What's it all about?
Briefly...
The Starship Overflow was first heard in 1986 and is the UK's oldest Alternative & Underground station. We provide a service of quality music and other oddities, unheard almost anywhere else and despite our humble beginnings, our audience has never stopped growing. We've helped countless bands and artists over the years to get their music heard, as well as given you guys the chance to make some amazing new discoveries.
Where we are today
The Starship Overflow has become a phenomenal global success. Listeners certainly seem to like what we do! So, with a brand new spaceship, our own tealady, and the hold full of supplies, we can now reach practically everywhere, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Hold on tight earthlings, and expect the totally unexpected.
Who's on air and when?
Although we try to keep things absolutely Overflow ship-shape in terms of time slots for presenters, our schedule is subject to change and it would be simply impractical to have a fixed list here. However, we do provide all this info at the link below. We may rotate DJs to enable us to be able to drop in new guest presenters or due to changes beyond our control - i.e. when the airlock gets stuck again (we must put some grease on that). Presently, we're running on 12 hour repeats, so you don't need to miss anything! If you want a better idea of who is on air right now and coming up, we suggest you take a look at our schedule here as these are updated regularly
History of the Starship Overflow
Clearly we're not your average radio station, so how did it all come about?
In the early 1980s, we felt there was so much great music out there that just wasn't being heard on mainstream radio, other than perhaps Caroline. In fact much of it was slipping under the radar altogether, drowned out by 'Pop', which is both bad news for new bands, and indeed listeners who could only hear whatever the record companies wanted them to hear.
We decided to turn radio on it's head completely - and do something about it. It was no easy feat going from what we felt was a really great idea, to a format that actually worked. It has been a turbulent journey getting to where we are today but if you'd like to know more about the evolution and history of Overflow and our well-established connections to the alternative and underground music scene, have a look at our satellite website.
Be part of the Overflow community
Did you know that you too can be part of, or heard on the Starship Overflow?
From time to time we have guest DJs from across the globe. If you think you fit the bill or would like to help us out in some other way and have a genuine passion for the kind of music we play and what we do, let us know.
If you have a band or are an artiste that fits our format (see contact page so you know what we're broadly looking for) and seek a wider more appreciative audience, you're absolutely in the right place. We also love to hear from our listeners too so if you'd like to become an honourary alien, or would like to get in touch for some other reason, you'll find our email address at the bottom of our contact page.
We're too busy sifting through new music/talent to spend much time on social networking, but we do have a Facebook page, updated by the Starship Overflow Captain, Garry Lee. You'll usually find him on the bridge twiddling knobs and answering email (in between tea and ginger biscuits) but he does find time to update the page fairly regularly - click here.
If you don't do Facebook, thats ok, we still have our satellite site.
Starship Overflow Friends
We are presently updating our "Friends of the Starship Overflow" links page where you can link to us and we can link to you. Check back in a few weeks!
Will we ever run out of music?
No, not a chance. We have so much amazing music for you to hear, we barely scratch the surface most weeks. You should see our postbox of new music every week!
In addition we have an absolutely massive and ever-growing library of recordings that have been collected over at least 40 years, some of which are totally exclusive to the Starship Overflow archive - not just rare vinyl records, but obscure recordings that never even made it vinyl or CD.
