Leeds Student Television

In the late 1960s a group of students formed 'Network 4' and broadcast black and white programmes on a closed circuit around the University. However, it became too costly and time consuming to continue, and the students decided to broadcast radio instead, and Network 4 became LSRfm.com (Leeds Student Radio), which is still going strong today.

30 years later in 2002, enterprising first year Broadcasting student Nik Smith discussed with a group of friends the possibility of once again setting up a student TV station at the University of Leeds.

They approached Leeds University Union, and were laughed out of the office when they asked for funding to get the idea off the ground. Eventually the Union agreed that they could set up the station, as long as it was called LUUTV. And so, Leeds University Union Television was born.

Screens went up in the Union, and began to glow with a few simple PowerPoint slides. LUUTV was starting to go live.

Then, just past 12:00pm on Friday 28 February 2003 (a few months later than planned), LUUTV went on-air across the Union with the assistance of the late Richard Whiteley who became the station's patron.

The broadcast introduced viewers to The Essential, a news show, and That's Entertainment (now On Campus). Both are still a key part of the LSTV schedule today.

The full story of the struggle to launch LUUTV is charted in the documentary Going Live.

In September 2003, and a new influx of members to LUUTV, there were some big changes. In the first few weeks, broadcasts hadn't gone out as planned, and Nik made the decision to stop broadcasting until after Christmas, to focus on improvements and organisation.

A new Union executive finally allowed the name to LS:TV, or Leeds Student Television, to bring them in line with the other media groups in the Union, Leeds Student Radio and Leeds Student (the student newspaper).

On 15 March 2004 the first LS:TV broadcast hit the screens of the Union to a huge reception. With the first show out of the way, the Easter holidays meant it was time for the new LS:TV to head to its first National Student Television Association (NaSTA) conference, in Norwich.

LS:TV submitted a mix of LUUTV and LS:TV programming to NaSTA for their annual awards ceremony. They returned from the conference and awards ceremony with 3 major awards - Best Comedy, Best Documentary and Best Ident, and 1 Highly Commended award.

The next year saw LS:TV go from strength to strength, with the purchase of broadcast quality cameras and microphones and the production of hour-long weekly shows nearly every single week of term.

LS:TV went into a position where it could afford to diversify and in February 2005, they took their equipment out of the studio for the first time and into the Union's Riley Smith Hall, and recorded a live outside broadcast of the Dance Exposé society's performance Aurora Borealis III. Subsequently, they also filmed the Musical Theatre society's production of Romeo and Juliet, and the Rileys societies awards night.

April 2005 saw another storming LS:TV NaSTA victory, where they took home 6 of the top awards, including Best Broadcaster, which had been held for the past 10 years exclusively by Glasgow's student television station, GUST.

The following months saw wave after wave of new programming hitting the LS:TV screens, not least their ten-hour charity broadcast for 2005’s Children In Need. Featuring live fund raising, LS:TV collected over £600 and presented a cheque together with LUU’S RAG to the BBC.

In 2006, LS:TV began to prepare itself to host NaSTA 2006 alongside YSTV. LS:TV once again scooped a generous helping of awards, but had to say goodbye to its founding members, who were moving on to bigger and brighter things.

A 2008 rebrand saw the station drop the colon and start using the name LSTV. This was shortly followed by the construction of a new studio and a move to substantially larger facilities in the Activities Resource Centre in the Union building. This includes a fully operational gallery and access to one of the university's activity rooms, which is transformed into a studio by means of a few props, drapes and chairs.

In September 2013, LSTV received a large amount of funding which allowed them to upgrade their facilities to High Definition broadcast systems and software, and moved from the use of DV tapes to SD cards to record and capture footage.

September 2014 marked the stations tenth anniversary since formation in 2004, and another rebrand for the station - extending their name to Leeds Student Television. Alongside this, in the summer of 2014, the station was moved to a substantially bigger studio and office space located on the first floor of Leeds University Union, next to student media counterparts The Gryphon and Leeds Student Radio. A substantial refurbishment programme, funded by Leeds University’s Footsteps fund, was also undertaken in the summer of 2015. This brought the station to near 4K capacity.

The station also branched out into paid commercial work, making promotional videos for Bierkeller, TEDx, and AMF amongst others.

