It’s radio, but not as we know it.

“I’m sorry,” whispers the voice at the end of the phone. “We can’t talk to anyone at the moment, we’re in the middle of a live session.” Strange cacophonic music hovers in the background. “In fact, the phone went off while they were playing. It sounded pretty good, though.”

Welcome to Resonance FM, London’s first non-profitmaking “art” radio station (on 104.4 or at www.resonancefm.com), supported by the likes of Gavin Turk and other luminaries. Its brief? To “provide a radical alternative to the universal formulas of mainstream broadcasting”. And it sure as hell does.

“We’re offering people stuff they won’t hear anywhere else,” says presenter Magz Hall. Her weekly show, You Are Hear, features everyone from 73-year-old musical icon Lee Hazlewood to electro weirdoes Church Of Sonology and the Association of Autonomous Astronauts (the worldwide network of community-based groups dedicated to building their own space ships, obviously).

“You can listen to wall to wall dross on the radio every day,” insists Magz. “You just hear the same formats, the same type of people and the same way of conducting programmes. They’re not really interested in letting new blood in and trying out new formulas. I mean, the DJs don’t even choose their own music, do they, on Radio 1?”

Resonance has been on air since May this year, and their licence is due to expire on 01 May 2003. “Really, we need to start a campaign so that we can stay on air,” says Magz. “We’re also going to start trying to raise some money by auctioning things on air. Perhaps we could get Gavin Turk to build a giant egg, then we could crack it and sell it.”

If they do stop broadcasting it’ll be a crying shame. Where else can you hear an eight-hour special on Japanese experimental rockers The Boredoms? Or two hours featuring 50 cover versions of that old Brecht & Weill favourite Mack The Knife.

“Once, we even did a whole day playing Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band, and another with folk singer Shirley Collins,” boasts Magz. Yes, but isn’t there just a slight chance that they might alienate listeners? “Not at all,” she insists. “Actually I think it opens it up, because it allows people to hear artists that don’t usually get played.”

But it’s not all obscurathons. Try Out Of The Blue Radio, every weekday at 11.30pm, and travel “inside someone else’s head for half an hour”. Or Burning Decks, on Fridays at midnight, for an hour of freewheeling noise from turntablism’s, er, more exotic shores, with DJs Electricity Substation and Scud, kone_r and more. Don’t touch that dial. JC 19 September 02

Resonance 104.4 FM broadcasts 5pm-1am on weekdays, and noon-1am at weekends. Magz Hall presents You Are Hear 5-6.45pm, every Monday.