East Village Radio, the influential streetfront on-line radio station that broadcast from 2003-2016 and Mark Ronson hosted an influential present for a number of years, has introduced it’s planning to relaunch subsequent month.
The station, previously positioned in a tiny studio behind a glass window on the entrance of a restaurant on First Avenue in New York’s East Village, opened immediately onto the sidewalk, providing an nearly surreal intimacy between passersby and the DJs. featured numerous visitor appearances from artists through the years — together with Amy Winehouse, Duran Duran, members of the New York Dolls and the Smiths and plenty of others — and was a longstanding neighborhood establishment. Owner Frank Prisinzano is now working with veteran program director Brian Turner, previously of the enduring free-form station WFMU.
Duran Duran with Mark Ronson at East Village Radio in 2010 (Photo courtesy EVR)
In an announcement reflecting its longstanding and somewhat idealistic insurance policies in opposition to company radio, the station acknowledged: “EVR remains committed to its original cause: a grassroots source of independent minded DJs and programmers that serves its community. Free of dictated playlists, our hosts come from a wide and diverse background, schooled and deeply knowledgeable about their passion. Just as the NYC’s East Village itself has been a crossroads of a myriad of fused cultures, revolutionary ideologies in art, music, film, poetry and more, EVR looks to focus itself on this legacy with a freeform approach to radio that will blur boundaries and take cues from the great FM stations of the past and amplify the mission of the few truly independent minded stations that exist in the present.”
If keen on internet hosting a present, contact brian@eastvillageradio.com.
Launched by Prisinzano, the restaurant’s proprietor, the station initially started broadcasting 2003 on a low energy transmitter at 88.1 FM — apparently in violation of FCC guidelines, so the station moved on-line. Amid the numerous friends and visitor DJs within the studio, Ronson’s “Authentic Shit” was a traditional BBC-style radio present that includes uncommon music, demos, visitor appearances from his collaborators like Winehouse and Duran Duran.
Prisinzano says within the announcement, “My plan is now to relaunch the station with sponsors, which is how we should have done it from the beginning. We’re starting again & considering all the problems we had before and implementing new solutions. We’re hoping to relaunch in April 2024.” Co-conspirators on EVR’s residence web page will embrace London-based Clash Music.