In the following March, Leeds Student Television was elected to host the National Student Television Awards in 2016, their first time as a solitary host station.

At the start of the 2015/16 season, it was announced that the station would be moving to bi-weekly broadcasts. This was reportedly to make the broadcasts longer, and to have a larger proportion of new content for each live show.

On 7 October 2015, Leeds Student Television saw their first digital freeview broadcast, in the form of an hour long highlights show on Made in Leeds entitled Best Of LSTV Live. The show aired on a weekly basis at 10pm on Wednesdays, and consists of an hour of the most recent live showing.

In 2018, the society made the decision to leave Made in Leeds and continue to stream live shows only on YouTube and Facebook.

The following is a table of Leeds Student TV's known National Student Television Award wins. Where (HC) is placed after a category, the award was for a highly commended entry as opposed to an overall winner.

The Riley Awards is a ceremony hosted annually by Leeds University Union to celebrate the efforts of the union's 300+ societies. The following is a full list of the Riley Awards LSTV has won since its rebirth in 2004.

LSTV broadcasts live every second Wednesday during term time at 2pm on their youtube channel from its first floor studio in Leeds University Union. The show consists of the news and current affairs programme The Essential and any content that the station has produced during the past weeks. Each broadcast, a pair of continuity presenters appear between the shows and occasional live acts in the studio. Previously, live acts have included magic, music and even Father Christmas. Broadcasts tend to be in the range of 30 to 90 minutes.

The Essential refers to LSTV's internal news programming.

It began as part of the bi-weekly live show; starting off with news that affects students in the Leeds area, then moving on to the weather, before finishing up with gathering students' opinions on a topical issue entitled The Essential Question. The programme then signed off in the same fashion, with the line "...and remember, if it's going on, in or around your union, it's essential." Previous notable appearances include Pervez Musharraf (Former President of Pakistan), Ed Balls (Shadow Chancellor), Jeremy Corbyn, Jon Snow, Jack Straw, Nigel Farage, David Cameron and the England Six Nations Rugby team amongst many more.

The Essential is the longest running programme in the station's history, having been around since its formation in 2003. It has also won the Best News & Current Affairs award at NaSTA 6 times in its run.

It is no longer a specific show but instead the branding associated with all news programming within the station.

On Campus, first aired on Wednesday 10 October 2012 and took over from Waffle House as LSTV's weekly light entertainment programme. The home of the bulk of LSTV's drama, comedy sketches, entertainment news and reviews.

LSTV's weekly music show, usually shown within On Campus. Each show includes interviews with bands, footage from gigs and club nights, a Top 5 chart update, music news and most recently Leeds Live Lounge which features interviews with local bands blended together with an acoustic version of their own tracks and covers of classics originally from well-known artists. Alexandra Burke, Stooshe and Benjamin Francis Leftwich have previously appeared and been interviewed on the show. The show was first broadcast on Wednesday 10 October 2012.

Sideline is LSTV's bi-weekly Sports Show. It covers sport from around the union, the rest of Leeds and elsewhere. With features such as Battle of the Fans, Premier League Preview and 60 Second Sports Round-up, along with sporting highlights from the BUCS Championships, it covers all areas of sporting action across the University. The show launched on Wednesday 3 October 2012, with a special 5 hour live programme covering the Leeds Varsity clash between Leeds University and Leeds Metropolitan University. In its first year it was awarded Highly Commended in the Sports category at the Student Television Awards and followed it up with taking top prize the next year. Sideline was resurrected in 2016.

Q-Jump

After a successful initial series, Q-Jump was a beloved addition to LSTV's programming. However, series two of Q-Jump was filmed and a trailer broadcast during Freshers' Week of 2019 and never aired thereafter.

As well as the regular Wednesday broadcasts, LSTV also does specialist broadcasts outside of the studio, these are also streamed on the website. Past outside broadcasts have included Dance Exposé's annual showcase; the Riley Smith Awards, LUU's annual club and society prizegiving; LUU Question Time, the union executive election candidates' hustings. On top of this, for seven years running they broadcast a 7 hour marathon livestream in aid of Children in Need, most recently raising £2,100.[2]

Regaular OBs include Robot Fighting League, Varsity Finale, Rileys and Leeds Ball.