How has Radio dealt with the change from FM to Digital? Now we have internet based radio stations, what does the terminology mean now? How does it differ from a Podcast? What is Pirate Radio?
NTS Radio is an internet radio station. An internet radio station, uses an IP Address to stream a web-broadcast (webcasting). This is different to a Podcast, as podcasts are generally downloaded and are compatible in an offline setting (ideal for people traveling by tube for example, where constant service isn’t possible to maintain a stream.)
NTS, was founded in 2003, by Femi Adeyemi. Who was working for Boiler Room and DJing in London, had the idea to create a radio station in the image of a Pirate station, trying to link together the tastes of London and pushing diversity as it’s main goal. Almost 20 years later. It is hard to say they haven’t been extremely successful and may indeed a pinbadge on the coat of the sub-cultures and counter cultures of the last decade of music with a massive reach that extends to many scenes and sits as a really accessible pathway to a vast amount of really interesting different sub genres. It now has a base in London, LA, Manchester & Shanghai. Currently through the COVID-19 pandemic running a live stream of new (some prerecorded) shows on Station 1, and selected reruns of shows from around the world on Station 2.
NTS has really led a innovation in Internet Radio, setting it apart from the BBC in the way it’s tapped into culture. With live streamed premiere’s of new albums by cult artists like Arthur Russell and Dean Blunt to curated mixes by big artists who agree to do it based on the standing and social capital the station has snowballed towards.
NTS has an App you can download to your phone, which allows for streaming on the go. It’s two channels as well as an easily accessible backlog of shows and ways for you to bookmark your favourite presenters means it’s created it’s own ecosystem of content and it’s integration with artists and labels means it is a trusted source of quality content. Whereas with pocket FM radio, there is a sense that if a station isn’t doing it for you, you change to the next one. NTS has almost created it’s only monopoly and ways to keep you on NTS. Much like in essence, the most dominant sites on the internet (Facebook, Youtube, Instagram… etc.)
Slack City is a radio station that has just emerged in Brighton, in which I believe is clearly influenced by NTS, the giants of new alternative Internet Radio. I am in talks to begin a show for this station under my long run Mixcloud channel ‘Hit Hit Flop Flop’. – A homage to the late-great Holger Czukay and alternative/experimental pop music.
Here is one of our mixes. The idea was to link music by a common theme. Thinking of an abstract setting and what music from the collection of some friend’s and mine best suits that theme. We were influenced by video games, films, television and tropes within songwriting used by composers mainly to create a sort of stereotypical soundscape in a scene. Perhaps as a direct response to archival radio shows, which play music from one place at one specific time and are concerned the cataloguing but not so much the way this influence mixes with other things around the world and I guess we hope from our mixes that we can try to link together previous disparate sounds and find a place where they belong together. Telecom Flop was a chance explore Library music, Muzak and smooth commercially minded light-jazz. As well as a few experimental songs with instrument choices that were reminiscent of those genres.
In regards to the Assignment coming up. When I visited Slack City’s studio in September 2020. They were running through an analogue mixing desk, the signal was then sent straight to a raspberry pi Where it was streamed over the internet to the mother radio station, Totallyradio.com where an engineer handles the final broadcast signal. I have been tasked with sharing the producer role alongside producing SFX.