[audiio] https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2019047984/popularity-of-sleep-radio-booms-in-recent-years

Would you like to fall asleep to birdsong or relive the first time you heard your favourite band?

The internet has allowed anyone to start their own station - catering to some niche tastes from era-specific-only music to local gossip.

John Watson, started Sleep Radio in 2012, after being diagnosed with depression from having to make people redundant at his corporate HR job.

"And of course, with depression comes insomnia. And I often get out of bed at night feeling completely awake, go and watch TV until about six in the morning and then be like a zombie for the rest of the day."

He said he tried relaxation CDs - which were difficult to find - and online radios - which would wake him up with adverts or station IDs.

"And I thought, I've got to do something better than this. So I basically created my own playlist."

He said he wondered how many people suffered with insomnia: he found millions through support groups on Facebook.

From there, Watson started a website then launched his own online radio station to share the music that had helped him.

"We had I think about 10 listeners on the first night, and within a week it was over 1000 and I was quite astounded."

A year ago, he did another count and found he had 50,000 regular listeners every month in 190 countries.

Artists and listeners send him music to broadcast as it is difficult to find the right kind.

He told RNZ the music most "conducive to sleep" was ambient, slow, instrumental and wordless.

This was also why the station has a global appeal, he said, and because someone was always trying to sleep somewhere in the world.

The testimonials page on his website showed this best: a commentator in Antarctica said it helped him sleep during six months of daylight.

"Every week, we get fantastic emails and messages from people telling them how it's helped them in their battle with insomnia. And I get a real buzz out of that."

One childcare centre told him they put his station on at naptime.

"I never, ever thought that I would be able to help so many people," Watson said.

80s and 90s only - Nostalgia

Niche radio stations seemed ideally suited for nostalgia: playing the tunes audiences had grown up with.

Bradley "B-Man" Simmons started Keep Laughing Forever Radio, playing only songs from the 80s and 90s, after being diagnosed with myalgic encephalomyelitis chronic fatigue syndrome, which causes debilitating fatigue.

After becoming housebound, he decided to revisit an old dream of becoming a radio DJ, which he had let go of to work at a bank.

"I quickly discovered that peddling term deposits and insurance wasn't quite as rock'n'roll as being a radio DJ."

He said his goal was to make his listeners nostalgic.

"It was a time before everyone was glued to a screen 24/7, before auto-tune became a thing and before deciding what song to listen to involved scrolling through thousands of options.

"There was something magical about hearing a song come on unexpectedly and thinking, I haven't heard this in years. That feeling is something that I really want to bring back."

Simmonds broadcast music all day and played his shows - Powerzone with Paul Rands, All About The 80s with Rob Charles - which released every fortnight.

He also added jingles, TV themes and movie quotes from that era.

"Those little moments that made radio feel like a friend in your room. Back then radio wasn't just something that you listened to, it was something that made you smile."

His app reached more than 10,000 downloads.

"The response has been amazing," he said.

James McKenzie told RNZ he had been listening to Simmonds' radio station since it began 12 years ago.

"I'm nearly 50 years old and so that era that he is focusing on is totally what I grew up [with] - the 80s and 90s."

He said listening to the show sends him back in time.

"And you think about: 'Oh, what was I doing when I was, you know, 15 years old, when I heard this song for the first time?'"

During the 80s and 90s, he said, there were more cultural touchstones people could bond over, like music.

"You don't go to school and talk about what happened on that episode of Elf or whatever, you know. Because kids have such variety and exposure to so much these days."

And it turned out nostalgia did not only work for those who had lived through the 80s and 90s.

Seventeen-year-old Luka Harrop joined Keep Laughing Forever Radio as the "Gen Rock Guy".

He said his family raised him on music from that time.

"When I was young, in Australia, we went to see Kiss, who have been one of my biggest idols."

He told RNZ being part of the Keep Laughing Forever helped him connect with people who loved the same music he did.

"I suppose it's quite special to me because not too many people my age still listen to it."

He said he liked how upbeat the music was and its counter-cultural, alternative aesthetic.

Being on the radio sparked an interest in a media career, he said.

Keep Laughing Forever Radio has been broadcast in more than 30 stations around the world, including on Retro Hit Radio in Auckland, which also only played songs from the 80s and 90s.

Richard Phelps has been running the station for more than two decades.

He said his radio station featured the "uniquely Kiwi flavour" New Zealand artists brought to the genre, which he believed had been overlooked by mainstream radio at the time.

"So we had a really unique blend of music and that's not replicated anywhere these days," he said.

He described the Dunedin music scene in the 80s and 90s as "rock heavy, it's a little punky, it's a little alternative".

He said online radio stations could give audiences more than an algorithm: they offered story-telling and connection.

"I really hope that there's more growth in the online radio space for people to enjoy curated, human-driven, music, radio experiences in a world of infinite choice, I suppose."