A shortwave slow down

Imaginary Stations will be bringing another Downbeat on Shortwave this weekend (cheers Fred!) on Saturday 5th July 2025 at 1200 hrs (UK Time) on 6160 kHz and on Sunday 6th January 2025 at 1000/1400 hrs (UK) on 6160 kHz and at 2100 (UK) on 3975 kHz/6160 kHz.

Our good dub gardening friend Jesse Yuen from Perth, Australia and One Deck Pete from Brockley Village, London will be bringing you two 15 minute downtempo mixes each in a back to back downtempo style.

Tune in your shortwave radio this weekend or if you haven’t got one, via an online Software Defined Radio here (tuned into 6160 kHz) at the right time in AM mode and listen in and chill out to their slow-mo selection.

Quaking grass and shortwave space travel

We’ve had this in the garden before and God only knows how it actually got there (have they self seeded themselves or are they the fruits of our anarchistic “throw them anywhere” sowing method) but it’s the wonderful quaking-grass. It’s only a small plant but is great close up and we’ve just found out that the seeds are good source of food for the birds.

We’ve got a flower on our courgette plant we sowed in a pot when we thought it may be a bit late so it’s always worth trying! How’s people’s gardens going? Do send some pictures please!

Also this weekend on the shortwave bands Imaginary Stations bring you Starship Skybird. The show is broadcast on Saturday 7th June 2025 at 1100 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and then again on Sunday 8th June 2025 at 0900/1300 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and at 2000 UTC on 3975 kHz and 6160 kHz (via the services of Shortwave Gold).

Start the countdown to this weekend when you can strap yourself in for a trip of a lifetime. Tune in, make yourself a cosmic cocktail if that’s your thing and enjoy the sounds of space.

There’s all sorts of space madness with music (and some great jingles) you may have never heard before from DJ Frederick and Justin Patrick Moore and at 6.15 mins in there’s One Deck Pete presents a ride into space on a 60+travelcard mix. Grab yourself a shortwave radio or tune in via here.

To the world with music

This weekend will see a return of the onshore/offshore pirate radio sound of Skybird Radio International to the airwaves, via the services of Shortwave Gold. The show goes out on Saturday 3rd May 2025 at 1100 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and then repeated on Sunday 4th May 2025 at 0900/1300 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and at 2000 UTC on 3975 kHz and 6160 kHz.

All you do is tune your shortwave set in (or click here if you haven’t a shortwave radio) at the allotted time to enjoy all sorts of worldwide sounds with mixes from DJ Frederick and Justin Patrick Moore and at 59 seconds in is a mix from One Deck Deck Pete.

Tune in your shortwave set at the alloted time and treat yourself to various music genres from all points around this spinning ball we call Earth!

 

 

Stations that only exist in our imagination

Here’s a couple of shortwave shows in an Imaginary Stations related style, the first on Wednesday 19th March 2025 at the new time of 0200 UTC via WRMI is another episode of the excellent Shortwave Music Library by DJ Frederick. A show well worth tuning into if you the like all sorts musicwise.

This weekend coming, Imaginary Stations hoist the sails on the pirate ship Skybird again and brings you another audio voyage in the Free Radio Skybird series and it’s the third and final planned broadcast of the station this year.

Tune in on Saturday 22nd March 2025 at 1200 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and also on Sunday 23rd March 2025 at 1000/1400 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and at 2100 UTC on 3975 kHz. As with last week’s show, expect some great tunes, onshore and offshore classics and lots of interesting bits and pieces as usual. At 28 minutes in there will be a mix called Who’d be a pirate (again) by One Deck Pete. Tune in!

 

Limited copies come with an extra “via the ionosphere” mix

A big thanks to DJ Frederick and Imaginary Stations for broadcasting Downbeat on Shortwave last weekend via the transmitters of  Shortwave Gold. The show featured two 15 minute mixes in a downtempo style back to back from Jesse Yuen (Australia) and One Deck Pete (London, SE23).

We’ve posted up two recordings of the show. The first is the stereo studio recording and below that, the off-air recording via the shortwaves recorded in glorious mono. Fading and extra noises thanks to the ionosphere/groundwave.

Big shout to Jesse Yuen for getting involved and into the spirit of this shortwave radio project of ours.

Music opens up a whole can of worms (and more)

We’ve had Bargain Bin DJ (an A5 24 page fanzine) for a couple of weeks now (“print in the old fashioned way” as the song goes) produced by our good friend DJ Frederick from Groveton, New Hampshire.

