Hollow What? 

Hollow Earth Radio is primarily known as a free-form, online, absolutely 100% volunteer-run radio station. With such a large volunteer base, and surrounded by such creative, diverse communities, Hollow Earth is many different things to different people. Here's a few of the other roles we embody:

• A popular, accessible forum for underrepresented music, sound, and neighborhood perspectives that gives people who have never been on the air a chance to broadcast. 

• A non-profit with a current pool of over 150 volunteers, connecting and working together to create a shared community space.

• A loyal supporter of the local music and arts community in Seattle, Washington State, and the Pacific Northwest region. 

• A DIY music venue hosting hundreds of intimate public in-studios in our tiny space.

• A collection of music nerds geeking out hard on: found sounds, field recordings, forgotten music, local musicians and their bedroom recordings, and whatever else feels real and mysterious.

• A team of citizen journalists working hard to represent their communities.

• Organizers of Magma Festival, an annual month-long showcase of our favorite artists. No artist is allowed to play Magma Festival more than once to keep the festival bookings fresh and to keep us reaching deeper into more diverse communities of music and art.

• A critical part of Seattle’s all-ages arts and music community.

• An inclusive organization dedicated to fostering safer spaces and committed to anti-oppression work.

Just a few examples of the cool stuff we’ve been doing include:

• Showcasing emerging artists, convincing broken up bands to reunite, hosting wild shows ON THE LINK LIGHT RAIL, and more as part of Magma Festival.

• Producing CENTRAL SOUNDS, a radio program that focuses on the cultural legacy of the Central District neighborhood (celebrated childhood home of Ray Charles, Quincy Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Wheedle's Groove and many other significant artists) as well as  current music from the neighborhood.

• Serving as Youth Arts teachers: radio training for youth, radio plays, field recording, and circuit breaking old electronic toy instruments to make wild new sounds!

• Hosting a wide variety of events, including everything from literary readings (Furnace, TMI, Babel/Salvage) to free-style impromptu hip-hop nights with audience participation (The Art Show w/ OC Notes).

• Being a radio station where you can hear a single 19-hour long live piece of music being played (2010, Jack Straw's version of Erik Satie's Vexations).

• Partnering with organizations such as Short Run, ZAPP, What the Bleep Happened to Hip Hop?, CARW, Sissy Collective and more to provide workshop and event space.

• Acting as mobile broadcasting rabble-rousers, who once streamed a live performance from the #ShellNo protest barge in Alki.

• Having a phone line where anyone can call and leave messages to be aired. No really, call us! (206) 588-KHER.

This project is a small experiment that started as a dream in a basement in someone's house and has grown into a living, breathing community hub for experimentation and free-expression. We do this because we care passionately about sharing new ideas, supporting media justice and keeping the freak vibe alive! Did we mention we have done all this for the past nine years, and no one gets paid?

THE NEXT CHAPTER

In October of 2013 the FCC opened a new licensing window which made available several Low Power FM (LPFM) frequencies for non-commercial organizations & non-profit organizations including Hollow Earth Radio.

Hollow Earth Radio was approved for an LPFM license for the frequency 100.3 FM, with the call-letters KHUH!!!!! 

This means we have a very special opportunity to start broadcasting over the airwaves and bring the sounds and messages we have been supporting to a wider audience. We’re so incredibly thrilled about what this means for our future and our ability to serve our community.

Now, we just need your support to actually get us on the air!

Sweet, how can I help?

We have been running this station for many years on an incredibly small budget, with no paid staff, and hours and hours of volunteer time. 

And we will keep doing that. But your pledge will give us real life, tangible stuff that we need in order to get on the air.

The very basic absolutely essential bare necessities to get 100.3 KHUH up and broadcasting:

1. A transmitter and an antenna to be placed on a roof in the Central District.

2. Studio-to-Transmitter link to get our broadcast from our studio to the antenna location further south in the Central District.

3. Covering the cost of radio engineering studies (all the technical paperwork, diagrams, and weird radio nerd stuff we need to file with the FCC).

4. City permit fees for the site of our antenna. 

5. Terrestrial broadcast royalty fees and miscellaneous technical costs.