Inside Program Audio, the Viral DJ Collective Streaming on Haight Street

San Francisco’s Program Audio runs on adrenaline and vibes.

On a rare sunny San Francisco afternoon, Arthur Javier is drilling plywood and connecting audio cables, sweat beading on his forehead. He has only minutes before his new internet radio station’s second-ever livestream, which is broadcasting from a wooden shack the size of a shower stall on Haight Street.

Just two weeks earlier, after reading about its history in an SFGate article, he and business partner Erika Martinez signed the lease for this former Fotomat kiosk across from Amoeba Records. This tiny 59-year-old structure once housed a drive-through for developing photos, but it eventually fell into disuse and sat collecting cobwebs. When Javier and Martinez got the keys, they immediately got to work, peeling off decades-worth of flyers (“It’s like the rings around a tree,” Javier says) and painting over graffiti.

“It happened to be the heat wave week,” he says. “And we were also sick, but we wanted to keep the surprise. We knew our audience that we’d built, our friend group, would just lose their minds. And they did.”

Program Audio’s opening announcement made headlines and went viral on TikTok, generating approving comments from people eager for the return of the kind of out-there, DIY creativity that once made San Francisco a counterculture hub. Their new internet radio station is the culmination of five years of work Javier and Martinez have put in behind the scenes to nurture San Francisco’s electronic music ecosystem.

The 26- and 27-year-old friends began throwing underground parties together as pandemic restrictions lifted. Eventually, they became trusted curators at a number of San Francisco venues, including the SoMa nightclub F8 and Mission District wine bar Arcana.

The two are DJs (Javier goes by sfcowboy, and Martinez mononymously performs as erika), and their forward-thinking take on techno has attracted likeminded musicians. That community evolved into the Program Audio record label and Soulseek electronic music zine.

“These are really emerging sounds from Latin American backgrounds — deconstructed club, Latin bass,” says Javier, who has the Program Audio logo tattooed on his finger. “I feel like, it’s like when I listen to Kraftwerk for the first time, these things are really cutting edge and exciting.”

Program Audio’s new compilation — a surprise release they upload to Bandcamp the day I visit — raises money for the National Immigrant Justice Center. It features dark drum’n’bass by San Francisco’s xxveneco, house with a ’90s flavor by Oakland’s 3:33 and an ambient, dreamy track with crackling drums by Seoul, Korea’s Closet Yi.

“With everything going on with ICE and how scary it is for immigrants at this time, we kind of just felt helpless,” says Martinez. “We don’t necessarily have funds ourselves … but we’re trying to figure out a way to use what we’re good at to help.”

As Javier tests the speakers and fields questions from curious passersby at the kiosk, Martinez is down the street at Javier’s apartment, screenprinting dozens of T-shirts that the duo is selling this evening. Their cats Tekno and Lou come over to nap on the warm garments coming off the heat press.

While Javier still works a day job, Martinez has been doing Program Audio as her full-time gig for almost two years. The platform has grown in large part thanks to her TikTok presence, where she brands herself as “your sf nightlife guide.” With short bangs, a deadpan delivery and pink pout, she’s become a recognizable face on the For You pages of Bay Area residents looking to get off their screens and dance til the early morning.

“I started using TikTok because I realized there was, the simplest way to say it is, a gap in the market,” she says. ‘There was absolutely no one talking about San Francisco’s electronic music scene.”

The daughter of a b-boy and a club kid, Martinez has made it her mission to help the Bay Area’s electronic music scene grow. Program Audio joins a rising number of independent, DJ-run online radio stations, including Fault Radio, Hyde FM and Lower Grand Radio. They’re also part of a community of DJs promoting forward-thinking club music, including Mostly Cloudy, No Bias and Amor Digital.

“I just see the potential in S.F. — not even like becoming New York, but becoming its own very special thing,” Martinez says. She hopes the attention on Program Audio prompts San Francisco’s city government to invest into artist-run spaces.

Martinez packs up the T-shirts and walks back to the kiosk, where discnogirl and Tom Marsi are spinning bouncy footwork as a small, all-ages crowd starts to coalesce, bobbing their heads.

“I think it’s really cool that this is non-corporate, non-sponsored, it’s just two locals doing things for other locals,” says Marsi.

Martinez hangs up the fresh T-shirts, but she can’t stay for too long. In just a few hours, she’s due at F8 for a Program Audio party, and she has her set to prepare. She peels off once again, and Javier stays behind to watch the DJ booth.

“We’re crazy and we’re stressed, but we know that we’re putting in so much work and the feedback is good,” he says. “So it’s kind of just pushing us and showing us that we’re going in the right direction.”

Program Audio streams every Friday and Saturday, 4–8 p.m. Their next party takes place April 3 at Club Six (60 6th St., San Francisco), featuring sets from DBBD, erika, Femme Jatale, Beverly Chills and more.