I follow a lot of niche music accounts on Instagram, including Program Audio, a San Francisco electronic music label and party collective. So when they announced they were opening an online radio station inside the last standing Fotomat kiosk in San Francisco, I wanted to check it out. I'd already read the SFGATE article about the Fotomat. It was a tiny drive-through photo booth built in 1978 on Haight Street that had sat vacant for years. The idea of turning it into an artist-run community space was too good to pass up.
On a Saturday that had already taken me from the tulips in Union Square to an anti-AI protest downtown to a punk show at the San Francisco Public Library, I still had one more stop. I hopped on the N Judah down to Carl and Cole and walked over to Haight Street to check out the opening of an online radio station inside a mushroom-shaped hut.
You can spot the structure from across the intersection at Haight and Shrader. Someone had painted the kiosk to look like a mushroom years ago. Program Audio is in the process of redoing the exterior.
Up close, the whole thing is about the size of a DJ booth, which is essentially what it is now. Through the old drive-thru window you could see someone inside DJing. The set was streaming live on their YouTube channel. A small group was hanging out on the sidewalk around it, chatting and asking questions.
Behind the kiosk, the building reads "Listen to this wall" in large text, a conceptual art piece by Rich Hansen that's been there for years. There was never anything to actually listen to. Hansen intended it as an open-ended prompt. Now, finally, Program Audio has given us something to listen to.
Program Audio was founded in 2023 by Arthur (sfcowboy_) and Erika (b0nitababy) as a label and party collective. They'd originally planned to open a club in an SF venue, but permitting issues put that on hold. The Fotomat was their pivot, and with so few artist-owned spaces left in the city, they see it as essential. They are throwing another party on March 27 at f8. Keep an eye on their Instagram account for updates and ways to get involved.
