East Village Radio Channels New York History To Create Memories

Nestled in New York City’s creative capital, East Village Radio (EVR) transmits memorable audio experiences. In its over 20-year span, the 24-hour station has had an interesting life, evolving from pirate to online radio in that time and reopening in 2024 after nine years away. But it’s powered by the people around it. From its independent minded hosts putting together incredible shows to passers by stopping in their tracks to check out a set through its mirrored walk-in booth. The likes of Mark Ronson and Large Professor have graced the station and with hosts located around the world, it marries the legendary culture of downtown New York with an international audience.

East Village, on the East Side of Lower Manhattan, itself has a rich cultural history as an incubator for movements like the Beat Generation, Punk Rock and Hip-Hop from the 1950s to the 1980s. With multi-genre programming, EVR pays tribute to this lineage, meaning there is never a dull day when you tune in. We spoke to EVR’s Station Manager, Brian Turner, about its mission, work with the local community and why they’re just getting started.

What is the story of how East Village Radio came about?

Brian Turner: The station came about in 2003 as part of restauranteur Frank Prisinzano’s overall embrace of the neighborhood’s community and arts scene. Jorge Parreira set up a low power transmitter for terrestrial signal (quickly shut down by the FCC after a New York Times feature), but the station reverted to online streaming from its tenure until 2015 when it shut down again. It reopened in summer 2024 with me as Station Manager. The walk-in mirrored booth space was minimal, set in glass on 1st Avenue, and continues to be so, but adds a distinct element of energy to the busy neighborhood. It also complements Prisinzano’s well-reputed Lil Frankie’s restaurant next door.

What is important to you as a radio station and creative platform?

It’s always been a case, for me anyway, where radio is as creative as possible outside the lines of what’s expected in commercial or public radio. Having a community station like ours should throw out the rulebook as to what should get airtime, be as freeform as possible both in terms of music genre variety, as well as representing all modes of creative thought.

EVR also strives to tie disparate elements of the neighborhood together, as the East Village itself is a crossroads of every culture on the planet. It’s a petri dish of great people working in different mediums within the arts, both visual and written. The more radical, pre-corporate days of FM radio really created space for many more ideas than you’d hear later. Our mission sort of evokes that era, but with a contemporary edge with respect to promoting both new and legacy sounds.

What are some of EVR’s proudest achievements so far?

Starting from ground zero again with new equipment, a clean slate of programming and sculpting out a rounded schedule that flows. With great, knowledgeable people who are great to deal with. We had some tech issues on our relaunch that we all kind of worked out together. Literally started from scratch and came out of the gate all new.

We’ve had so many great happenings. People pulling up chairs on the sidewalk to hang and listen to Ritmo, our classic Latin weekend afternoon show. Martin Rev spinning his Jazz records in the booth with Elia. A packed booth for Girls Club where students get in the act spinning great Funk, Soul and Hip-Hop. Working with Bandcamp to give them a weekly radio outlet for their diverse sounds. We have a huge legacy of past EVR moments; Mark Ronson’s show hosting Duran Duran, Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce from The Smiths back in the day, festivals and remote broadcasts of the past. Artists like Ian McCulloch playing live in the booth. We’re looking forward to having much more of that.

Hip-Hop producer Large Professor spinning tracks on East Village Radio

East Village has such a rich history as a creative hub, from the Beat Generation to Punk Rock. What’s happening culturally right now?

It seems the cross-pollinization of ideas that made the East Village so great – Punk, Hip-Hop, writers, artists, poets – still remains firm-footed these days despite gentrification. So, we take as much advantage as possible. The film outlets like Anthology and theatres like La Mama remain strong and there are a number of record stores populating the area again. Places like Ergot, Academy, and Paradise of Replica all do shows here. So, in many ways, there’s a good rebound of cool culture happening in the hood.

What have been the best parts about building the EVR community?

The sheer joy of people walking by seeing the booth lit up again, I’m happy to see this element back in the neighborhood. The energy of the street filtering into the DJ’s mic breaks, the outreach of other businesses and artists wanting to get involved.

If you had tips for building a community, what would they be?

Let people know they can get involved in some capacity and mine individual talents to bring it into the big picture. At EVR our advertising campaign is to focus on involving mom and pop businesses who are helping keep the neighborhood from turning into a shopping mall, really. Be open to all kinds of ideas outside the box. Because we think this way, anything can happen on this station.

What is on the agenda for EVR in 2025?

More outside events. We want to get our production space in the office upstairs up and rolling so we can have bigger artist sessions to record and broadcast. Filling out our later nights with some original non-repeat programming, which we have actively done with hosts in France and Canada. Hopefully we can take that further to reflect the international appeal of the station. Artist residencies, bringing new and interesting programming into the fold.