ABSTRACT
The chapter outlines the appeal and use of the interactive website, Radio Garden, particularly in relation to young people. We trace the platform’s development from a first stage, which included ‘layers’ of history, stories and station idents to its current form of live streaming of station outputs. We explore how its characteristics have made it such an attractive radio platform to the generations who may be turning away from traditional radio listening and how young people have used it in different contexts before and during the pandemic lockdowns. Interviews and small-scale impact workshops with a range of people and organizations carried out in the years since Radio Garden’s launch provide some clues to the reasons for its popularity in periods of lockdown. These include a need to escape from the ‘sameness’ of confinement, and the pleasure of random encounters with music, language, and place.