If you love those bargain bin finds, this publication is for you. We don’t want to give too much away but issue number 1 has a review of Record Time magazine (the newest edition of said publication has all sorts of musical features from Polka to Sex Pistols inspired novelty records), Lawrence Welk, Kado Wilson, Forgotten 45’s from 1955, Sounds of Synanon, Moondog and Surf-Punk New Hampshire hero, Jonee Earthquake.

An excellent read if you love music found in the cheapo section or in a box hidden away under some damp smelling jumpers and coats in a charity shop. Cheers to Bargain Bin DJ fanzine for alerting us to the tune above under “sound-alike or plagiarism?”. A great track off an LP called Mood Indigo by Jean Jacques Perrey, “influenced” possibly by a tune called Telstar. We reckon it’s more than likely to be a tribute to the great Joe Meek. It’s a great one and we love the run out which we want it to go on forever.

If you want to find out more about obtaining the fanzine drop Fred an email at radiothriftshopnh@gmail.com

And here’s two sides a Bargain Bin classic of ours. An excellent single from Jamaican singer Jimmy James (he of Jimmy James and the Vagabonds later in his career). Wonderful stuff.

 

To all our mates across the pond

A big Happy Thanksgiving to all of our good radio/music/gardening mates from across the pond including DJ Frederick, Justin Patrick Moore, Thomas Witherspoon, Dr Strangedub and Nic Greene and anyone else we’ve forgotten about.

Earlier today we heard from Justin who sent us a picture above straight from the garden of some Japanese Giant Red Mustard Greens that look great. “These were volunteers from last year. Harvesting today for our meal.” Great stuff Justin!

And also we heard from DJ Frederick who informed us of something musical and gardening related from a duo called Woo, one we’ve never heard about even though they’ve been around from a long long time! Cheers for that Fred, that is one interesting duo who’ve produced a wealth of chilled and dubby tunes.

Hope you’re all having a great day!

XRPT on your RADIO

Here’s the audio of yesterday’s transmission from Imaginary Stations, a show called XRPT, a compilation of Imaginary Stations shows past, present and future. It’s an interesting listen and includes contributions from all the crew, DJ Frederick, Justin Patrick Moore and at 21 minutes in is a mix from One Deck Pete called Bits and Pieces (nothing to do with Smiley Miley and The Radio 1 Roadshow of course!)

Bits and Pieces tracks:
Donut Specialist – As advertised (KMRT)
Alan Ginsberg vs Anima Universalis Into The forest – A supermarket in California (KMRT)
Beatz for Food – Frozen Food (KMRT)
The Conet Project – Phonetic Alphabet NATO (WORD)
Giorgio (Moroder) – Stop (WORD)
Christine Miller – Word Sound and Power (WORD)
Ham QSO – What’s it like being a token male? (KNTS)
Kwook – Calling all stations 1 (KNTS)
Jodey Kendrick – QYJ 9 (KNTS)

In an international instrumental style

Here’s the audio of yesterday’s Shortwave Gold broadcast of Skybird Radio International on 3975/6160 kHz.

The show is all about grooves from around this world of ours but this time it’s about the instrumental. There’s some wonderful eclectic music in a true worldwide style as usual from all of the Imaginary Stations DJ’s including DJ Frederick and Justin Patrick Moore.

At 29 seconds in is a mix from One Deck Pete, here’s the tracklistings:
Madtone – Diamonds in the sky (excerpt)
Hermanos Gutiérrez – Cumbia Lunar
Mouth – Ooh, Ahh, Yeah
BackYard Riddims/Tommy Khosla (Sitar) – SchaantiDub
Bob Keene Orchestra – Comin’ on Again
The Supersonics – Second Fiddle

Have a listen to the show as it’s brilliant and you’re welcome to add the singing bits yourself!

The sky’s the limit, the limit’s the sky’s

Here’s the audio of yesterday’s Skybird Radio International which was broadcast via the services of Shortwave Gold. It’s all about grooves from around this world of ours and there’s some wonderful eclectic music in a true worldwide style from all of the Imaginary Stations including DJ Frederick and Justin Patrick Moore.

At 03.28 there’s a mix from One Deck Pete and here’s the tracklistings:
Madtone – Diamonds in the sky (excerpt)
Entjar Tjarmedi, Enip Sukanda, et al – Berber Lajar
Narcy – Bedaya
Leik – Toy Center at night
Los Zheros – Para Chachita
Dr Charty – Falling in Dub

So tune in and enjoy the show with just under an hour of worldwide tunes!