Two Oxide DJs ‘banned for life’
Two Oxide DJs face disciplinary action after hosting an unauthorised party in the radio studio in 8th week of Michaelmas term. The party spun out of control as guests sprayed champagne over the equipment, worth £25,000. Josh Sykes and James Poole, first year students at St. Hugh’s and St. Peter’s colleges respectively, celebrated the end of term with ten friends during their Syko and Giovanni show on Thursday of 8th week.
Drinking lager and champagne and smoking cigars, the group sang along to Christmas tunes while the show was aired online. One of the guests, Kate Antrobus, a first year PPE student at Magdalen, popped open a bottle of champagne, spraying it all over the studio. The event was billed on Facebook as, “Your one chance to get pissed in a radio studio”. James Poole said, “We were having a laugh" the idea was that everyone would have a good time.
Unfortunately a few of us had too much of a good time. They just didn’t appreciate our brand of fun.” Imran Khan, the OUSU VP (Charities), was first on the scene. “They paid no attention to me after I repeatedly asked everyone to leave the room. I had to shout at the top of my voice to get them to start trickling out”. Paul Arrich, Station Manager for Oxide Radio, said, “The studio was left in a terrible mess. Even the surrounding corridors stank of cigar smoke.
“They eventually left, but only after an offensive level of disobedience.” In an email addressed to all the members of Oxide, Arrich described the party as a “serious incident”. He wrote, “The DJs in question have apologised. Hopefully it is self-evident that this is an extremely serious situation.
If the champagne or any other liquid had found its way into the equipment, it could have broken. There is no money available to replace equipment that was initially bought with a £25,000 grant from the University. “This could have been the end of Oxide Radio.” Khan said, “Despite the crass violation of studio rules, I actually thought the most disappointing aspect of the incident was the blatant lack of common sense.
“The equipment is really expensive, and the studio is used and enjoyed by dozens of presenters for countless listeners; it wouldn’t have taken that much thought for anybody involved to realise that you just don’t behave like that - out of common courtesy if nothing else.” This week Arrich told The Oxford Student, “The DJs breached the contract they signed at the beginning of the year. We were left with no choice but to ban the DJs from Oxide for life.
The girl who opened the champagne has also been barred.” Poole said, “We had a shindig. We caused a bit of noise and so we got kicked off. It’s probably a fair decision. We don’t seek to excuse our antics. “We are taking our partying on to a more suitable arena at Love Bar on Monday nights.
19th Apr 2007