Tune in to local tunes on an old-timey device called a radio — no, it’s not an app.
A weekly radio show, broadcast for ten years on the independent channel WFMU at 91.1 FM, is now transmitting live from a Ditmas Park wine bar — an unconventional move its longtime host says is great for his show and his neighborhood.
“There’s some energy that develops in the live setting that you want to convey because it affects what it sounds like to listen to the music,” said Dan Bodah, a Ditmas Park resident who has been broadcasting his show the “Airborne Event” live from the Castello Plan on Cortelyou Road once a month since May.
“It’s been great to see the connection the live audience has with the music.”
Bodah’s show, a mix of musical styles from around the globe, features two live sets each night at the wine bar — and occasionally showcases some surprise local contributions.
“There’s a firehouse across the street, and in June during the broadcast I saw the trucks about to come out,” he said. “I told the listeners, ‘Hear the fire trucks? Here they come!’ ”
The show’s next Ditmas Park broadcast will feature jazz and blues violinist Charlie Burnham and New Orleans-based Americana duo Two Eye Jack — a line-up sure to please Ditmas Park’s folk and roots music-loving community.
And it’s already a hit with the Castello Plan.
“They’ve been so fun for me, the staff, and the customers,” said Ben Heemskerk, the owner of the Castello Plan, who helps select the musical guests that will perform with Bodah and says it’s greatly boosted the popularity of a different music night he hosts at the wine bar.
“Here in Brooklyn and Ditmas Park, you have wonderful musicians that work with you or live next to you and it’s so great to see people who you know from around — bars or the street or wherever — and get to see their talents. That’s really special every time.”
The Airborne Event at the Castello Plan [1213 Cortelyou Rd. at Argyle Road in Ditmas Park, (718) 856–8888] on Aug. 20, 9 pm. Listen to previous shows at wfmu.org/playlists/AE
Reach reporter Eli Rosenberg at erosenberg@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-2531. And follow him at twitter.com/emrosenberg.
