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EXPLOSION RADIO
EXPLOSION RADIO
THE SOUNDTRACK OF THE CENTURY.
THE SOUNDTRACK OF THE CENTURY.
1930 – 2025. 95 Years. Four Channels. One Signal.
Music didn’t just happen. It exploded.
Welcome to the world’s first curated streaming network dedicated to the complete, unbroken timeline of popular music. From the crackle of shellac to the infinite stream of the cloud, we play it all.
THE MISSION
THE MISSION
"We don't believe in Oldies. We believe in Origins."
Most radio stations are trapped in a single decade. They play the same 200 songs on repeat. At Explosion, we believe that music is a continuum. You cannot understand the synthesized bass lines of 2024 without understanding the funk grooves of 1974. You cannot appreciate the modern pop ballad without hearing the crooners of 1944.
We have divided the last century of recorded sound into four distinct eras. These are not just playlists; they are time machines. Each channel is curated by human historians and audio engineers to capture the sonic texture, the cultural energy, and the revolutionary spirit of its time.
Select your era. Ignite the sound.
THE CHANNELS
THE CHANNELS
"The Crackle. The Croon. The Swing."
Before the stadium tour and the music video, there was the song. Vintage is our foundational frequency, covering the thirty years that took the world from the Great Depression to the edge of the Space Age. This is music recorded on wax, wire, and magnetic tape—music that relies on the raw power of the human voice and the acoustic instrument.
The Atmosphere:
Tune into Vintage and step into a smoky jazz club in Harlem, a ballroom in London, or a Sun Studio session in Memphis. We honor the "Mono Era," presenting these tracks with their original dynamic range intact—no modern compression, just the warm, tube-driven sound of history.
The Playlist:
The Big Band Era: Feel the floor shake with the swing orchestras of Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, and Count Basie. We play the morale-boosting anthems that got the world through WWII.
The Great American Songbook: The golden age of the vocalist. Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, and Nat King Cole transforming pop music into high art.
The Blues & Roots: The electric mud of Chicago Blues (Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf) and the country heartache of Hank Williams.
The Birth of Rock: The final years of this channel document the "Explosion" itself—the moment Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and Elvis Presley plugged in and invented the teenager.
Signature Show: The 78 Exchange. A deep dive into pre-vinyl shellac records, featuring rare transfers of songs that haven't been heard on the radio in eighty years.
"The Rebel. The Artist. The Rockstar."
The 1960s and 70s were the era of the Groundbreakers. This channel covers the twenty years where music broke every rule it had just established. The single gave way to the album. The suit gave way to the tie-dye. The mono speaker gave way to the stereo headset.
The Atmosphere:
This channel is designed for the deep listener. It moves from the jangly optimism of the British Invasion to the psychedelic haze of Woodstock, settling into the polished, high-fidelity excess of the 1970s. It represents the shift from music as "entertainment" to music as "lifestyle."
The Playlist:
The British Invasion & Psych: The Beatles, The Stones, The Kinks. We track their journey from pop moptops to studio wizards.
Soul & Funk: The distinct sounds of Motown (Detroit) and Stax (Memphis). Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, and James Brown inventing the groove that would eventually birth Hip Hop.
The Rock Gods: The era of the guitar hero. Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, and Queen. We play the "Long Versions"—the 10-minute epics that commercial radio usually cuts.
The Friction: The late 70s clash between Disco (Donna Summer, Bee Gees) and Punk (The Ramones, The Clash).
Signature Show: Needle Drop. We play classic albums from start to finish, Side A and Side B, with no interruptions, exactly as the artist intended them to be heard.
"The Superstar. The Video. The Golden Age."
Welcome to the era of the Powerhouses. This channel spans the dominance of the Cassette Tape and the Compact Disc. This was the time when music became a global visual medium via MTV, and artists became brands larger than life.
The Atmosphere:
This is the sound of maximum production. From the gated-reverb drums of the 80s to the pristine digital sheen of the late 90s. It is the sound of the Walkman, the boombox, and the car subwoofer. It is loud, colorful, and unapologetic.
The Playlist:
The Mega-Pop Icons: Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince, and Whitney Houston. The artists who defined the concept of the global superstar.
