In February, Belgian multimedia producer François Vaxelaire launched the Lot Radio out of a reclaimed shipping container on a small lot on Brooklyn’s Williamsburg/Greenpoint border, hosting live DJ sets and talk shows, and streaming them from the Lot’s website 24/7 (thelotradio.com).
“I think the most important thing is that it’s independent,” says Vaxelaire, adding that the idea came to him when he discovered the lot at 17 Nassau Avenue six months ago. He envisioned it as a small “island” where artists, DJs and passersby could enjoy a casual exchange of music. And he’s making it happen: The station has already hosted respected names such as Ninja Tune DJ and producer FaltyDL, Tiki Disco resident Lloydski, Trouble & Bass alumna Star Eyes and several ladies from the Discwoman crew.
The 20-foot-long black shipping container is equipped with a club-standard DJ booth and a fully functioning coffee counter, which now also sells pastries and sandwiches.
Emma Olson, a founder of Discwoman and the DJ known as Umfang, describes the Lot Radio as the ideal broadcasting medium: “A chill outlet where people can have fun outside of the club.”
Although the project is backed by house and techno veterans, Vaxelaire says he aims to cater to a wide array of music fans, using the shipping container as literal common ground. “It’s the connection between the online and the offline world,” he says.
“I think it’s tapping into this younger energy that no one else is taking advantage of,” says Turtle Bugg, of Basement Floor Records’ Soul 2 Seoul. “There are a lot of people who are just on the come-up, and this is a great avenue to connect them to a wider audience.”
That is, after all, the purpose of radio.