About Maker Radio

Maker Radio 94.5 FM is an independent radio station in Chico, CA. Maker Radio is committed to offering local musicians a music industry ecosystem, including low-barrier-to-entry performance opportunities, radio airplay, live recording, and studio recording opportunities, high-quality video production of performing artists' performances, promotional materials development, and more.

To this end, Maker Radio hosts an open-mic/open-stage (titled "What Is Art?") each Thursday, complete with a full drum kit, bass guitar, acoustic and electric guitars, full-size electric piano keyboard, microphones, and more, so that up-and-coming musicians can easily have their first public performance in a welcoming environment, on a professional stage with high-end sound and stage lighting, and where the crowd will cheer you on, no matter how well you perform.

Each performance is recorded with 4 video cameras, and 24 tracks of audio by our all-volunteer sound engineers and videography team. The resulting footage and audio recordings are then mixed and edited into a series of dynamic performance videos, which we publish each week on our Maker Radio Youtube channel (found HERE). Our all-volunteer videography team routinely puts in dozens of hours per month editing and mixing these audio and video recordings. Since the event began, (currently in its 41st consecutive week) we have published an average of 8 videos per week. Our YouTube channel currently has just over 300 performance videos from our weekly "What Is Art?" event, with 12,392 views and 384 hours of total watch time!!

For many (or even most) of the artists who perform, it is their first public performance, their first video of themselves performing, their first audio recording, or sometimes all three! Even for seasoned performers, a set of high-quality video and audio recordings of themselves performing in front of a live (and lively) audience is a highly valuable, necessary, and hard-to-attain asset, which can be used to promote their music and can be submitted to clubs and venues when looking for gigs.

Additionally, audio tracks from this Chico-centric event are curated into a collection of recordings which are broadcast on the air on Maker Radio 94.5 FM, with one track played every hour of the day at 45 minutes past the hour, complete with an announcer informing the listening audience of the song title, artist name, and the date and location of the recording. As of the writing of this description, Maker Radio has played 6,216 audio recordings of local musicians on the air at 94.5 FM.

As we continue our mission to uplift local and up-and-coming musicians and promote Chico's live music community, we are constantly upgrading and improving our systems, video and audio recording quality, and the program as a whole.