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I used to make a themed Halloween mix CD every year. Now, I make playlists, but that usually ends up being a playlist revision each year, with lots of repetition from years’ past. I’ve tried the online Halloween radio stations, but they always fell short for me. Most of those are a lot like the cheapie CD mixes for sale at Party City. You’ve got your synth covers of Ghostbusters, Monster Mash, Dead Moon Rising…you get the picture. I had pretty much given up on the online stations until I discovered Dead Air.
Dead Air is the term for unintended silence during a radio broadcast. It’s also a year-round Halloween radio streamer with lots of great, relatively unknown tracks. I prefer chill Halloween music with a spooky vibe, mainly post punk, and the Dead Airwaves have plenty of that. There’s not much in the way of raucous party mixes, so I’m very happy with it. If anything, it reminds me of some of the shows on KXLU or the alt rock radio station where Lefty works in Texas Chainsaw 2 - eclectic and varied and always surprising.
I’m not sure who runs Dead Air. There was mention of someone named Clay on one of the Halloween forums but I couldn’t find any whois data for the domain. Whoever it is, it seems they’re keeping a low profile. This may be a pirate setup and I’m fine with that given the exposure they give to relatively obscure artists. It’s a safe bet that it doesn’t originate in Columbia despite the .co domain extension.
Check out the 24/7/365 livestream here, and don’t forget to donate if you like what you hear.