Radio NABARadio NABA

It started as a bet between two University of Latvia students, which somehow produced Radio KNZ — not quite a year of student broadcasting from a dormitory on Ķīpsala before it went quiet in October 2001. Madars Štramdiers, a sociology student who had been booking gigs rather than making radio, rebuilt it as Radio NABA and put it on air on 1 December 2002, the first DJ announcing “We're back” over a fittingly titled darkwave record. The name is Latvian for navel, and it unpacks as the Non-commercial Academy of Aural Pleasure.

Dozens of shows run on volunteers who pick their own records. Amber Muse puts the Riga house and techno label on air, Skaņu mežs extends the city's experimental music festival and Intelligent Beats takes the IDM hours. Between those shows the daytime music leans on post-punk and cold synths, and the overnight stretch drifts through neofolk, industrial and ambient. Poetry and science fill the rest.