KHXW – Free Radio Hardware

Critical Northwest, 2023

The Radio Station:

Free Radio Hardware provides music and information on the FM dial at Critical NW, and on Discord the rest of the year. Contact leeny at brchardware dot org for a link to the server!

The Genre:

Just about everything, with an emphasis on soulful, indie/alt, and genre-benders. Burners have a wealth of EDM available, so we try to offer a smorgasbord of everything else.

In 2023, our first year, we opened each broadcast day with “Morning Train,” and followed with pre-recorded playlists in a variety of styles, with peaceful, sleep-friendly music from around midnight until around 4am.

Personnel:

  • Leeny is the founder, program director, and driver of this bus
  • Fat Kid consulted on the transmitter and built our antenna
  • Ace, producer and audio engineer, recorded new promos and station IDs on site
  • Monster, Leia, Raya, and Chicken contributed playlists and podcasts.
  • Bert Reynolds/Auntie Glenda came by to conduct an interview and read from the What, Where, When.

The Beacon:

As a reminder to participants that there’s art in the air, we created a glowing, 3D globe with lightning bolts to sit atop our radio station structure at Critical 2023. The beacon was partially funded by a generous frontage grant, courtesy of Ignition Northwest.

 

The radio station desk at Critical 2023.
Radio Station at Critical 2023
Leeny, sitting and operating the station computer at Campout.
View of the unlit beacon against a background of evergreen trees.
A dusk view of the lit beacon over the radio station shelter.