It’s one week into Resonance FM’s year-long broadcast, and Joel Stern is about to begin his first show. One microphone pokes crazily out of the window of the central London studio, another is positioned above a mobile phone, amplifying the voice of someone reading out an animal rights document. The landline rings, and Stern and two sound engineers frantically patch cords in and out and swing the mike over the receiver to broadcast the sounds of Soho.
This is ‘No Network’, an un-hosted phone-in.
‘It examined the potential for radio to provide a virtual space for spontaneous information to collide and disseminate,’ Stern explains.
‘It enabled people improvising, surveying and interfering within the urban environment to access broadcast mechanisms through mobile phones: phoning in situations as they moved through the city,’ Stern says.
Resonance FM is London’s only radio art and arts radio station, a station that, as its website says: ‘makes public those artworks that have no place in traditional broadcasting. That is an invisible gallery, a virtual arts centre. And that is itself a work of art.’
Resonance FM emerged out of the London Music Collective, an organisation of improvisation musicians who have been in existence since the mid-70’s.
It first hit the airwaves for one month in 1998 as part of the Meltdown Festival. In 2002, Resonance FM was one of 15 stations around the country awarded a licence to broadcast for 12-months.
‘It was quite a surprise really,’ says Project Co-Ordinator, Ed Baxter, who was instrumental in getting Resonance FM on the airwaves.
‘We were lucky, we’re the only one in central London and the only one with an artistic brief so whether we’re the wild card or not, I don’t know!’
Soft spoken and unpretentious, Baxter is modest about the alternative station’s recognition. Although radio art is far from mainstream, the response from London’s artistic community indicates the station is reaching a broader audience.
‘What we’re doing is allowing artists access to the airwaves, which for Great Britain is completely new and radical,’ Baxter says.
‘Everybody we’ve mentioned the station to has said ‘Oh, that’s interesting’, and then gone on to say how bored they are with local and national radio.’
The station has an eclectic program of experimental soundscapes, live improvised performances, and the more traditional hosted slots showcasing alternative music.
One show broadcasts electronic music in realtime from various locations around the world. Chris Cutler’s Out of the Blue broadcasts field recordings from different spots across the globe but always at 11.30pm (GMT). This Friday (September 13), for example, Hans Groiss broadcasts from the the flooded Donauinsel in Vienna, Austria. Next week listeners can tune into a garden in France, a dinner party in Italy, and the sounds of Chinatown, New York City at rush hour.
But it’s not all experimental sounds, there are also well-informed specialist music programs including a Japanese music show, alternative country and western and an African folk program.
Stern has the weighty responsibility of presenting a show this evening, September 11, and has moved slightly away from the concept of radio art for the occasion.
‘I’ve invited Matthew Hyland, a writer for Mute magazine to discuss the current political crisis and I’ve organised an interview with Michael Chant, who has organised a series of concerts called Not in our Name, which reflect artists opposition to the ongoing ‘War on Terror’.
‘I know it’s not strictly radio art, but hey, it’s a loaded day’, Stern explains.
But like all small organisations, there is the problem of funding and the pending deadline of May 1 2003, when the broadcasting licence ends.
Resonance only broadcasts from 5pm to 1am weekdays and 12 noon to 1am on weekends, due to the availability of sound engineers who are all volunteers.
Due to limited funds, they are unable to pay engineers.
According to Baxter, it’s an expensive venture to run. He is currently negotiating with the Arts Council of England to receive funding, but it will only be about a fifth of what they actually need.
‘Arts Council will give us £50,000, but the rent on the studio is £20,000 and the set-up costs have been £28,000 – so it’s quite an expensive project to float,’ Baxter says.
He is investigating commercial sponsorship and the possibility of a telethon, but says there has never been subscription to radio in the UK and the public would find it alien to pay to support a station.
As for the continuation of the broadcasting licence, Baxter is trying not to think about it until early next year. For now, he’s just excited about what’s happening on the station in the next week.
‘On Sunday, the fashion designer Robert Cary Williams is launching his new collection with models with transistor radios strapped to their wrists broadcasting Resonance as part of his show – all kinds of people are tuned in and want to be associated with the project.’
Tune into Resonance 104.4 FM around the world at www.resonancefm.com