East Village Radio
Sept. 6, Pier 17 at the South Street Seaport, 212-420-5908, 3, free.
Midway through last Wednesday night’s broadcast of “Baller’s Eve” on East Village Radio, a New York rap newcomer named Stox just happened to be walking by the First Avenue street-level radio-station studios, with a stack of his just-released debut mix CD in hand.
The next thing he knew, the relatively unknown young artist was on the mic for a brief impromptu interview. Such a scenario is common at the community-centric EVR; the uniquely New York, freeform, music-and-commentary-driven, web-only station that’s celebrating its fifth anniversary with a big concert, hosted by KRS-One, this Saturday at the South Street Seaport.
EVR’s street-level East Village studio location has proven to be advantageous. According to MTA statistics, each hour anywhere from 1,000 to 2,000 people walk by its ground-to-ceiling, all-glass broadcast space. In fact, one night a few years back, EVR DJ Mark Ronson let a guy wander in and start freestyling about everyone walking past outside. With his words, over Ronson’s accompanying beats, blasting out of the studio’s booming speakers, a large crowd gathered in front of the station. “There were so many people gathered out on street and the sidewalk that the police came and shut it down,” says Ronson, with a laugh.
This being New York City, you never know who might walk by. Sometimes legendary musicians stumble upon EVR’s studios and inadvertently end up on the air—like the Friday night earlier this year when rapper Large Professor happened upon the station during the old-school hip-hop flavored show “The Block.” He ended up on the air for 45 minutes with host Capital P, chopping it up and offering up some great New York hip-hop history. Other times the surprise guests aren’t as coherent—or sober.
Two years ago Ceci Moss, host of the eclectic music show “Radio Heart” was treated a surprise guest during her broadcast.
“I was in the middle of a particularly abrasive Yellow Swans track when a very drunk Lady Sovereign waltzed into the studio with her posse and demanded that she rap on air,” says Moss. “I immediately stopped the track I was playing and pulled up one of her songs, and she totally freestyled.”
But things weren’t always so out in the open for EVR; the station launched in July 2003 as a hidden, low-powered, 30-watt pirate radio station in a cramped room above its current location, an extension of Lil’ Frankie’s restaurant. “We weren’t on the air very long before we got a cease-and-desist letter from the FCC,” recalls station engineer Jorge DoCouto who assisted EVR’s owner, Frankie Prisinzano. Unfazed by the shutdown, Prisinzano and his music-loving crew upped the ante by going worldwide on the Web and took the operation to the street, literally.
“The street-level studio was a direct result of leaving the FM airwaves. It has also helped, over the years, to spread the word since we are not on the FM dial,” says Steve Cohen, a station manager who also hosts a show—one of 84 on the station each week. Most shows are a mix of music and engaging chat, like “Forty Deuce,” which plays old funk and breaks and talk about New York’s past and present. Then there’s the always entertaining Saturday night “D-List Radio” show, hosted by the self-proclaimed “Willy Wonka of Queer New York,” Daniel Nardicio with co-hosts Matthew Phillip and Adam, who describes the show as “pure, community-based and very East Village.” Over the coming weeks Nardicio is taking the show on the road through such states as Virginia and Louisana, hosting a show he calls “A Fairy Home Companion.”
Station manager Cohen says this weekend’s free concert, which EVR hopes is the first of many, is both a thank you to its supporters and a reaffirmation of EVR’s unique programming. “EVR’s festival is all about giving our potential audience a live version of the type of programming we broadcast daily at the station,” says Cohen. “[We want] to have people enjoy a line up where musical diversity was not only the goal, but also part of the compositional design of the show.”
The fact that EVR is Web-only matters little to Cohen, who notes, “It’s only a matter of time before cell phones, car radios and portable Internet media devices like iPods carry Internet radio.” Unlike most free, non-FM, Web-only radio stations, which generally tend to be lacking in any personality or recognizable sense of community, EVR oozes both thanks to its rich stable of local programmers and its on-the-street location.
“I used to do a show back in London on KISS-FM, but it was nothing like here,” says Ronson, outside EVR after his show last week. “I get offers to do shows on bigger stations, but this is so much fun that I couldn’t imagine doing it in any other atmosphere and having the same excitement.”
