmingham City University open it’s doors to prospective new students. If you’re popping down we’re going to be out and about on campus all day, do say “Hi” if you see Dan wandering around in his yet to be announced fancy-dress outfit.

As well as wandering around and generally making fools of ourselves, we’ll me broadcasting live from our stand outside the studio in the Students’ Union! The line-up is looking something like this…

Friday 18th June

10.00-12.00  Dan Richards and Kash
12.00-14.00  Carl and James
14.00-16.00  Rich Williams
16.00-18.00  The No Signal Rock Show

Saturday 19th June

10.00-12.00  Rich Skelding
12.00-14.00  Tom Williams
14.00-18.00  Paul Hadsley

If you’re coming down do pop over and see what we’re all about. But no-fear if you’re not on campus, you can listen to all the special shows live online!

Make sure you’re tuned in to Scratch Radio this weekend - www.scratchradio.co.uk

Tom Williams - Scratch Blog Interview by Scratch Radio

Our very own Dan Richards has caught up with new Scratch presenter, Tom Williams, to find out how he’s getting on!

Hear what Tom’s got to say for himself above; Dan finds out all about Tom’s show, what you can expect to hear and how you can get in touch!

You can also download the interview so you can listen on the go, all you need to do is click the down-arrow on the right-hand side of the player and then drop it into your chosen media player.

You can catch both Tom and Dan on Wednesday’s from 10am right through until 2pm - find out more online at www.scratchradio.co.uk