Made In Bénin Radio: radio in diretta da Cotonou

Aspeeetta...

Spolveriamo la puntina…

Cotonou, Benin

Made In Bénin Radio

Nothing here crossed a border.

Beninese music only, from the legends to now.

The station went on air in the first days of December 2020 with one rule and no exceptions to it: every record played has to be by a Beninese artist. That covers more ground than it sounds — the seventies Cotonou dance orchestras at one end, this decade's crop of afropop singers and rappers at the other — and the people running it describe the result as a shop window for a culture rather than a music service. It is online only, with an app that was built alongside the stream at launch.

Bénin Passions turns the catalogue into a daily blind test through the songs everyone is meant to know. Le Hit MIB and Le Top MIB count the week down, Rap du Bled takes the rap end, and Fresh From Koutonou reports on how the business works — who owns what between artist, producer and beatmaker. Dedications come in and get answered in French and Fon.

Altre come questa

FranceLyon

Jazz Radio Afro Jazz

Africa swings, always did.

FranceToulouse

Campus FM

Since 1982, still on campus.

TunisiaTunis

Misk FM

Tunis with the news turned off.

United StatesAustin

KOOP 91.7 FM

Off the air by dark.

NetherlandsAmsterdam

RAZO

Zuidoost speaks for itself.

GhanaAccra

Sounds of Africa

Preservation with a backbeat.

FranceParis

Le Grigri

Superstition you can dance to.

Malta

Exotica Radio

No such thing as far away.

MadagascarAntananarivo

Tiako Be

Every request is for someone.

CanadaMontréal

WEFUNK Radio

Two diggers, still no filler.

FranceLille

Comala Radio

Crate depth, no gatekeeping.

BelgiumBrussels

Radio Campus Bruxelles

Brussels' unruliest faculty.

United KingdomBournemouth

Afro*disiac Live Radio

Same five DJs since 2007.

United KingdomLondon

Street Sounds Radio

Where the compilations went next.

United StatesSanta Barbara

Funk the Planet

One man, one very deep crate.

FranceCréteil

Radio Krimi

Twenty diggers, one long crate.

GhanaAccra

Oroko Radio

The continent, talking to itself.

FranceMarseille

Radio Grenouille

Crate-digging with a field recorder.

Netherlands's-Hertogenbosch

Disco Factory

For people who kept the sleeves.