Dandelion RadioDandelion Radio

John Peel died in October 2004, and within a year the people who had gathered on his Yahoo! Groups forum were talking about building the station they no longer had. They spent 2005 recording demo shows, sorting out licences and arguing about how it should work, then went on air on 21 June 2006 with five DJs. That November Peel's former BBC production team handed them the Festive Fifty, the listener poll he had presented since 1976, and the following month it ran outside Radio 1 for the first time in its history. It is still theirs.

Sixteen volunteer DJs, each building one show a month, which then loops around the clock until the new schedule starts on the first. A single hour can run math rock into reggae into UK bass without blinking, though the loudest lane is scrappy British guitar music. Demos arrive unsolicited and every one gets listened to, and sessions and exclusive live recordings turn up often.