dublab is a Los Angeles-based, community-supported internet radio station and creative collective dedicated to the growth of positive music, arts, and culture. Founded in 1999, dublab has been broadcasting since the “dot-com era” with the mission to share forward-thinking, freeform radio with an international audience. dublab’s programming has since expanded to include the production of original art exhibits, films, television, events, and community education projects as well as broadcast on affiliate stations in Germany, Japan, Spain, and Brazil.
Each month, dublab showcases over 180 radio shows from some of the world’s most talented DJs, musicians, journalists, and artists. Each show is distinct and entirely freeform: we take pride in empowering our DJs to freely play the music that best shares their individual story. Beyond broadcast, dublab produces and hosts several multimedia projects and exhibits each year, most often made possible by the support of public and foundation project grants. Through local events, international broadcasts, and collaborative multimedia projects, dublab has helped define and connect the next wave of arts, music, and culture across the Los Angeles and international communities.
Their mission statement: dublab cultivates and supports local cultural ecosystems worldwide. Through community-generated radio, dublab expands curiosity, experimentation, inclusivity, education and connection.
Since its founding just one year after Google and two years before the iPod and iTunes, dublab has provided a platform for tastemaking DJs to express themselves to the fullest. Today, in an age of predictive algorithms and noisy social media feeds, the L.A.-based community-supported internet radio station is an oasis of careful curation, presenting hundreds of hours of programming that provide windows into the vast world of music–past and present, underground and mainstream. Next month, on September 28th at Zebulon in L.A.’s Frogtown, dublab celebrates its 25th anniversary as “the world’s best online radio station” (The Guardian), culminating a quarter-century of broadcasting and cultivating artistic communities online and IRL.
dublab was founded in Los Angeles in September 1999, by Mark “Frosty” McNeill and current executive director Alejandro “Ale” Cohen, among others, during the initial “dot-com” era and has been broadcasting ever since, setting a standard for online radio that persists to this day. The not-for-profit, listener-funded station presents over 180 radio shows, and hundreds of hours of unique programming per week, from selectors that range from prominent producers, renowned DJs, established artists, L.A. scenesters, and respected music critics and historians. The heart of dublab is that tight-knit community of artists and curators, who have turned the station into an epicenter for global experimental music.
Notable among current and past resident DJs are Jimmy Tamborello of The Postal Service and DNTEL, producer/DJ Daedalus, jazz guitarist Jeff Parker, and drummer/composer/producer Photay, while past residents have included luminaries like Cut Chemist, jazz musician and Andre 3000 collaborator Carlos Niño, GODMODE founder Nick Sylvester, and many more. Legends like Flying Lotus, and his label Brainfeeder, Flea & John Frusciante, who performed a special set during the pandemic, and Four Tet have popped by to showcased their esoteric tastes over the years
Los Angeles remains dublab’s home, but it has since established satellite locations in Japan (Tokyo), Spain (Barcelona), Germany (Cologne), and Brazil (Sao Paulo). dublab has inspired similar freeform online radio stations around the world, including the United Kingdom’s NTS and Worldwide FM, NYC’s The Lot Radio, and more.
Over the past decade, dublab’s ambitions have expanded beyond the digital airwaves, as the organization has produced art exhibits, films, events, television, and community education projects. For example: In 2022, dublab created “Luminaries of Light and Space,” a dynamic multimedia art installation at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), and earlier this year, unveiled “Nose Music,” a limited edition set of ten custom-formulated fragrances and accompanying artwork, each inspired by the spirit and essence of a classic album.
The organization approaches its 25th anniversary with an eye towards its future, planning many more events, art installations, and innovative programming in the months to come. Stay tuned to hear much more about dublab’s celebration at Zebulon, and other exciting anniversary festivities.
Listen live to dublab HERE
© 2024, Seth "Digital Crates" Barmash. All rights reserved.
