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We’re happy to announce that Alternating Current, organised by Dublin Digital Radio, kicks off this weekend!

Alternating Currents (2025) will take place from May 1 – 4 across various locations in Dublin, primarily at Flux Gallery Space, Flux Workshop Space, and Flux Courtyard. Presenting a diverse programme of audiovisual installations, sonic performances, workshops, and critical discussions, it will bring together artists, researchers, and grassroots radio practitioners to explore the intersections of sound, space, and community activism.

Exhibition-based projects like Flickering by Cian McCarthy offer immersive AV experiences throughout the weekend. Workshops and listening sessions at Flux Workshop Space invite collective reflection and sonic experimentation. Outdoor performances, such as Sonotecture Memos by Tadhg Kinsella at Flux Courtyard, activate public spaces through live sound interventions. The festival also includes thematic sessions such as Reclaiming Spaces Through Sounds & Radio, focusing on urban sound activism.

On Saturday, ICRN representatives will host a session at the Flux Workshop Space from 17:00 CET. Led by Samantha Lippett, Michael Holland, and Seán Finnan, What does it mean to be part of a grassroots radio network? will bring together shared experiences of running a grassroots radio network. These reflections will be accompanied by sound bites from the ICRN archives (2022-) and participants are invited to share their own vision for future cross-border collaborations. Michael Holland will also host a live broadcast on Dublin Digital Radio from 14:00 CET, together with the local music label Department of Energy.

Across all formats, Alternating Current fosters collaboration, DIY approaches, and critical engagement with independent cultural production. Through sound, the festival reimagines how spaces and communities can be collectively reclaimed and reshaped.

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This month ICRN elected a board for 2025-27 comprised of representatives from our membership base. radiOrakel’s editor-in-chief, Hanne Rye Hanssen has taken on the role of Chair, alongside board members Samantha Lippett, Reinis Semēvics, Mariana Murcia and Bettina Bence. Michael Umney and Sean Finnan have taken on the role of Deputy board members, with James Prevett and Rasmus Cleve Christensen as Mediators.

We will soon publish our new Rules of Governance and have just streamlined the process of joining our network (see our INFO section). Welcome ICRN Board!

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On 4th October the Independent Community Radio Network (ICRN) head to Berlin for an 18-hour radio gathering organised by Cashmere Radio and Easterndaze. Join in person at silent green, and on air via cashmereradio.com, or any of the participating radios.

Signals2Noise (S2N) is a major gathering of independent community radios from Europe focussing on the experiences and artistic processes of radios from Eastern, Central, and Northern European radios. S2N spotlights the complex history of the medium and the important, if not largely underestimated, position radio has within the wider cultural and media landscape. This event will present just some of the many aesthetic, musical and social processes that emerge and unfold around this alternative practice. Get your tickets here.

Alongside 50+ programme contributions from radios and practitioners across Europe, the Independent Community Radio Network contribute two programmes including a listening session and an interactive performance ‘What is the ICRN (not)? Experiments in governance, network and community’, radio broadcast and performance ‘Whistle and I’ll come to EU’ by Michael Umney and Ed Baxter (Resonance FM) and three representatives of ICRN join the talk ‘Exploring the role of community radios: Bridging culture, media, and education through collaboration’ hosted by cultural network and long-term collaborators Reset.

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‘Independent Community Radio Network (ICRN) broadcast from Kaunas Artists’ House‘

Taking place on 24.08.12 from 12:00 until 22:00

As part of our first networking trip this year, members of ICRN get together at the front yard of Kaunas Artists’ House (KMN) for a day-long broadcast of field recordings, discussions, live music and other radiophonic fun. Join live at KMN, or listen online at any of the participating stations: Cashmere Radio (Berlin), Dublin Digital Radio (Dublin), Lake Radio (Copenhagen), OOO (Out of Office) Radio (Helsinki), radiOrakel (Oslo), Tirkultūra (Riga) and Resonance FM (London).

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ICRN proudly announce three new member stations (and counting), bringing diverse approaches and cultural contexts to the network. In our commitment to the Nordic region, we are joined by two partners from Norway and Finland.

Founded in 1982, radiOrakel join as the longest established radio and have retained a focus on the voices of womxn to this day, with an eclectic programme of radio plays, DJ sets, talk shows and a punk attitude. Beyond broadcasting, radiOrakel also focus on the professional development of their community; from courses in journalism and technical skills, they are committed to supporting womxn in radio bottom-up.

From old to new, we are also happy to onboard OOO (Out of Office) Radio (Helsinki), a mobile community radio physically available for loaning and remote broadcasting through battery power, and a with a focus on “experimental sound for curious ears”. With its roots in the arts, OOO are especially interested in the participatory quality of our medium.

Since the beginning, ICRN have wanted to develop a sense of cross-influencing between European regions (and beyond). This year we are proudly joined by Budapest-based Lahmacun Radio, who are a ‘music-and-beyond’ radio founded in 2018. Located inside the Kazán community and project hub, they prioritise the showcasing of the many subcultures of the capital and internationally online.

If you’re also a community radio (or a network) and would like to hear more, reach out to us on hello@icrn.live and we’ll make time to talk to you.

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“Bringing together DIY broadcasters from the Baltics and beyond, the Independent Community Radio Network (ICRN) has created an impactful platform that proves once more, that there is always strength in numbers.”

We proudly announce a second collaboration with COSMOS programme, for Le Guess Who? Festival 2024. Together with their team, we will work to spotlight the network and the local independent scene of Vilnius and the Baltics through a commissioned film, broadcasting, editorial content and more.

Learn more in this interview between ICRN co-founder Samantha Lippett and radio scholar and researcher Ieva Gudaitytė, with journalist and COSMOS team member Julian Brimmers. Together they discuss the development, values, and careful growth of our unique network project.

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This week the Independent Community Radio Network (ICRN) are at Le Guess Who? in Utrecht, Netherlands broadcasting with members of Tīrkultūra from Studio Pandora in the festival’s main venue, Tivoli. This is part of the Radio Pop-Up hosted by LGW?’s adjoining hybrid programme COSMOS. Priding ourselves on the borderless possibilities of self-governed radio, we will be co-broadcasting the content across several stations in the network including: Cashmere Radio, Berlin (and FM); Lahmacun Radio, Budapest; The Lake Radio, Copenhagen; radiOrakel, Oslo; Tīrkultūra, Riga and Palanga Street Radio, Vilnius. Visit here for the full line-up!