It’s our birthday: Celebrating 5 years of non-stop electric

This weekend we’re celebrating, as Electric turns 5!

Back in 2020 at the start of the pandemic and after a year of development behind closed doors, we re-launched Electric.

Our opening weekend was pretty modest (compared to the number of DJs we have now), initially featuring Roger Sanchez, Franky Rizardo, Anjunadeep, Kryder, Deadmau5 and Enhanced. Defected joined the party a few weeks later, followed by a rotation of grass-root DJ talent in May.

We were the first – and remain the only UK commercial broadcaster to mix up-and-coming talent and established names in peak time slots.

Since then, we’ve grown our evening and weekend line-up to feature almost 70 DJs every month, with our vision remaining the same today: create a thriving community for electronic music fans and creators, using tech that goes beyond the limits of radio.

As we evolve this vision, we attempt to find a sweet spot that provides community engagement (that so many streaming platforms or traditional radios stations miss), whilst not losing the fundamental that music has to remain at the heart of what we do.

To get to this point we’ve had to overcome several hurdles.

Almost all community-driven stations don’t make a profit and therefore finding a path to keep the lights on has been one of the biggest challenges. At the moment – we’re staffed by volunteers and largely funded by our grass-root residents and guests.

With traditional radio stations closing all over the UK, especially those serving niche markets and communities, as we turn five in 2025, we look at alternative ways to fund our platform and achieve sustainability over the next 5 years.

This started before Christmas with an ad-free HQ listening experience for listeners, and is just the start of our expansion. We’ve investing huge amounts of time and energy into developing our native app and web technology.

The features we’re developing are not widely available to community based platforms – and this is our call to arms.

Our new parent company MTR, will act as a catalyst, enabling third-party stations and platforms to re-engage with their audiences, monetise where previously not possible and drive their brands and talent forward.

To the residents that have been with us from the start, right up to the guests first in the door last week + the thousands of listeners that tune in every week – THANK YOU.

We’ve got so much planned for the next 12 months, and whilst this 5 year milestone feels really special – this is only the start of something bigger.

Happy 5th birthday Electric!

📱Read more on the Electric app.