Radio Lear, Leicester Emergent Arts Radio, is a metamodern sound platform broadcasting on the Leicester and Loughborough multiplexes. Combining AI-generated audio with artist-created soundscapes, it offers an experimental, PRS/PPL-free space for creative exploration. Supported via Decentered Media’s Patreon, it invites artists to collaborate, contribute, and expand the possibilities of artistic radio.
The launch of Radio Lear marks a milestone in developing Leicester Emergent Arts Radio as a living platform for artists and sound-makers to explore, experiment, and reimagine what radio can be. Broadcast on both the Leicester and Loughborough SSDAB multiplexes, Radio Lear is an emergent arts project grounded in metamodern principles of experience—fluid, reflexive, and participatory. It is a space where sound is not only transmitted but transformed.
The first stage of the project focuses on establishing the platform and showcasing AI-generated content that pushes the boundaries of what we conventionally recognise as audio. Using low-cost text-to-sound tools, Radio Lear produces abstract, atonal, and non-rhythmic pieces that explore the relationship between human creativity and machine interpretation. These works provide the foundation for what Radio Lear can become: an evolving soundscape of ideas, atmospheres, and experiments. Until listeners could actually hear Radio Lear being broadcast, it was difficult to communicate the project’s intent or gain traction. The ability to broadcast on the Loughborough multiplex—thanks to advanced signal processing that allows high-quality audio at a low bit-rate—has made that ambition real.
The next stage is to invite artists, composers, and content creators to contribute person-produced work—field recordings, soundscapes, compositions, and audio art—that extend Radio Lear’s metamodern aesthetic. All content must be PRS/PPL free, so the challenge is to create original work that is unrestricted by commercial or rights-controlled material. This constraint is also a creative invitation: to reimagine sound as a medium for social and artistic experimentation.
Having worked for several years to bring Radio Lear to life, I am now turning toward collaboration. The goal is to find funding to commission artists and support events where creators can share and discuss work developed specifically for Radio Lear. I’m particularly looking forward to getting into the field myself—capturing audio from real places and experiences and transforming it into something that resonates with Radio Lear’s creative ethos.
To everyone who has supported the project through Patreon, thank you. Your encouragement has kept the idea alive through its formative stages. Ongoing engagement and updates will continue through Decentered Media’s Patreon page, where new opportunities for participation will be shared in the coming months. For those who want to be directly involved, Patreon is the gateway to joining this evolving journey.
Radio Lear is not a finished product—it’s an invitation to listen, to imagine, and to experiment together.