Why I Started Pauzeradio

Why I Started Pauzeradio

Pauzeradio didn’t start as a business or a plan. It started as a way to keep something going.

I had already been playing records for years before it existed, starting out in Jungle and Drum & Bass in the mid-90s, so music had always been there. Over time it became something I relied on more than I expected.

In 2004, after a serious head injury, something I’ve written about in more detail here, everything changed. Music wasn’t just going out to work in the clubs and something I enjoyed in that way anymore, it became part of how I got through that time. It gave me something steady to focus on, and over time that led into something more structured.

In 2006 I started the Unique Reggae Mix Show on Unique FM in Nottingham. The idea was simple, play positive, uplifting music and keep the energy in the right place. It wasn’t about chasing numbers or building something big, it was about consistency and putting something out that instinctively felt right.

The Turning Point

Around that time, things started to shift in a way I hadn’t planned. A female artist in Jamaica, Kris Kelli, who had recorded jingles for the show, asked to hear it. With the station being local to Nottingham in the UK, it wasn’t possible for her to hear, so I uploaded it to a file sharing site and meant to send it directly to her. Instead, I accidentally posted it on the MySpace bulletin board.

It wasn’t meant to go any further than that, but it picked up quickly and that one show ended up being downloaded over 400 times. At the time the show was weekly, so seeing those numbers come in was a big shift and I started sharing download links to every show.

After that, I started getting messages from listeners in the USA asking if there was a way to just stream the shows instead of downloading them. The files were taking up too much space, and people wanted an easier way to listen.

This was before platforms like Spotify or Mixcloud existed, so there wasn’t really a simple way of doing that at the time.

That was really the point where the idea for Pauzeradio started to take shape in 2008. Not as a full site, just as a simple way to keep the shows available to listen to without having to download them.

Building Pauzeradio

In 2009 I set up Pauzeradio.com as a place to archive the shows. That was the only intention behind it. Somewhere people could go back and listen again, or catch something they hadn’t heard before. It wasn’t designed to be anything more than that.

Over time it grew on its own. New shows, more listeners, more connections. The internet made it possible to reach people in different places, but the approach stayed the same. No rush, no pressure, just keep putting the work in.

In 2012, with the help of Mikey General, Pauzeradio expanded into an online record shop built around the music featured in the shows. That came from the same place as everything else, a real connection to the music and the culture around it. The same thing happened with the review side of Pauzeradio, it was all thought of and created as a natural progression and developed over time based on what felt right.

That way of working carried through into everything that followed. The standards and ethos I have learned through the journey with Pauzeradio carry through into every aspect of what I do, from the work I have done with record labels to the development of Pauzewear.

Some of that early influence has carried through into pieces on Pauzewear, including the Jungle tee.

Still Growing

Pauzeradio is still what it always was. A place to hold the music, with consistency at the heart of it, and keeping things moving in the right direction without forcing it.

There’s no finish line with any of this. It’s just something that continues to grow, one step at a time.

Featured image: Butta Salaman, Gav Pauze & Tall Rich at UK Homegrown Studio, London, UK (2009).

Why I started Pauzeradio by Gav Pauze