For two years now, Radar Radio has been operating as a mouthpiece for London. One of the new wave of radio stations that operates exclusively online, the variety in its schedule is a tribute to the diversity of its home city – one minute you might be locked to 19-year-old Woolwich native Jetsss smashing things up with one of her trap and grime sets, the next it might be beatific soca or riotous dancehall courtesy of Hipsters Don’t Dance. Bashment, bhangra, and bass music bangers come courtesy of BBC AZN Network, while Amy Becker steers a path through reggaeton and Jersey club. It’s this inclusive spirit that keeps the station tethered to the latest and most exciting musical phenomena emerging from the capital. In a city whose nightlife is increasingly under attack from outside forces, Radar is a sanctuary of energy, optimism and risk, intent on building a community by fostering and championing new talent, regardless of age, ethnicity, experience or genre (although you get the feeling they’re unlikely to announce an acoustic folk show any time soon).
The logical extension of this is the Radar Radio Academy – set up to reach out to London’s budding and burgeoning music scene, the Academy is pairing with Smirnoff to put on a series of DJ workshop sessions, aiming to uncover the sound of the city’s tomorrow. First off is the Smirnoff-sponsored Mixing Between Cultures, a DJ masterclass from Radar favorites Monki, BBC AZN Network, Hipsters Don’t Dance, and Jetsss, which you can apply to attend here.
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We spoke to Radar founder Ollie Ashley about the state of “organised chaos” that Radar operates in and what the future holds for his station and adopted hometown.
THUMP: I was looking at the station’s schedule today, and it’s so varied – there’s a current affairs show, an ambient show, loads of grime, electronic music, R&B – is it a deliberate choice to have such a wide range of genres and cultures, or just natural in a city as diverse as London?
Ollie Ashley, Radar: Nearly all the DJs on Radar got the green light from me to come on board, so the music variety we have is the stuff I want to listen to, really. Most people wouldn’t put an ambient show on at midday – but we thought it’d be interesting to give it a decent time slot rather than go, ‘It’s a bit weird, let’s put it on at 4AM.’ Our schedule is constantly evolving.
I guess that mirrors the city as a whole—it feels like Radar is a real mouthpiece for London, where you have all these competing scenes getting airtime.
Yeah, if you look at radio 15 years ago, when it was more pirate-orientated, it was more of a geographical thing. If you had your station east, the DJs would be east. But we’re bang in the centre of London. So we’ll get the road rap guys coming from south, people like Amy Becker coming from north, others from east, west… anyone in electronic music who’s doing something interesting.
How do you think Radar reflects the shift from the old pirates, which seemed more devoted to one sound or genre?
I think it’s a reflection of our audience. Young people now are interested in a bit of everything. I was born in 1990, so I grew up on things like LimeWire and BearShare —I could download, rap, grime, electronica, nu-metal. I don’t know many people now who are just into funky, or grime, for example.
And that’s reflected in clubs, as well…
Yeah, 2016 is unlikely to birth a whole new genre, but you get DJs playing with an open-format style, drawing for everything. People like Bala Club, who I think are really pushing boundaries, you’ll hear them playing a rap track from the US, into AraabMuzik…
Into reggateon…
Yeah—with Radar too, there aren’t many straight house or techno shows on the station. Also, the reason I like having a lot of road rap or grime is that you get a live performer in, so it’s gonna be different every time. When AJ Tracey was on the Big Zuu show yesterday, that wasn’t pre-planned, it was just because he was mates with Big Zuu. When Dizzee Rascal came on Ray Keith’s show, that was literally organised on the day – it was the sense that anything could happen that made it so exciting, and why it went crazy online. As well as the fact it was live and uncensored, which is what the internet allows you to do compared to the bigger stations, where everything has to be pre-organised. What we do is a kind of organised chaos.
Aspiring DJs can sign up for their chance to take part in Smirnoff x Radar Radio Academy’s workshops with Monki and more here.
