| City of license | London |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Central London |
| Slogan | The Art of Listening |
| Frequency | 104.4 MHz |
| First air date | June 1998 |
| Format | Community radio, Radio Art |
| Owner | London Musicians Collective Limited [1] |
| Webcast | MP3 Stream |
| Website | www.resonancefm.com |
Resonance 104.4 FM is a London based non-profit community radio station run by the London Musicians' Collective (LMC).
The station is staffed by four permanent staff members, including programme controller Ed Baxter[1] and over 300 volunteer technical and production staff.
Until September 2007, ResonanceFM was based in Denmark Street. The studios are now next to Borough High Street, the station has a coverage area designated as a 5 kilometres (3 mi) radius[2] from the transmitter in London Bridge.[3]
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ResonanceFM describes itself as 'the world’s first radio art station' with a brief to provide a radical alternative to the universal formulae of mainstream broadcasting. Resonance 104.4 fm features programmes made by musicians, artists and critics who represent the diversity of London’s arts scenes, with regular weekly contributions from nearly two hundred musicians, artists, thinkers, critics, activists and instigators; plus numerous unique broadcasts by artists on the weekday “Clear Spot”.
The station presents material ranging from a programme presented by the staff of the experimental music magazine The Wire to Calling All Pensioners[2], which aims to inform the elderly about local events and benefits entitlement. Live music sessions are featured on shows such as Hello Goodbye, You Are Hear, Hooting Yard on the Air, and Glass Shrimp. Other shows include foreign-language programmes aimed at communities in London who are not served by other broadcasters.
In addition to locally produced programming, Resonance is a member of Radia and a rebroadcaster of Democracy Now!.
Resonance FM has received a Sony Award nomination for The Good Drugs Guide, a documentary series presented by Piers Gibbon and David McCandless. The station has been profiled in the pages of The Guardian,[4] The Independent on Sunday,[5] The Daily Telegraph[6] and the Morning Star[7] amongst others.[8][9][10]
The station won the Radio Academy Nations and Regions Award for London for three consecutive years between 2009 and 2011 [3]
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.—Resonance FM, Resonance's FAQ page
The London Musicians' Collective originally put together a four-week programme of radio art as part of 1998's Meltdown festival at the South Bank Centre, curated by John Peel. The station operated from the Royal Festival Hall on a month long Restricted Service Licence on 107.3 FM.[11][12]
Phil England, an organiser of the original broadcast, described the origins of the station in a text written to accompany the printed programme. The aim, he wrote, was "to raise the specter of radio art in a country where the notion has no common currency".[12]
After a four year hiatus, the station returned on 1 May 2002 as part of the Ofcom Access Radio Pilot Scheme from studios on Denmark Street in the Soho area of London's West End.[13]
With the trial at an end, Professor Anthony Everitt, who was appointed by Ofcom to evaluate the Access Radio Pilot Scheme - said the following: "The 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."
Resonance was awarded a five-year Community Radio licence in December 2005, enabling the station to broadcast 24/7. Ofcom extended the station's FM broadcasting licence in July 2010.[14]
Resonance FM resumed scheduled broadcasting in September 2007 after a short hiatus whilst moving into a new studio building on Borough High Street, Southwark; a short walk from the area where they launched in 1998.
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 with 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 and is a problem in some areas. It can also be streamed from the station's web site.
The radio station is home to a wide range of independent and (somewhat) avant-garde recordings, including:[15]
Resonance carries broadcasts from the international Radia network and, during the night, archival material in the form of The Nightloop. Democracy Now! is also syndicated on Resonance FM.
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