Alex King is based in London, United Kingdom. He describes himself as an avid gamer and tech fan – he’s also a managing director of FragRadio Limited, The Premier Esports gaming radio station.

Alex tells us that he’s always been interested in ‘anything business’ and in August of 2011, he was presented with an opportunity for him to purchase FragRadio. ‘I saw this as a great investment as I could see the potential for growth and it being a personal challenge for myself’ ‘I took over FragRadio and since then myself and my team have made it the most successful gaming radio currently in the gaming scene.’

Running a radio station isn’t without it’s challenges – Alex tells us that ‘…the biggest challenge to date has been to evolve the business model in to providing video streaming and multiple music genres for listeners which is a on-going challenge; I have to admit personally that this business plan is on track! By far the biggest success to date has to be the sheer number of events we regularly attend, and the growing amount of listeners we regularly get, but this doesn’t come without it’s setbacks, we’ve invested alot of money and time into upgrading our network infrastructure to ensure we don’t have any more downtime. This has been a huge struggle with keeping a live stream online as well, alot of sleepless nights let me tell you that.

One of the keys to our success has to be the sheer determination to become one of the best gaming radio stations, we’ve had huge feedback from our dedicated listeners via our social networking sites and our community forums, and this has driven us to work even harder in updating and modernising our radio and media services to our listeners & users.

Alex tells us that ‘since the last interview a lot has happened, and I mean a lot!’ ‘We’ve put in to place a network upgrade which will enable future expansion of the station, and secure place for all new listeners for years to come. The new network will for sure be a hit for the network guru’s as we will have access to dual 10gbps feeds for all our servers. We also had to make a decision weather or not to make the company limited. I took the decision to make the register FragRadio as a physical trading company, some people were sceptical about this decision, but it has paid off, and shows people we are here to stay. Not to mention the acquisition of a rival gaming radio station. Within just the few months we’ve gained more DJ’s, an event team and promoted fellow staff. We’ve acquired GamerFM further expanding our portfolio of team members. Lastly we’ve launched our brand new E-Sports streaming service, FragTV, we aim to provide premium eSports coverage of events, tournaments and much more, and what we can’t stream via our radio we’ll stream on FragTV.’

We put some questions  to Alex, and then to three of his DJs at FragRadio.

Tell us more about the gamerFM takeover…

Acquiring GamerFM was a huge success for FragRadio, as we could already see the huge potential from day one, that had not already been realised. With FragRadio’s knowledge of the gaming radio scene we were able to successfully augment fresh perspective & a new user experience for all listeners concerned. We were able to put this into action as soon as the acquisition was finalised. The purchase of GamerFM means Fragradio are the leaders in Premium Gaming Radio, and are able to provide what the listeners really want.

…and what about the current demand for gaming radio?

The gaming radio market, is a ever changing scene with more and more demand for diversity. Over the years, we have noticed demand for a plethora of differing music genre’s for many age ranges. I personally have noticed the age range of gamers changing, so we had to implement different music styles to keep all ages happy. We’ve been able to provide this along with many other features, which will include our new and improved gaming radio plug in.

What’s the future of Frag Radio?

Our future expansion plan is simple, provide a great radio service to as many gamers as possible, at events, ingame and via our website. We became one step closer to this with the recent network upgrade, Currently we are looking to expand our services in the video side of gaming, with our recent start up of FragTV. We plan on using this service to broadcast live events, gaming matches, reviews and much more. This will be along side our proposed expansion of our radio channels, with huge expansion into multiple genre’s & plentiful bandwidth to satisfy our avid followers.

Is PC gaming continuing to grow strong, as you said in your last interview – and if it is, how are you capitalising on this?

From the regular gaming events we attend, we’ve noticed a huge increase in PC gaming. In this new generation of gaming, female gamers are becoming slowly but surely more welcomed and more visible. This is a great bonus for not only females but for the gaming industry within itself. There is no longer the stereotypical line of “only male gamers because females suck at games”, nowadays you run the risk of being beaten not just by a fellow male gamer but also by a female gamer.

Some of the regular gaming events we attend are known as LAN’s. Short for Local Area Networks, meaning people from all over the world descend on one venue for a week for some hard core gaming. We recently attended a gaming event in Telford, and I can proudly tell you there certainly isn’t a shortage of gamers. In fact since the last 2 events FragRadio has attended the people attending these lan’s has grown rapidly. When you see thousands of people attending one event to celebrate their passion for playing games it truly makes you proud to be part of the gaming scene.

What upcoming events are you attending?

We are attending more and more events each month, our primary one is the iSeries events, which attract around 3,000 gamers per each event. However being a medium to large gaming radio station in the gaming scene, we also love to attend smaller gaming events, such as London Gaming Con. While these events are also in the UK, we hope to attend alot more European and international gaming events in 2012. We hope to attend a lot more international and European events next year, with this in mind we hope to put to good use our FragTV service not to mention broadcast live from these events over the radio stream. I personally hope to see this through and I hope to see FragRadio become one of the big eSports coverage companies soon..

What about the diversity of your DJs – where do you find them, and what do they bring to Frag Radio?

I’ve had the privilege over the years to coach and teach a lot of people with different skills, some of which are below. Daniele, David & Matt are just a few examples of the pure talent and key team players within the station.

Daniele Luigi D’Ademo

Why did you join FragRadio?

I have always had a strong passion for music, and when I came across FragRadio I thought it was a perfect opportunity for me to show my love for music. I also wanted to be part of a dedicated and professional team that try there best in everything they do.

What’s your role at FragRadio?

