Best Student Station 2018 (Silver Student Radio Award winning entry)

The University of Westminster is one of the most diverse student communities in the UK, and we’ve made it our mission at Smoke Radio to reflect that. This year’s been exceptional for the station; with a fresh vision, new vibrant brand on and off air, and more varied events than ever before. We believe Smoke Radio has really reached a new level this year as Westminster’s Student Sound.

The main goals we set out to achieve in redeveloping Smoke Radio included:

• Making the station more vibrant, upbeat and student-focused.
• Launching new events to reach more students from multiple campuses.
• Creating a greater presence across the university and the capital.
• Improving online and social media platforms to make our content more student-based.
• To provide industry-standard training to members.
• To maintain and develop the technical side of the station.

The membership this year has reached an all-time high. We welcomed over 150 new members to the station who created and produced more than 90 different shows. We wanted Smoke to reflect our diverse student body, and we were proud to welcome a wide array of programmes including grime, K-pop, musicals, upcoming artists and special speech shows.

We held new events to create a larger presence around the university and capital, including live gigs, comedy nights, student parties, talks, and OBs. We managed to pull this all off despite a large decrease in our usual funding from the students’ union and university, which meant that fundraising was vital to maintain the running and high standards of the station.

Our members are made up of students from a variety of courses. The team have become a real family this year, dedicated to improving and growing the station, and welcoming and training new members.