LA is a very special city. There are people here in circumstances that are a bit tougher than most. But for many people LA is a place where you can create your own reality. If you live in a neighborhood that is a bit more residential, you could almost think it's all business as usual right now, as long as you don't read the news or go to the supermarket. It's a city with a lot of open space, quiet neighborhoods with no one around. That said, the city itself has shut down. I went into the Dublab studio yesterday to get the mail and check on things quickly, and the streets are empty. It's dead.

We closed the Dublab studio about three weeks ago but we have continued with our programming. Most of our DJs, I'd say 95 percent, are producing their shows from their own homes in one form or another. Some are doing it live from their home, so we give them access to our stream, while others are pre-recording and sending them to us. We're doing our best to do programs that address the situation, that speak to the times.

One thing is The Quarantine Tapes, co-presented with Onassis LA, which is airing every day. We did one called Apart Together, with songs that speak to listeners during these uncertain times. In the first week, before the city banned all public gatherings, we did a drive-in concert, with Celia Hollander and Jeremiah Chiu performing live in a van. They were plugged into an FM transmitter from a supermarket parking lot in Echo Park. People went in their cars and tuned in on their radios, kind of like a drive-in movie theatre. They played live, with 100 cars in the parking lot. In Italy there were people singing from their balconies; in LA we have cars and parking lots.

We are thinking of ideas. Maybe we will drive around the empty freeways of LA, filming, putting a camera in the car and streaming that alongside our regular programming. We also feel like it's important to continue offering the programs we always offer. Not everything you listen to at home, or watch on TV, needs to be about coronavirus. If I am watching some reruns of Seinfeld, I don't want to watch a Seinfeld episode about coronavirus, you know? It's kind of the same for Dublab—if you're tuning into Greg Belson's Divine Chord Gospel Show, people want to hear a gospel show. We are trying to offer a sense of normalcy.

This crisis has caught us in a somewhat OK place. We haven't had to lay off anyone. And if everything works with the government's plans for loans, we should be able to tie up our finances until things start moving again. We have public support and grants, enough to keep us going. It's important we don't let any people go.

We have seen our streaming numbers and site visits go up a bit. I thought it would go down because of all the online streams. But people are tuning in—not a huge jump. One country that jumped was Italy, it's now one of our top five countries in terms of listeners. People are flocking to places like Dublab for comfort, maybe. I want to believe that it's on us to turn on the lights every morning, post the day's schedule without being overly dramatic about it—kind of like, it's just another day. That may offer a sense of comfort. If you tuned into the BBC one day and it was just white noise, you'd be like, what the hell has happened? It would be like the world was ending. I am not comparing ourselves to the BBC but I think people come to Dublab for our daily programs.

Quarantine Tapes is the first show where we're going outside our usual programming, where we're really focusing on the situation, and what's happening now. We tackle the occasional call for that show, with people phoning in. So maybe that opens the door to more programming that isn't centred on music. It exposes our listeners to other voices. I think the programming at Dublab, and it's the same for many other online stations, we exist in a kind of echo chamber, which isn't a criticism, it's just the nature of the communities we support. But there are opportunities out there to broaden what we do. With the right program and host and context, some different programming could work.

Something that's important about radio is that it's not visual. And I think people's eyes are getting tired of looking at screens, and radio is a way to connect and consume media without having to look at a screen. And it's important to know that there's a heartbeat on the other side of what you're hearing.

We have also been involved in hosting live events in the past, and we are having conversations with a number of people about what shape live events are going to have in this coronavirus era. There are a few different scenarios here. Is it even worth trying to create a live event in a virtual format? Or is that just a sad reminder of what we're missing? That's one take. Another take is giving it a go and doing a virtual event, which I think could have different degrees of success. And then another option would be to try something that hasn't been done before, something truly new—something that stands as a good idea regardless of the situation. Something where we invent new ways for people to engage in a virtual version of the real world. And that requires brainstorming, experimenting, and that's where everyone is currently scratching their heads a bit right now. That's the big unknown. The thing that hasn't been invented yet.

Dublab has been around for 20, going on 21 years. It has been a constant presence. We're not out there as the biggest organisation, we're not out there as the slickest organisation, but one thing we are is consistent. What we provide is positive support of the community. We're here doing what we can for as long as we can. Right now we're trying to offer the community this message: We're still here.

Save Our Scene /
Save Our Scene: An Open Letter
How To Set Up A Livestream
Self-Isolation 101: Artists Tips For Spending Time At Home
The Coronavirus And Electronic Music: Perspectives From The Scene
Guide: Offer and receive help
Guide: Attend virtual events
Guide: Buy music and merch
Guide: Donate