Export Radio

London, 2019-2021
Varley Memorial Award winner 2020

A STATION FOR THE CREATIVE HUB(BUB)
Export Radio was born in the White City campus’ cafeteria. A bunch of Experimental Communication students sat together around one of the livid white tables to discuss the community of experimental practice and what could be done to embody it. We must say that this is one of the most vivid memories we have of this ‘Golden Era’ at the RCA; when we could still access the campus in unrestricted freedom, amidst the whole cohort. The campus was freezing cold due to a frankly nasty heating system failure. Being the only space spared from this condition, the cafeteria was the refuge for (brain)numbed students. Ideas were flying thick and fast in all directions in this gathering space. We thought this was rather peculiar not to have a radio station while being located in old BBC radio recording studios.
So the idea was born there!

A COLLABORATIVE SATELLITE
With the global pandemic, we had to adapt our station to the digital realm, turning our bedrooms/living rooms in 'quarantined recording booths' and reaching out to the wider ART SCHOOLS RADIOS' community to keep the contact in these challenging times.

The ‘World Wild Web’ turned into a terrain of exploration and our voices into vessels to reach in and out the RCA community. Eventually Export landed with a clear manifesto emanating from this rocky expedition:
"We curate weekly showcases of music, conversation and interview, collected from both RCA students and further afield. Intertwined within the Art/sound scene of today, Export aims to observe experimentation through an International lens. Export Radio represents an opportunity to re-invigorate the public through worldwide collaboration and discussion, building bridges in a post-Brexit, mid-Covid19 environment."

RCA2021 BROADCASTS
Back in January, we hosted a college-wide series of event to offer visibility to our graduates cohort in the context of the RCA's Work in Progress Show 2021. Taking the form of a 24 hours livestream(insert link 24hours livestream) and an Afterparty(insert link afterparty), we broadcasted a wide range of sonic contributions spanning across spoken word performance, talks, seminars, DJ sets and podcasts.
Joined by 100+ contributors, this WiP takeover by Export Radio was done in tandem with the RCA and reached out to more than 2300 viewers!

The radio was resident at the Ridley Road Social Club in Dalston in 2020.

We documented this platform’s journey on RCA’s websites here:
https://www.rca.ac.uk
http://content-free.net