Seoul Community Radio: independent underground radio, made in Seoul

Three people standing in the studio in front of a rail of hanging Seoul Community Radio t-shirts, framed artwork and a rack of equipment along the wall behind them. — Station shirts on the rail in the Itaewon studio. Photo: Seoul Community Radio

In Itaewon, in the heart of Seoul, there is a station that has been broadcasting since 2016. Richard Price and his co-founders called it Seoul Community Radio and gave it a self-description it still carries: Independent Underground Radio. Made in Seoul. Ten years on, it streams Thursday through Sunday from seven in the evening, and across the region it is widely treated as the flagship of Asia's community-radio scene.

A studio that doubles as a venue

The studio sits at 451-10 Itaewon-dong, and SCR built it to be more than a broadcast booth; by its own account the room doubles as a venue, a place the scene gathers as well as a place it records. SCR describes itself as the first Korean platform dedicated to underground music and culture, and a decade of output backs the ambition: daily streams and uploads, a steady blend of international names and Korean residents, and some of the country's best events run under its own banner. Mixmag Asia, taking stock of the region's stations, called Seoul Community Radio "the poster boy of how a community radio should run."

In Itaewon, a station broadcasting since 2016 still runs under the plain banner it started with: Independent Underground Radio. Made in Seoul.

Who has broadcast through SCR Connect

The international roster runs through a series called SCR Connect, built to thread artists from around the world through its resident shows. Guy Contact has sent a live set from Perth; Jyoty broadcast a guest mix out of London and Amsterdam; Berlin's Live From Earth and the Paris collective La Mamie's have both taken the air. The most telling story runs the other way. Salamanda, the Korean ambient duo, first joined the mix series in 2019, then earned a station residency and a FACT residency presented with SCR before touring the world.

What Seoul gets from it

The deeper work is at home. SCR gives Korean residents like MOGWAA, DAUL and YEONGDIE a global audience for music a commercial station would never program, and over ten years that platform has helped put Seoul on the international touring map.

"We try to put forward people who are innovative. We want to keep it underground."

Richard Price, SCR founder

Part of the coalition

That instinct, keep it innovative and keep it underground, is what makes Seoul Community Radio a natural part of Airtime Asia: the independent, decentralized coalition of underground radio stations from across the continent. From the 13th to the 16th of August 2026, those stations gather across Da Nang and Hoi An in Vietnam, SCR among them, with Rich carrying the Seoul signal into the lineup.

Feed your mind with high frequency vibrations. Join us in the Airtime.

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