Leeds Student Television Information

Leeds Student Television (formerly LSTV) is a student television station run by students from the University of Leeds. Leeds Student Television produces video content and broadcasts on a weekly basis around the University as well as on its website and Facebook page.

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 stations patron.

The broadcast introduced viewers to The Essential, a news show, and Thats 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 hadnt 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 Unions Riley Smith Hall, and recorded a live outside broadcast of the Dance Exposé societys performance Aurora Borealis III. Subsequently, they also filmed the Musical Theatre societys 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 Glasgows 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 universitys 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.

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