The Synth Revolution: The New Wave and Synth-Pop of Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, and Eurythmics.
The Golden Age of Hip Hop: The evolution from Run-D.M.C. to the bicoastal wars of Tupac and Biggie, ending with the rise of the Jay-Z/Eminem era.
The Alternative Nation: The guitar biting back. R.E.M., U2, and the Grunge explosion of Nirvana and Pearl Jam that defined the 90s aesthetic.
The Boy Band/Diva Boom: The vocal harmonies of the late 90s, from Mariah Carey to The Backstreet Boys.
Signature Show: The Mixtape. A curated hour of "One Hit Wonders" and lost gems from the 80s and 90s that you recorded off the radio but forgot the names of.
"The Stream. The Viral. The Future."
The new millennium changed the physics of music. Transformers covers the era where the physical format died, and the digital cloud took over. This is the sound of the 21st Century—a genre-blending, algorithm-defying mix of sounds where the rules of the past no longer apply.
The Atmosphere:
This channel reflects the "Shuffle" culture. It moves rapidly between genres, reflecting the listening habits of the iPod and Spotify generations. It highlights the rise of home production, where a laptop in a bedroom can create a global number one hit.
The Playlist:
The Digital Pop Queens: Britney Spears, Beyoncé, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, and Taylor Swift. The women who dominated the charts and the conversation.
The Hip Hop Takeover: The moment Rap became the new Pop. Kanye West, Drake, Kendrick Lamar, and Travis Scott.
The Indie & Garage Revival: The Strokes, The White Stripes, Arctic Monkeys, and the bands that kept the guitar alive in the digital age.
EDM & The Drop: The festival anthems of Avicii, Calvin Harris, and Daft Punk.
The Viral Era (2015-2025): The explosion of TikTok-driven hits, K-Pop (BTS, Blackpink), and the genre-less stars like Billie Eilish and Bad Bunny.
Signature Show: The Algorithm (Mondays, 6 PM). We explore the very latest tracks breaking on social media this week, juxtaposed with the 2000s classics that influenced them.
FEATURED EDITORIAL
FEATURED EDITORIAL
FROM WAX TO WIFI: THE EVOLUTION OF THE "HIT"
FROM WAX TO WIFI: THE EVOLUTION OF THE "HIT"
By Marcus Thorne, Chief Archivist at Explosion Radio
When you tune into our Vintage channel, you’ll notice something: the songs are short. In 1935, a 78 RPM record could only hold about three minutes of music per side. If Duke Ellington wanted to record a suite, he had to break it into three-minute chunks. Technology dictated the art.
Switch over to Groundbreakers. By 1968, the LP allowed for 22 minutes of continuous music. Suddenly, The Doors could record "The End," and Led Zeppelin could record "Stairway to Heaven." The canvas got bigger, so the painting got more complex.
Now, listen to Transformers. In the streaming age of 2024, the "Skip Button" is the most powerful force in music. If a song doesn’t catch you in the first five seconds, you scroll past. As a result, modern hits have almost no intros. The chorus hits immediately. The songs are getting shorter again, returning to the three-minute length of the 1930s.
At Explosion, we don't just play the music; we understand the machinery behind it. Whether it's the warmth of a vacuum tube on Channel 1 or the crisp spatial audio of Channel 4, we ensure you are hearing the history of human innovation.
AUDIO SPECIFICATIONS
AUDIO SPECIFICATIONS
Explosion Radio is built for audiophiles. We refuse to broadcast muddy, over-compressed audio.
Bitrate: We stream in quality 128 kbps mp3 format.
Loudness Normalization: We carefully balance the volume between the quiet jazz of 1950 and the loud rock of 1995, so you never have to reach for the volume knob.
Metadata Rich: Our player displays the Artist and Title of every track.
JOIN THE EXPLOSION
JOIN THE EXPLOSION
Radio used to be a community. We are bringing that back. We play listener requests every hour on every channel.
EXPLOSION RADIO.
Portsmouth • The Cloud.
Email: studio@explosionradio.one
Copyright © 2025 Explosion Media Group.
All music broadcast is licensed via ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and SoundExchange.
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