Resonance FM

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The Resonance FM Logo

Resonance 104.4 FM is a London based non-profit community radio station run by the London Musicians Collective (LMC) which started broadcasting on 2002-05-01 as part of the UK Radio Authority's Access Radio Pilot Scheme.

The station brands itself as "London's first radio art station" and presents material ranging from a programme presented by the staff of the experimental music magazine The Wire to "Calling All Pensioners" which aims to inform the elderly about things such as local events and what benefits they are legally entitled to. Live music sessions are broadcast on shows such as You Are Hear [1] and gLASSsHRIMP. There are many other shows including some foreign language programmes aimed at communities in London who are not served by other radio stations.

An Resonance FM outside broadcast from the Serpentine Gallery, summer 2005

The station is broadcast from a transmitter situated on the roof of Guy's Hospital at London Bridge on 104.4 Mhz FM. The transmission power is low compared to London's main radio stations due to the terms of its community radio licence. It can be received throughout central London but does not cover the whole Greater London area. Interference from local pirate radio stations, particularly at weekends, has been a problem in some areas. It can also be streamed from the station's web site. Resonance FM is staffed by four permanent staff members and over 300 volunteer technical and production staff. It broadcasts 24 hours-a-day, 7 days-a-week.

Resonance FM has received critical acclaim in the pages of The Guardian, The Independent on Sunday, The Daily Telegraph and several other publications. Professor Anthony Everitt who was appointed by Ofcom to evaluate the Access Radio Pilot Scheme is quoted as saying the station's "extraordinary range of musical genres outspans the output of any other radio station in the United Kingdom - and very probably in the world. While maintaining a broad editorial reach, Resonance FM has uncovered a rich, little-known stratum of avant-garde practice and made it generally accessible, without diluting the necessary ingredients of challenge, surprise, difficulty, irritation and delight. It is a genuine discovery channel."

The Resonance FM mission statement runs as follows: "Imagine a radio station like no other. A radio station that makes public those artworks that have no place in traditional broadcasting. A radio station that is an archive of the new, the undiscovered, the forgotten, the impossible. That is an invisible gallery, a virtual arts centre whose location is at once local, global and timeless. And that is itself a work of art. Imagine a radio station that responds rapidly to new initiatives, has time to draw breath and reflect. A laboratory for experimentation, that by virtue of its uniqueness brings into being a new audience of listeners and creators. All this and more, Resonance104.4fm aims to make London's airwaves available to the widest possible range of practitioners of contemporary art."

On 15 December 2005, Ofcom granted Resonance 104.4 FM an additional five-year licence.

On 28 March 2006 Resonance became the first community station to have a show nominated for a Sony Radio Award. The Good Drugs Guide is a documentary series presented by Piers Gibbon and David McCandless.