Hello, hi how r u šø
How are you? I hope youāre good, but Iād love to know what youāre up to. Itās always nice when people reply. Whatās good??
On good, I am feeling good. In fact, Iām feeling great. Iāve got big news.
Late last year, a wonderful friend (who became a friend through this very community) Cosmic Bob (probably not the name on his passport) messaged me to suggest that we should create a group Mixcloud account for the Love Will Save The Day chat. It was a great idea. There are lots of incredible DJs, presenters, and interesting people in our community, and the idea of bringing them together was exciting.
I canāt remember exactly how it played out, but letās just say it escalated.
And today, Iām excited to announce that tomorrow, the 22nd of July, weāre launching our own radio station, lovewillsavetheday.fm.
Iāll get to the details, but firstā¦ Let me get emotional.
When I started writing this email way back in June 2017, it was for a few friends, and the idea was to share music that I thought they should hear. It was kind of a replacement for DJing and throwing parties.
Over time it started to grow, and it became a way for me to find my people. To find somewhere I could belong (after I realised that Iād felt pretty lost for quite a while). A community started to grow around it, and friendships started growing not just for me, but for other people too. Then things got out of hand and it grew really fast, both in terms of scale, but also in terms of the bonds between us all.
There are nearly 3,000 of us now, and that feels utterly insane to write. We have a community of people who are all hugely different from one another, but yet connected by a shared love of art, culture, and music from the margins, and a belief that āhate knows loveās the cureā.
So when Cosmic Bob (again, not his real name) and I started getting carried away, I had to admit that our own radio station felt like a natural progression. But I still thought it was too big of a lift, and I had a lot of doubts. Then a great friend of mine (as well as being a co-founder of LWSTD-FM, and incredible DJ), Becca Sawyer, said that āwhen most stations launch theyāre a radio station looking for a community, but weāre the other way round; weāre a community looking for a radio stationā, and everything fell into place in my head.
Then we started talking about if this was actually needed - after all, thereās loads of incredible independent radio stations around. But there were a few things that we - and by we, I mean the incredible group of co-founders that have got this to this stage (Becca, Conor, Demi, Holly, Nick/Cosmic, Tara, Stef, and Steve) - noticed were a little broken, asymmetrical even.
So hereās why weāre doing this, beyond it being just the natural evolution of our community.
Ongoing strikes, rising inequality, falling living standards, and widespread corruption. It's 2023, but the late 1970s are getting a rewind.
Fifty years ago, those that found themselves marginalised could protest with art and music. Today, the cultural movements born on the fringes are quickly commercialised, sanitised and appropriated by investors and big business.
Bleached, reshaped, and sold back to us.
The dull ache of capitalism is insidious and itās stopped any notion of a space thatās about good, not greed, and now weāre left with a shallow version of appropriated and diluted culture thatās more focused on raising revenue than raising vibrations.
But necessity is the mother of invention - and to create is in our nature. From the seeds of discontent grows dissent. We believe that the commercialisation of culture needs an opposition. We have hope.
Dancefloors, community centres, disused car parks, chat rooms, bedrooms, the afters, the big tents, the small audiences, the bonds of the unheard, the red lights, the basements and the feelings. The feeling that we are more than just ourselves and our possessions - this is life.
And this is what we want to protect.
So weāre on a mission together to create a space thatās just for us, devoid of interference and āaudience monetisationā plans. This is our sacred space, our little corner of the world where we can share our love for music, art, and one another, thisā¦ this is our home.
This is lovewillsavetheday.fm.
And tomorrow, at 12pm, it will come to life.
lovewillsavetheday.fm will be a co-operative, DIY audio platform that fosters, celebrates and amplifies the music, art, and ideas founded on the margins.
Itāll be owned, run, and presented by its members, and weād love for you to come join us š
You can listen here, join the community here, and follow us on Instagram here.
As for this newsletter, well, worry not. It canāt really become any more sporadic, so thereās that. Plus, Iāll be putting out two shows on month (7-10pm, the first and third Saturday of every month), and here Iāll share links to my shows, tracklists, a SpotifyĀ mixtape of most of the music played, links to interesting things, and sometimes some ideas and thoughts. So for those of you that are entirely unenthused about radio; donāt worry, Iāve got you.
For those of you that love radio, then be sure to tune in tomorrow at 12pm, and get at us in the chat!
And with that, I bid you good day. Oh, actually, one thing more; after six years, the sign-off is changing tooā¦
See you on the airwaves,
Jed x
PS. If you're new here, thenĀ hereās what youāve missed so far.
PPS. Oh, and come join our lovely little community, youāll love it ā¤ļø