KALW Music brings audiences what algorithms miss: live sets from local legends, deep dives into hidden scenes, and conversations with the artists shaping the Bay Area’s sound and the world’s culture. Check out our daily programming and tune into our DJs at kalw.org/kalw-music.

KALW provides over 40 hours of original programming of eclectic music each week — broadcast on air and available on-demand. The first FM radio station west of the Mississippi, KALW radio is a central part of the local music scene with a mix of new and long-running programs, including legendary Bay Area DJs Wonway Posibul, LadyRyan and J Boogie; Dore Stein’s genre-defying Tangents, JoAnn Marr's celebrated Folk Music & Beyond, and our new Song Exploder Remix, where host Tshego Letsoalo stitches together episodes from the wildly popular Radiotopia podcast.

KALW Presents

Since its launch in the spring of 2022, KALW Presents has supported over 600 concerts and festivals with thousands of ticket giveaways for Bay Area music lovers and venues.

The calendar of acts we support is hand-curated by our music programmers, and we’ve worked with nearly 100 venues, cultural organizations, and festivals—bringing new Bay Area audiences into KALW’s community while supporting rising artists by offering a platform for media exposure and audience-building.

KALW Presents supports act from emerging to legendary across the Bay: Stadium acts at Chase Center, Frost Amphitheater and The Greek, to crowd pleasers at The UC Theatre and SFJAZZ, international dance parties at Public Works and the Chapel, and Great American Music Hall, surrealist blues at The Freight, hometown heroes at The Independent and Yoshi’s, and intimate shows at Bottom of the Hill and Rickshaw Stop, The Guilt in Menlo Park, up to the Blue Note’s Black Radio Experience in Napa and Sweetwater Music Hall in Mill Valley!

Festival partnerships have included Stern Grove, Noise Pop, the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, Portola, among others.

DJs in the Community

KALW DJs provide the soundtrack for some of the Bay’s biggest cultural events, including the annual Stern Grove Festival and Yerba Buena Gardens Festival. Our DJs enrich the Bay’s communities through free, live music experiences that bring people together.

We team up with the California Academy of Sciences for their weekly after-hours NightLife event, broadcasting live DJ sets and hosting interactive parties that transform the museum into an immersive experience.

We were a partner in launching Downtown First Thursdays, a monthly event series in San Francisco's SoMa neighborhood that turns the city streets into a stage. We curate the stage at the storied 111 Minna Gallery, bringing an eclectic mix of Bay Area arts that’s included dance, circus performances, live music, and artist talks, before turning it over to our DJs for a live broadcast dance party that captivates a roaming audience of more than 10,000 people.

Through these partnerships, KALW continues to bring the power of live programming and performance directly to the community, making every gathering a celebration of sound, art, and connection.