Nation Radio Scotland (formerly ''XFM Scotland (2014), 96.3 Rock Radio'' ''Real XS,'' ''Q96'' and ''96.3QFM'') is a Scottish independent local radio station for

Renfrewshire Renfrewshire () ( sco, Renfrewshire; gd, Siorrachd Rinn Friù) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. Located in the west central Lowlands, it is one of three council areas contained within the boundaries of the historic county of Re ...

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

and

West Central Scotland Greater Glasgow is an urban settlement in Scotland consisting of all localities which are physically attached to the city of Glasgow, forming with it a single contiguous urban area (or conurbation). It does not relate to municipal government ...

, owned by Nation Broadcasting. As of September 2022, the station broadcasts to a weekly audience of 87,000, according to RAJAR.

History

The station launched in January 2007 as 96.3 Rock Radio, a

classic rock Classic rock is a US radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the mid 1990s, prima ...

station owned by

GMG Radio GMG Radio, and for a short while Real and Smooth Limited, was a company that owned the Real Radio and Smooth Radio networks. As GMG Radio, the company was the radio division of the Guardian Media Group until it was bought in 2012 by Global Rad ...

who had bought the licence previously owned by

UTV Radio Wireless Group Limited is a radio and digital broadcasting network with headquarters in Belfast, Northern Ireland and with radio operations in the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom. It currently operates five stations in Ireland and ...

and branded as Q96, a mainstream music station. The station shared news and sport coverage with associated stations

Real Radio Real Radio was a network of five regional radio stations broadcasting to North East England, North West England, Scotland, Wales and Yorkshire. Each station broadcast a mix of local and networked programming. On Tuesday 6 May 2014, the statio ...

and Smooth Radio but carried emphasis on Renfrewshire issues to fulfill its licensing requirement, such as lead sport stories from St Mirren. On 28 July 2011 it was announced that

would be rebranding sister station

106.1 Rock Radio XS Manchester is an Independent Local Radio station serving Greater Manchester, broadcasting a mix of Indie rock, indie and Alternative rock, alternative rock music, speech and news output. The station is owned and operated by Communicorp UK and ...

as Real Radio XS for its Manchester audience. Around the same time, the managing director announced his departure from the station and entered talks with GMG Radio on buying out the station along with a group of private investors. Two months later, GMG announced the station would not be sold off and would be rebranded as '96.3 Real Radio XS' at the end of October 2011. Following the sale of GMG Radio to Global Radio, and the resulting sale of several stations to

Communicorp Bauer Media Audio Ireland (formerly Communicorp Group) is a media holding company based in Ireland, owned by Bauer Media Group Heinrich Bauer Publishing (german: Heinrich Bauer Verlag KG), trading as Bauer Media Group, is a German multimedia ...

to operate mostly under brand licences from Global, more detail about how this would affect Real XS was confirmed. Whilst

Capital Scotland Capital Scotland (formerly known as Beat 106, XFM Scotland, and later Galaxy Scotland) is a regional radio station owned by Communicorp UK and operated by Global. It broadcasts to Scotland's Central Belt, an area surrounding the two citie ...

would be among the stations taken over by Communicorp, Real XS in Paisley would be retained by Global, alongside 105.2 Smooth Radio and Real Radio Scotland, with Real relaunched as Heart (with all Real stations) and Real XS taking the Xfm affiliation. This would result in XS retaining local programming at key times, but during networked hours taking these shows from

Xfm London Radio X is a British National commercial radio station focused on alternative music, primarily indie rock, and owned by Global. Radio X launched in 1989 as a pirate radio station, a licensed London-wide station in 1997 and nationally in 2015 ...

, as Xfm Manchester already did, rather than taking programmes from Real XS in Manchester, which was sold to Communicorp and continues as an independent classic rock station. It was confirmed in March 2014 that the relaunch would take place on 7 April. At other times, the station simulcast Xfm London output. The station was based at

Baillieston Baillieston ( sco, Bailiestoun) is a suburb of Glasgow, Scotland. It is about east of the city centre. It also gives its name to Ward 20 of Glasgow City Council and forms part of the Glasgow East constituency of the UK Parliament. Geograph ...

to the east of

and broadcast as XFM to

, Ayrshire, West Central Scotland and Central Scotland until the end of 2015. XFM Scotland ceased transmission on 96.3 FM at around 6:20pm on Sunday 13 September 2015, after Global Radio decided to hand the licence back to Ofcom, ahead of XFM's relaunch as Radio X. The licence was readvertised for Glasgow and The West of Scotland, with Rockscot Ltd. being the successful applicant. Online test transmissions commenced on Monday 2 October 2017. On 13 March 2018, Rock Radio Ltd was sold to

Nation Broadcasting Nation Broadcasting is a British media company headquartered in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales. It currently owns and operates twelve Independent Local Radio stations across the United Kingdom. History Originally known as Town and Country Broa ...

, leading to the departure of the Rockscot management. It was later confirmed that the station would launch as 'Nation Radio Scotland' in the autumn of 2018. The station will share branding with Nation's regional station in South Wales but is not permitted to share any programming.Nation Radio to launch in Glasgow on 96.3 FM
Radio Today, 15 March 2018 Test transmissions for 96.3FM began on 30 August, with an official launch on Monday 3 September.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nation Radio Scotland Radio X (United Kingdom) Radio stations in Glasgow Modern rock radio stations 2007 establishments in Scotland Rock radio stations in the United Kingdom Nation Broadcasting