Urgent.fm: live radio from Ghent

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Urgent.fm

Everyone here is still learning.

Fifty shows, fifty genres, every one of them student-made.

A student club rented airtime at Ghent University in 1995 and broadcast four evenings a week, which is how Urgent.fm ran for six years before Fridays were added and the licensing authority started taking it seriously: a full permit in 2003, then 105.3 of its own in 2004. East Flanders named it the best station in the province three times in four years, the city gave it a culture prize in 2008, and it works out of De Krook, the city library on the Scheldt bend, as Ghent University's medialab.

Fifty-odd shows are made by volunteers from the university and they agree on nothing: Buck Up Dat Sound runs roots and reggae, Wangedrag two hours of hardcore punk and post-punk, Liquid Flavaz drum and bass, PHASEFOUR techno and house until the small hours. Listen Up fills the gaps by digging through new singles, with Belgian and emerging artists pushed hardest of all.

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Ghent, Belgium

Urgent.fm

Everyone here is still learning.

Fifty shows, fifty genres, every one of them student-made.

A student club rented airtime at Ghent University in 1995 and broadcast four evenings a week, which is how Urgent.fm ran for six years before Fridays were added and the licensing authority started taking it seriously: a full permit in 2003, then 105.3 of its own in 2004. East Flanders named it the best station in the province three times in four years, the city gave it a culture prize in 2008, and it works out of De Krook, the city library on the Scheldt bend, as Ghent University's medialab.

Fifty-odd shows are made by volunteers from the university and they agree on nothing: Buck Up Dat Sound runs roots and reggae, Wangedrag two hours of hardcore punk and post-punk, Liquid Flavaz drum and bass, PHASEFOUR techno and house until the small hours. Listen Up fills the gaps by digging through new singles, with Belgian and emerging artists pushed hardest of all.