Dublab's Internet Radio. Be Very Afraid

Internet radio station Dublab is less KCRW and more MOCA. Thirty rotating "Labrats" operate as a permanent exhibit, seamlessly switching between the modern avant-garde and abstruse masters of the past. You're as apt to hear the next brilliant beatmaker as reggae 45s rarely played outside of the Caribbean.

To bolster the collection, the station curates guest DJ sets and live performances from internationally lionized Angelenos like Dam-Funk, Nosaj Thing and Julia Holter. Recent visitors to the Silver Lake spot include legendary oldies DJ Art Laboe and German Krautrock pioneers Tangerine Dream and Faust. Sometimes a writer, sundry sonic dignitary or slick-babbling rogue will sneak in.

That's why I'm in their studios above the Virgil, several days before Halloween, prepping a pre-holiday set of horror-tinged hip-hop (Gravediggaz, Dana Dane, Bobby Brown circa Ghostbusters II). The 13-year-old station programs 30 hours of radio a week, plus a packed calendar of live events such as a recent Halloween bash at LACMA. At the moment, the lab is bubbling on a Friday at 3 p.m.

In the next room DJs Shaun "Sodapop" Koplow (who runs the Anticon label) and Diego Herrera (aka house producer Suzanne Kraft) artfully weave vintage house and contemporary IDM to rap headbangers. I'm in a roughly 20x10 office room filled with promos, sound equipment and concert handbills, talking to Mark "Frosty" McNeill, the co-founder and "creative energy focus captain."

"We're inspired mostly by the great radio of the past. John Peel and the regional radio freaks," says McNeill, wearing a blue Dublab T-shirt, college-professor specs and scholastic bearing. "It's about pushing to find something new. It's risky: Most people want to feel safe. That's why Pandora is popular. It offers just the smallest amount of randomness."

The risk has yielded significant reward. Dublab is a spice rack for an exotic array of underground flavor. It has thrown functions at every major museum, launched a biannual film series (the Labrat Matinee) and released compilation records that have become collectibles. And it has done it on a shoestring operating budget of $160,000, half donated during twice-yearly Proton Drives (the fall drive is currently under way). "We're still learning how to be a nonprofit," adds McNeill, who originally envisioned the station as a socially conscious corporation using its profits in responsible ways, à la Toms Shoes or Ben & Jerry's. As listenership increased, the station received more and more donations until it switched over five years ago.