Words: Lara Pacillo // Photos: Dylan Starczak
A year on since their launch in 2023, duck! radio has grown to be a community for music enthusiasts across a stretch of genres.
The volunteer-run online radio provides an open platform for the diverse engagement and expression of music-based art forms, connecting people across the city digitally through weekly broadcasts, and physically through their parties.
For their third event, duck! will be hosting The Pond at The Lab on Saturday March 2, bringing together different genres of music from electronic to rap, with the lineup including Armitage Shanks, Ridgy and friends, Xxxquisite, and Ming. Rug Club’s DIY speakers will be set up while live visuals by Jasmine and Madeleine play out.
The lineup includes a mix of DJs involved with duck! since day one and newcomers expanding on what the platform is all about.
“We’re creating a little family amongst all these people that love the same thing: connection and music,” says co-organiser Maram. We’re chatting with Maram (Romi), fellow co-organiser Jon Santos (Strict Face) and duck! founder Mungo Fagan on a bench outside of Adelaide Bike Kitchen in Bowden, where duck! broadcasts from every Sunday.
From 8am to 10pm, between deconstructed bikes and tools of the volunteer-run DIY workshop, duck! livestreams about ten back-to-back shows hosted by members from all walks of Adelaide’s music community.
A fresh schedule of presenters takes the mic each week, where genre restrictions are boundless, experience is unnecessary, and exploration is encouraged. The 14-hour broadcast stretches from mixtapes, original tracks, dialogue, reading, and vintage vinyl — later archived on Mixcloud.
“It really sets your tone for the day,” Mungo says.
“In ways, it’s mindless, in that you don’t have to actively search for music to soundtrack your day, but it’s incredibly intentional as you are giving back to your community and feeding a culture that is directly accessible to you,” Maram explains.
“Online radio offers an alternative way of music exploration. Presenters are deeply passionate about music and carefully curate their shows, providing listeners with an opportunity to experience a unique musical journey.”
duck!’s beginnings are rooted in Adelaide Bike Kitchen, following the workshop’s call out for a like-minded project to join the rent-free Renewal SA space in 2022.
Mungo has been involved with Adelaide Bike Kitchen for the last six years; dreaming of establishing a new hub for music and listening in the city, he saw the potential of a new online radio.
“After Groundfloor Radio stopped operating in 2021, there were a couple of years where there wasn’t much of its kind around,” Mungo says.
“I was really deep in radio as a format, and wanted to build something in Adelaide.”
With strong connections within Adelaide’s creative and music scene, Mungo brought a collection of fellow music enthusiasts on board to bring duck! to life, as not only a platform for creative expression, but a community hub.
Over the past year, the crew has continuously expanded, now with dozens of shows and nine organisers including Madeleine, Jude, Joe (Hobbyist), Angie (DJ Cookie), Gilbert (Rug Club) and Hugh, who join Jon, Maram, and Mungo with a handful of other active community members.
The team also love to lend a helping hand to newcomers.
“We’re always trying to intermingle people who don’t have experience with people who do have experience, and build the program to be always meshing those two sides together to help each other out,” Mungo explains.
“We’re supporting people entering that space to help develop their confidence.
“The studio is essentially open 8am to 10pm on Sundays every time we’re broadcasting, so people hit us up on Instagram from which they can just pop in at any time during the broadcast and just speak to any of us who are at the booth about how to use the gear.”
Online radio platforms are popular across Australia, including Victoria’s Hope St Radio and Skylab Radio, and Freocast in Perth. duck! hopes to further establish Adelaide on the online radio map nationally, but most importantly for local listeners where its broad scope and its ability to bring together different aspects of Adelaide’s music scene is where duck!’s name originated.
“We were thinking about Adelaide and wanting the radio’s name to be place-based,” Mungo explains.
“I was also thinking about this metaphor that Lewis Godwin (aka Ratboy) put to me once about Adelaide culture being this series of disconnected ponds, of cultural pockets where people were doing things, but not really working together and not really collaborating. It’s a broad stroke, and it’s not always the case, but I was thinking about that.
“I was thinking a lot about the river, and ducks being this creature that can metaphorically dip into all the ponds, and be a kind of a through line connecting factor, and that’s where I landed with it.”
This year, duck! has plans to start a non-for-profit supporting causes close to home, while adding more weekly airing days to the program. What listeners will always find is a welcoming growing community and a dip into the ponds of Adelaide’s subcultures.
The Pond by duck! radio: Saturday March 2 // The Lab 63 Light Square, Adelaide 5000
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