'Buy the pub or get out!': Noods Radio launches crowdfunding campaign to save its headquarters

By Benji Chapman, Co-Deputy Music Editor

A crowdfunding campaign with the target of raising £70,000 within 30 days was initiated on the 15th of May to buy Mickey Zoggs, the home of the grassoots radio station before its lease ends in November. The pub which houses the station headquarters has evolved from its humble beginnings in 2021 to a hot-spot for local creatives looking to collaborate, share and broadcast music.

The community and volunteer run nine-year-old Noods Radio station has been a voice for creative and compassionate Bristolians since its inception: running workshops focussed on introducing women and non-binary individuals to radio, educational initiatives for young people looking to enter the industry, and artists looking to promote original material.

Hosting more conventional shows which range from Ollie Judge of Squid fame's 'Squid Show', to 'Sporecast', a celebration of mushrooms through folklore readings accompanied by music composed by mushroom bioelectricity, the station is emblematic in every way of Bristol's bafflingly diverse musical and cultural offerings.

Owen Parry, Creative Producer for Talent Development at the nearby Bristol Beacon detailed how the station is "vital to the creative ecology and the talent pipeline", with the grassroots music space allowing artists to "cut their teeth in these places, gaining experience through the necessary failures and successes required to learn and grow."

Much more than simply a radio station, the space is also the home of "two football teams, multiple gaming clubs and a community of compassionate, like-minded individuals that all greatly benefit from the space", said Bristol-based artist, Bruce.

Amid the closure of venues like Moles in Bath, losing the pub would signal another tragic loss in the South West for its grassroots creative spaces, in an industry which Owen detailed is "unfortunately extremely precarious and seemingly increasingly so".

For student DJ's and aspiring young broadcasters looking to gain work experience, the station offers a vital oppurtunity to kickstart a career in the industry. Second-year student DJ Jake Om has played on the station before, whilst countless more students confirmed to Epigram that the platform was a valuable resource to formally explore broadcasting as a job: equally expressing their love of the shows on offer in their ability to introduce them to new music.

Losing the station would mark a tragic loss for both the local scene and those keen to enter it, whilst it would more broaldy also affect the cultural circulatory system of the South West. Fans of the station are, thankfully, not resting easy during the crisis.

So far the station has reached 25% of its fundraising goals, a positive checkpoint considering 26 days still remain in its fundraising. In conversation with Epigram, Noods Radio Co-Founder and Director Leon Pattrick said, "we're overwhelmed with the feedback so far! Our phones have been blowing up and our feeds are drowned in reposts. We've still got a bit of a way to go but it's 100% doable!"

Donations to the fundrasier feature a spread of illustrious rewards from custom enamel pins and t-shirts to a bespoke, engraved Mickey Zoggs members card that entitles the bearer 10% off "EVERYTHING" in the venue for life.

Tickets purchasble in the form of £10 donations are also available on the fundraiser page, for a 3 year Mickey Zoggs birthday street party hosted at Surrey Street on June 1st.

You can donate to or share the fundrasier here