Pulse Radio is the official radio station of the London School of Economics and Political Science Students' Union. Its studios are located within the Saw Swee Hock Student Centre at the School's Aldwych campus in

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, B ...

, London and it broadcasts online through the Pulse Player, as well as across campus in the Students' Union. Pulse forms part of the LSESU Media Group alongside '' The Beaver'' newspaper, Clare Market Review and LooSE TV. The station is managed by an elected Executive Committee, which is a subsidiary of the Union, and is headed by the Station Manager. It is staffed by student volunteers who act as Disc jockeys,

technician A technician is a worker in a field of technology who is proficient in the relevant skill and technique, with a relatively practical understanding of the theoretical principles. Specialisation The term technician covers many different speciali ...

s, and producers, and is funded by the LSESU, advertising revenue, and donations. The station broadcasts in three slots from October to December January to March and April to June each year, with vacations in between the School's

Michaelmas Michaelmas ( ; also known as the Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, the Feast of the Archangels, or the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels) is a Christian festival observed in some Western liturgical calendars on 29 September, ...

Lent Lent ( la, Quadragesima, 'Fortieth') is a solemn religious observance in the liturgical calendar commemorating the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert and enduring temptation by Satan, according to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke ...

and Summer Terms. Overnight and during these vacations, the station broadcasts a pre-set playlist which is adapted each week.

History

Pulse began broadcasting on 1 February 1999. For the first few years Pulse broadcast for four-week periods on an FM

Restricted Service Licence A UK Restricted Service Licence (often called an RSL), is typically granted to radio stations and television stations broadcasting within the UK to serve a local community or a special event. Licences are granted by the broadcasting authority Ofc ...

. Currently the station broadcasts a live stream over the internet and around the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a public university, public research university located in London, England and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidn ...

campus. Alongside live programming Pulse also produces a number of podcasts during the year. Membership consists of over 50 DJs playing a mix of mainstream and specialist music, as well as several dozen other students in the areas of promotions and advertising, broadcast journalism, technical, production and programming. In September 2005 Pulse was awarded the 'Student Website of the Year' at the Guardian Student Media Awards 2005. Starting in 2006, Pulse headed the LSE SU RAG Week with a 118-hour-long live ''broadcastathon, and along with LooSE TV organised the live broadcasting of the LSE SU election results. This has repeated every year since. The LSE SU Media Group Awards take place in the summer term, jointly organised with the other members of the LSE SU Media Group. In 2008, Pulse became the first British student radio station to offer a 'listen again' service available through the station's website. Programmes from the past five days are stored online through the 'Pulse Player' at Houghton Street Factual.

Output

In term time Pulse broadcasts live on campus to students every weekday. Additionally, Pulse broadcasts continually online at www.pulselse.co.uk. During regular broadcast hours, content consists of DJ shows, news, topical shows, interviews and live performances. In the past Pulse has conducted interviews with

José Manuel Durão Barroso José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced differently in each language: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , is an old vernacu ...

(President of the European Commission),

Jacqui Smith Jacqueline Jill Smith (born 3 November 1962) is a British broadcaster, political commentator and former Labour Party politician. She was Member of Parliament (MP) for Redditch from 1997 to 2010. She served as Home Secretary from 2007 to 2009 ...

(UK Home Secretary),

John Edwards Johnny Reid Edwards (born June 10, 1953) is an American lawyer and former politician who served as a U.S. senator from North Carolina. He was the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2004 alongside John Kerry, losing to incumbents George ...

(2004 Democratic US Vice-Presidential Candidate),

Clare Short Clare Short (born 15 February 1946) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for International Development under Prime Minister Tony Blair from 1997 to 2003. Short was the Member of Parliament for Birmingham Ladywood from 1983 t ...

(UK MP),

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing Valéry René Marie Georges Giscard d'Estaing (, , ; 2 February 19262 December 2020), also known as Giscard or VGE, was a French politician who served as President of France from 1974 to 1981. After serving as Minister of Finance under prime ...

(former French President),

Kim Campbell Avril Phaedra Douglas "Kim" Campbell (born March 10, 1947) is a Canadian politician, diplomat, lawyer, and writer who served as the 19th prime minister of Canada from June 25 to November 4, 1993. Campbell is the first and so far only female ...

(former Canada PM), Jon Snow (Channel 4 Newsreader), Alan Fletcher (Dr Karl Kennedy in the soap Neighbours) and Levi Roots amongst others. In the 2012/13 broadcast year, The Interview Hour on Pulse has broadcast interviews with:

Alan Johnson Alan Arthur Johnson (born 17 May 1950) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Education and Skills from 2006 to 2007, Secretary of State for Health from 2007 to 2009, Home Secretary from 2009 to 2010, and Shadow Chanc ...

(Former Home Secretary)

Iain Dale Iain Campbell Dale (born 15 July 1962) is a British broadcaster, author and political commentator, and a former publisher and book retailer. He has been a blogger since 2002. In 2005, he became the first openly gay Conservative candidate to c ...

(Political Commentator and LBC 97.3 Host)

Frank Dikötter Frank Dikötter (; ) is a Dutch historian who specialises in modern China. Dikötter has been Chair Professor of Humanities at the University of Hong Kong since 2006. Before relocating to Hong Kong, he was Professor of the Modern History of Ch ...

(Author of Mao's Great Famine)

Frank Turner Francis Edward Turner (born 28 December 1981), is an English punk and folk singer-songwriter from Meonstoke, Hampshire. He began his career as the vocalist of post-hardcore band Million Dead, then embarked upon a primarily acoustic-based sol ...

(Folk/punk musician)

Craig Calhoun Craig Jackson Calhoun (born 1952) is an American sociologist, currently University Professor of Social Sciences at Arizona State University. An advocate of using social science to address issues of public concern, he was the Director of the ...

(Director of LSE) Outside of the regular programming times, Pulse broadcasts playlists compiled by the Head of Music and Head of Programming of the station.

Alumni in the media

*Former Station Manager, Stacy-Marie Ishmael is now a reporter for the FT and the Editor of FT Tilt. *Former Technical Manager, Phil Hutchinson is now a BBC Studio Manager working at 5Live and the World Service. *Former Programme Controller, Alex Baker is now a presenter for GaydarRadio *Former Deputy Station Manager, Al Smith, is a producer at Global Radio and has presented shows on Xfm *Former hosts—and 2010 winners of the LSE Media Group's "Best Talk Show"—Danny Gaynor, Thomas Ledwell and Babken DerGrigorian now produce "Political Beats", a renowned internet podcast.

References

External links

Website

PuLSE Radio
LSE Students' Union Radio Society {{Student radio in the United Kingdom Student radio in the United Kingdom Radio stations established in 1999 London School of Economics 1999 establishments in England