nico://log

Today Blur FM turns fifteen.

On July 24, 2011, a web radio station started playing that, against all odds, is still on the air. The computers changed, the servers changed, the players changed, the design changed. Almost everything changed, except the core idea.

Before Blur FM there was Radio deUNA!, in 2009. That one started simply from wanting to have my own radio: the internet let me put together a signal, program music, and broadcast it, and that was enough for me. I still did not really know what I wanted it for. It was a radio because I could make one.

Blur FM brought what was missing: a purpose. It stopped being “keeping something on the air” and became a place to discover music. No ads, built with independent artists and songs I found around, things that would hardly ever play on a traditional radio station. Indie, ambient, electronic, pop, calm tracks, and others that were kind of hard to classify. Music for working, traveling, and slowing down a bit.

It was not just about putting together tracks I liked. There was intention in the order, in the selection, in the overall mood. That curation ended up being the heart of the project: someone enters, hits play, and comes across something they were not looking for.

Blur FM was never a big media operation and never had money behind it. It was always small, independent, and pretty handmade. But it was also my lab: there I learned how to manage servers, stream audio, design interfaces, and keep an identity alive across different eras. And I learned something more important: keeping a project alive for years does not mean working on it all the time. Sometimes it is enough not to turn it off.

Since 2011, the way we listen to music has changed completely. Streaming arrived, algorithms learned our tastes, and every song is one click away. In that context, a tiny internet radio station sounds a bit anachronistic. But it still has something the platforms do not: not choosing. Entering a place and accepting somebody else's programming. Not knowing what is coming next. Blur FM does not compete with any of that; it is just one possible selection in the middle of the noise.

Fifteen years do not happen alone. I want to thank Mike Harris, Archie Kennedy, and Dave Gough, from Psand; Diego Carlotta, from Greenlight Media; Denis "jaromil" Roio and the dyne.org community; and Nadia Zelnick, the voice of Blur FM and an inseparable part of its identity. Each one contributed something to this story.

There will probably be new designs, new servers, new ways to listen, seasons of great enthusiasm and others in silence. What matters is that the place is still there: someone comes in, hits play, and finds a song they did not know.

The radio keeps broadcasting.