Sept. 6, Pier 17 at the South Street Seaport, 212-420-5908, 3, free.
Midway through last Wednesday night’s broadcast of “Baller’s Eve” on East Village Radio, a New York rap newcomer named Stox just happened to be walking by the First Avenue street-level radio-station studios, with a stack of his just-released debut mix CD in hand.
The next thing he knew, the relatively unknown young artist was on the mic for a brief impromptu interview. Such a scenario is common at the community-centric EVR; the uniquely New York, freeform, music-and-commentary-driven, web-only station that’s celebrating its fifth anniversary with a big concert, hosted by KRS-One, this Saturday at the South Street Seaport.
EVR’s street-level East Village studio location has proven to be advantageous. According to MTA statistics, each hour anywhere from 1,000 to 2,000 people walk by its ground-to-ceiling, all-glass broadcast space. In fact, one night a few years back, EVR DJ Mark Ronson let a guy wander in and start freestyling about everyone walking past outside. With his words, over Ronson’s accompanying beats, blasting out of the studio’s booming speakers, a large crowd gathered in front of the station. “There were so many people gathered out on street and the sidewalk that the police came and shut it down,” says Ronson, with a laugh.
This being New York City, you never know who might walk by. Sometimes legendary musicians stumble upon EVR’s studios and inadvertently end up on the air—like the Friday night earlier this year when rapper Large Professor happened upon the station during the old-school hip-hop flavored show “The Block.” He ended up on the air for 45 minutes with host Capital P, chopping it up and offering up some great New York hip-hop history. Other times the surprise guests aren’t as coherent—or sober.
Two years ago Ceci Moss, host of the eclectic music show “Radio Heart” was treated a surprise guest during her broadcast.
“I was in the middle of a particularly abrasive Yellow Swans track when a very drunk Lady Sovereign waltzed into the studio with her posse and demanded that she rap on air,” says Moss. “I immediately stopped the track I was playing and pulled up one of her songs, and she totally freestyled.”
But things weren’t always so out in the open for EVR; the station launched in July 2003 as a hidden, low-powered, 30-watt pirate radio station in a cramped room above its current location, an extension of Lil’ Frankie’s restaurant. “We weren’t on the air very long before we got a cease-and-desist letter from the FCC,” recalls station engineer Jorge DoCouto who assisted EVR’s owner, Frankie Prisinzano. Unfazed by the shutdown, Prisinzano and his music-loving crew upped the ante by going worldwide on the Web and took the operation to the street, literally.
“The street-level studio was a direct result of leaving the FM airwaves. It has also helped, over the years, to spread the word since we are not on the FM dial,” says Steve Cohen, a station manager who also hosts a show—one of 84 on the station each week. Most shows are a mix of music and engaging chat, like “Forty Deuce,” which plays old funk and breaks and talk about New York’s past and present. Then there’s the always entertaining Saturday night “D-List Radio” show, hosted by the self-proclaimed “Willy Wonka of Queer New York,” Daniel Nardicio with co-hosts Matthew Phillip and Adam, who describes the show as “pure, community-based and very East Village.” Over the coming weeks Nardicio is taking the show on the road through such states as Virginia and Louisana, hosting a show he calls “A Fairy Home Companion.”
Station manager Cohen says this weekend’s free concert, which EVR hopes is the first of many, is both a thank you to its supporters and a reaffirmation of EVR’s unique programming. “EVR’s festival is all about giving our potential audience a live version of the type of programming we broadcast daily at the station,” says Cohen. “[We want] to have people enjoy a line up where musical diversity was not only the goal, but also part of the compositional design of the show.”
The fact that EVR is Web-only matters little to Cohen, who notes, “It’s only a matter of time before cell phones, car radios and portable Internet media devices like iPods carry Internet radio.” Unlike most free, non-FM, Web-only radio stations, which generally tend to be lacking in any personality or recognizable sense of community, EVR oozes both thanks to its rich stable of local programmers and its on-the-street location.
“I used to do a show back in London on KISS-FM, but it was nothing like here,” says Ronson, outside EVR after his show last week. “I get offers to do shows on bigger stations, but this is so much fun that I couldn’t imagine doing it in any other atmosphere and having the same excitement.”
