I’d like to share a new project – The Golden Age of Community Radio. It’s a directory of community radio stations from around the world that I discovered while promoting the album I released last year, ‘Songs for the Mist Forest’, made with my dear friend Morgan Szymanski.
I’m immensely proud of ‘Songs for the Mist Forest’, which seeks to highlight the environmental crisis facing Morgan’s hometown, Valle de Bravo, Mexico. But at first, I struggled to work out how to share the stories behind the album.
Like many people, I’ve become disillusioned with trying to promote creative projects on Instagram. It’s exhausting, and sadly, I find spending any time on the platform to be really bad for my mental health.
So, instead, I decided to put my energy into contacting DJs with shows on community radio stations, and I’m so glad that I did. On my searches for appropriate places to contact, I uncovered so many brilliant stations staffed by amazing DJs who are pouring their love and passion for music into their shows. Their broadcasts are so full of energy, knowledge, and joy. Community radio stations are the antidote to Spotify.
Although it took a lot of energy, it was so rewarding when I received responses from DJs. And as a result of all my efforts, Morgan and I have had over 850 radio plays worldwide over the last year. A significant increase from the previous album. And often the DJs would talk about the themes behind the music, sharing the environmental message and engaging audiences around the world that I would never have reached otherwise.
I was so delighted to find such a thriving culture of community radio stations and in the spirit of that community, I decided to share the knowledge I’d gathered by creating an online directory. As well as a list of awe-inspiring radio stations, the directory is a resource for other musicians wanting to find new places to send their music. (I’ve included some tips on best practices for sending music.)
I’m well aware that this is far from an exhaustive list of community stations, and I’d really welcome input. So if you know of a great community radio station and it’s not already on the site, please let me know, and I’ll add it.
Many thanks for reading,
All the best,
Tommy