Arts Council England
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Pop up radio station celebrates Bristol’s music culture

This month South West Underground will be celebrating Bristol music culture with a 28 day FM & online radio station dedicated to the city’s Urban, Electronic & Dance music and broadcasting from a pop up studio in Bristol city centre.

The programme has been supported by a Grants for the arts award of £14,999, and local music college DBS have loaned equipment in exchange for student work experience. 

The station will feature established Bristol names - including record producer and DJ Roni Size - as well as up and coming artists and volunteers.   An open call out for artists in 2015 received over 600 applications.

Targeting 15-24 year olds living in the SW of England, the broadcast will be accompanied by a phone app available on iPhones and a website featuring daily updates of photographs, news, interviews and free audio recordings for listeners to download, showcasing new music from the region.

We’re ever so proud of what we’ve put together, our final radio programme has surpassed what we originally set out to do.   After 14 months’ very hard work and help from of a lot of clever people, we’re able to switch on  87.7FM and celebrate Bristol music culture on air and online with the rest of the world.

Ollie Watton, Director, South West Underground, continued: "As a platform we have a great combination of established artists, up and coming talent and people who make music happen in the city - without their support we wouldn’t be here and we’re thankful for everyone who’s backing us as a broadcaster.  The most common reaction we’ve been witnessing in the past month is people saying it’s a shame we’re only on air for a month and Bristol needs this to happen more frequently.  While nothing is set in stone, this is very much the beginning not the end!"

BBC Radio Bristol producer and presenter Thadeous Matthews has recorded six 2 hour long audio documentaries about Bristol’s music culture history, interviewing artists from each era and covering key moments and genre’s in the city’s music history.  These features will be broadcast during the 28 days and also included as part of an online archive after the broadcast evidencing the 28 day celebration.

South West Underground (SWU) started in 2002 as a message board to promote and support music and art in the south west of England.   In the years since, SWU has evolved, using the internet and new technologies to bring people together in exciting projects such as an internet radio station, featuring over 50 DJs and shows broadcasting 24 hours a day, which received two South West Drum and Bass Awards for the Best UK Website.

Listen online here

 

Channel website: http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/

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