Montez Press Radio began in 2018 as a temporary performance experiment organized by the team behind the London, Hamburg, and New York-based independent book publisher
Montez Press, "a vital contributor to artist-led publishing over the last decade, foregrounding and queering experimental
auto,
fan and
speculative fiction." MPR's initial broadcast took place in the space of David Lieske's
Mathew Gallery on Canal Street, while the space was closed for the summer. Their inaugural August 2018 broadcast was solely transmitted via a pirate radio antenna, whose signal only spanned a few surrounding blocks. The broadcast was 12 hours long (lasting from 11am to 11pm). The project was only intended to last for 30 days, but programming continued beyond the initial timeframe, eventually becoming a permanent project in January 2019. In 2019, Montez Press Radio took over Mathew Gallery space at 46 Canal St, where Montez Press Radio is headquartered today. As of October 2024, they have broadcast nearly 3000 unique radio programs, which are all available on their website. They have a strong international presence. In addition to monthly programming from their NYC office, they broadcast regularly from London and Mexico City, and have broadcast offsite from Berlin, Brussels, Seoul, Hamburg, Sheffield, and Pasadena. Montez Press Radio has collaborated with arts institutions in New York and abroad, including
The Queens Museum,
MoMA PS1,
The Kitchen, and
The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA. Montez Press Radio is currently producing podcasts with Storefront for Arts and Architecture in a series called
On the Ground: Broadcasts. In 2024, Montez Press Radio received a $90,000 grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. As of April 2026, board members for Montez Press Radio include Anna Clark (President),
Jacques Louis-Vidal (Treasurer), Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste (Secretary),
Martha Fuller Clark, Than Clark, Rafael Foster,
C. Spencer Yeh, and Galen Joseph-Hunter. ==Notable Segments==