Online Radio: Stumble Upon Something You Really Love
They aim to play niche records to a wider market, capturing out of print releases for online compilations and streamed shows.
Where To Now? Radio is the only radio show that plays DIY / post-punk / industrial / minimal synth from way back alongside the best in new garage-punk / lo-fi / noise-pop. They brodcast on Totally Radio and on Windows Media Player in the radio section."It was a long time ago now" explains Where To Now? Radio's James Hines. "Matt and I had a night at the Penthouse [in Brighton] years ago, long before all this post-punk revival stuff was happening. James Sticks joined us whilst we were still there and then we were three". Their online radio show is listed on Windows Media Player and gets over 12,000 listeners a show from all over the world. It might not sound many, but it's far more than they'd get DJing in their bedrooms or down at an East London boozer. They aim to play niche records to a wider market, capturing out of print releases for online compilations and streamed shows. "We're all massive nerds and have been collecting old punk / new wave / post-punk / no-wave records for years. It's harder to get the records these days cos they're in trend and the prices are really inflated, but we're still in the game". Since they started broadcasting, that game has changed. Online Radio is expanding; Mixcloud is attempting to create a radio Youtube, having noticed that there's mileage in simple online streaming and a need for centralised locations to host aspiring DJs work. As innovative as they may have been at the time Online Radio Search Engines like Radio Feeds are difficult to use. Media Player is being quickly overtaken by iPod friendly iTunes Radio and Spotify is making everything else seem a little bit irrelevant with its commercial radio advertising and "I'm The DJ Now" ego-trips.
So are DIY DJs like Where To Now? destroying the mediums they love? With online streaming there isn't much room for messing about with vinyl. Due to the lack of professional studios many shows are lengthened podcasts; mixx tapes with a couple of words. Are they just one [albeit obscure] pogo away from ad-hosting hell? The guys don't think so. "The only reason the compilations come out pretty randomly is because we have to wait until we've all got some hot new wax. The vast majority of the tracks on the comps are ripped from vinyl, only a few are off the internet or CDs even. After the Penthouse night had run its course we approached Totally Radio and they were really into the idea of having a post-punk show and one where we would play new punk stuff too. Lots of digging around in second hand record shops, getting mucky fingers and lots of time on eBay, and a few record fairs." This passion for rooting around makes Where To Now? work. But it can also tell us a lot about the possibilities that online radio has for new - and archived - music.
A few years ago the BBC had a similar idea to Where To Now?. The 2007 remit for BBC 6music states how its programmes must "juxtapose current releases outside the mainstream with earlier recordings, including music from the BBC Sound Archive". While preserving George Lamb's collection of cashmere polonecks might be what it does best now, BBC 6 does intend to keep past-sessions alive with digital streaming. Peel classics are frequently wheeled out alongside trips down Maida Vale's memory lane. The DJs are - or at least were - encouraged to act as guardians of the music - not hype DJs constantly bellowing about how they had discovered the next big act. There was a certain serenity about the whole thing. Tucked away online, it was something charmingly geeky. "Collecting vinyl is pointless unless you know what you're looking for," confirms James. Where to Now? pride their shows on being well informed, an after school club for punk enthusiasts and curious newcomers. It's something that DIY online radio will always be able to offer more than public service broadcasting - presenters and producers can hunt down their target audience and answer only to them. Not 10,000 irate teen texters and twitterers. While online radio may increase grazer listening in the mainstream there is the chance others will stumble upon something they really love; teenagers twiddling the dial accidentally to the Perfume Garden or discovering some no-so-pirate-anymore Grime. "Like I said, we're massive nerds and very passionate about this music, so we've done our reading and I think that between us we've got quite the collective knowledge. We'll pass that on to our listeners."
Where To Now? Official Site
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