Lower Grand RadioLower Grand Radio

Alex Shen started Lower Grand in 2015 from a shipping container at the MacArthur BART station, then moved it into the loft of a downtown bookstore and streamed out over the shelves, which is how most of its first DJs found it. Since 2019 it has run out of the old Oakland Surf Club at 41st and Broadway, sharing a storefront with Unity Press — Shen and the printer Jeffrey Cheung are childhood friends who played in East Bay bands together — with the press and skate shop up front and the booth built into the back.

Several hundred shows go out a year, most from residents, and nothing links them: Dance Decay works the weirder edge of post-punk, Soba's World runs house into jungle, World Downfall plays metal, Departures digs out Italian library records. Most hosts arrived having never DJed anywhere. When thieves took nearly all the gear in 2023, a fundraiser replaced it inside five hours.