Walking into Xfm HQ used to feel a bit like visiting a student common room. Whether in its Charlotte Street-based, fully-independent early days or even after it became a neglected corner of the Capital, later Global empire, the enterprise always seemed infused with the spirit of enthusiastic, under-funded amateurism that you often also find at fledgling independent record labels.

Today, however, things are different. Xfm was rebranded as Radio X last September and, despite a launch plagued by controversy after ...