Hello dear visitor! It is now September the 11th 2023 and I'm writing a blog post about ArtsLab. ArtsLab began when I joined the wonderful RedShift Radio in Nantwich in 2015. The people there and the whole experience was wonderful, life-changing in many ways. We community radio producers and presenters were given the freedom to craft a show as we saw fit. For the first year I showcased strange and arty music, and added various anarchic or surrealistic features. Most episodes featured special guests. For series 2 and 3, in a bid to boost listenership and audience engagement, I adopted a bold new format where all of the content (or at least, as much as possible) was created by listeners, artists, or anyone else, and sent to me each week for broadcast.
This blog is an archive of the programme episodes. All of the episodes were originally uploaded onto the RedShift Radio MixCloud account for streaming, but at some point in 2024 or 2025 all episodes were deleted when the radio station ceased to be. I have an archive of all episodes in mp3 quality, and at the time of this edit in March 2025, a small number remain as free content on my personal MixCloud account, but most of the programme archive is currently offline. Like any radio show, most of the musical content requries the correct licencing to be made public.
This blog is an attempt to preserve the culturally important record of this unique show. Many of the audio artworks are unique, created by a small band of artists and poets specifically for the programme and never performed or broadcast since. A number of the artists interviewed on ArtsLab have subsequently died, and for many special guests these interviews represent their only broadcast interviews. The shows are also a record of community broadcasting of the time, when internet streamed radio and FM/DAB were more important than podcasts. The advertisements, news, and jingles give us a glimpse of South Cheshire in the mid 2010s.
Enjoy browsing this blog, and if you can find any episodes online, enjoy listening. Tags here are used for the artists or poets who contributed works in series 2 and/or 3, and only present when the contributor has appeared on more than one show.