I am the Assistant Staff Manager, which basically means I help manage the staff along side Matt. I make sure they turn up for their shows, help them out with any issues and also help trial new presenters joining the station which is extremely fun. Not only that, I also do my own shows every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I have to say I enjoy them both equally the same.

What do you enjoy most at FragRadio?

I enjoy FragRadio because it’s just so much fun being part of a well organized team. I don’t think I have ever seen a company which has got so much faith and such a fantastic easy to use service as FragRadio. Another thing which makes it even more exciting is we are growing bigger every day and reaching out to more via our Facebook and Twitter pages, as-well as our ingame plugin!

What have you learned so far at FragRadio?

This might be surprising to some people but when I first joined FragRadio I was very nervous speaking on our community Teamspeak server and also when I was doing my shows, but since being at FragRadio a good few months now I’ve really got to know the managers and presenters and now have a lot more confidence when it comes to speaking.

David Ramsay

Why did you join FragRadio?

I joined FragRadio during the summer of 2011. I had been playing on a Counter Strike: Source server, and was listening to the station on their ingame plugin. When I heard an advert, that FragRadio were accepting applications for presenters. So I went over to our, or at that time, their website and started to browse the forums. When I saw the “Apply To Join” thread I thought to myself, “How cool would it be if I could be a presenter?!”. So I did just that, I applied and got accepted to be part of the team here at FragRadio!

What’s your role at FragRadio?

I am a presenter, a DJ.  I am one of the ones who goes live, plays tunes and give shoutouts. Who announces giveaways and events, I am one of our connections to our listeners, along with the rest of the presenter team.

What do you enjoy most at FragRadio?

I enjoy FragRadio so much because of two major reasons:

1) Our team is really, quite frankly, one of a kind! We function so well together! I mean, get a bunch of music-loving gamers into a TeamSpeak channel together, and something great is bound to happen! Our team not only talks, but listens, to everyone else, and its a good atmosphere to have.

2) The satisfaction of entertaining people. When I see people request songs, and then thank me when I play them, it’s a good feeling. You can’t make everyone happy all the time, but when they are listening to their favourite song without having to press the play button, those few minutes are fantastic – I know that feeling myself!

What have you learned so far at FragRadio?

While being at FragRadio, I would say I have learned how hectic things are behind the curtains!  Before, I just thought, “Oh, push a few buttons, everything works easy!”. But was I wrong! Many things from DDoS attacks, servers crashing, even my own internet being down, causes a problem somewhere in the chain.

However, seeing the dedicated management team working as hard as they have. They have certainly ironed out a lot of the issues to create the best gaming radio system out there.

Matt Bourn

Why did you join FragRadio?

I first got involved with FragRadio through Colin and Alex as I knew Colin for a few years and I had recently met Alex through a previous project. This resulted in me becoming a regular listener, forum member and visitor of the Teamspeak a month or two before I applied to become a DJ. However I was considering becoming a DJ straight from the start as I’m a big fan of music (aren’t we all) and entertaining a crowd, and FragRadio also struck me as a fantastic place for not only gamers but music enthusiast to get involved and even get experience with being a DJ which could lead to a professional DJ job.

So after a few months of speaking to the FragRadio team on a regular basis I applied to become a DJ and was instantly accepted.

Matt Bourn has two roles at FragRadio; the first is being a DJ, every Wednesday and Friday 10pm onwards, and the second is as the FragRadio Staff Manager.

What’s your role at FragRadio?

I have two roles at FragRadio; the first is being a DJ, every Wednesday and Friday 10pm onwards (sometimes until the early hours of the morning) I provide an epic show for all listeners to enjoy. Providing the listeners with tonnes of shoutouts, requests and general banter that anyone and everyone can enjoy, have fun, play games and have a good laugh.

The second role I acquire is a little more in-house as the Staff Manager. This role requires me to be there for all the staff providing them with the first response for any issues or problems they may have regarding the station or themselves in general. It also entails keeping the DJs in line, if a DJ misses a show, is distasteful to a member of staff or the community, or misbehaves on air I’ll be the one chasing them up, however I haven’t had to yet (touch wood).

I also manage the new recruits and applications; if you’re planning on applying to become a DJ you’ll be going through me. This is probably one of the most challenging aspects of being staff manager as it can be very easy to disregard someone who has a hidden talent for DJing but just needs to get used to the programs and equipment, you see this a lot nowadays with different organizations.

Other than that, it’s the cleanup work; keeping schedules up to date, keeping information up to date, arranging meetings and announcing news.

What do you enjoy most at FragRadio?

The community of listeners is one of the most amazing parts of FragRadio. You won’t believe the buzz you can get from the listeners on a Friday night going on into the early morning of Saturday. It’s truly epic and provides you with that acknowledgement that what you’re doing is actually helping people have fun, it’s a great feeling.

Apart from the community of listeners, the FragRadio team is an awesome aspect of being with FragRadio. Playing games with the team and going to LAN events are just a few opportunities to really have fun and get to know the team, if you ever have the chance to join us you definitely should.

What have you learned so far at FragRadio?

That there are so many people that require music while playing games and that those very same people are so willing to get involved while you’re on air it really creates a completely different experience from the usual radio DJs you listen to everyday in the car, if anything, it’s a lot harder (haha) it can get truly exhausting but incredible nonetheless.

I’ve also learnt that I enjoy being a DJ, be that in a club or on an internet radio station such as FragRadio. It’s helped me become a more talkative and an open person to people I don’t even know, when you can talk confidently to completely random strangers over the internet where insulting and trolling is the norm you’ve definitely accomplished something.

FragRadio is online at fragradio.co.uk, and on Twitter at @OfficialFR.