There’s a funny, fake-it-till-you-make-it backstory behind Tim Sweeney’s Apple Music 1 program, Beats in Space. Long before the show was hosting exclusive mixes from electronic music royalty such as Carl Craig, Andrew Weatherall, DJ Harvey and Four Tet, Tim was a college freshman with a 1:00-4:00 am slot on WNYU—on its now-defunct AM signal. “It really only broadcast to the dormitories,” Tim tells Apple Music. “I didn't tell people I was on AM, basically. I just told guests to come on the radio—and people did!”
But you don’t make it to 1000 episodes, recorded and broadcast literally every single week for more than 20 years, by faking anything for long. Over the course of its time on WNYU, Beats in Space took adventurous listeners on an exploration of techno, house, ambient and experimental’s outer reaches; for the DJs and producers who defined those genres, performing on the show became a rite of passage.
The early vision for Beats in Space was heavily informed by the UK's pirate radio scene of the ’90s. “My brother brought back these tapes from London, and I would just listen to those all the time,” says Tim. “And I thought, ‘Why is this not on the radio here in the US? Why can't I find something like this?’ It was this feeling of playing something that you couldn't find anywhere else. And you were letting people in on something that you loved and you knew should be bigger.”
Two decades later, now on Apple Music 1, Beats in Space continues to blur all sorts of musical lines, particularly with its guests, who’ll provide an exclusive one-hour mix for the show, following an hour set from Tim. “I want to try to find music that moves people,” he says. “How do I take this stuff that I love and find more people who say, 'Look, this is awesome. I want you to hear it.' I love connecting those dots.”
Hear Beats in Space every Friday at 1 pm LA, 4 pm NYC and 9 pm LDN on Apple Music 1.
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