Long before internet easter eggs and secret social media teasers, vinyl records had their own secret messages hidden in the run-out grooves of vinyl records. Located in the smooth "dead wax" between the final track and the center label, these micro-engravings began as routine technical marks etched by mastering engineers. But as engineers like George "Porky" Peckham began signing their work with cheeky nicknames ("A Porky Prime Cut"), bands quickly realised they had a private message board carved directly into black plastic. From Morrissey’s gloomy quips to Jimmy Page’s occult quotes, these hand-scratched slogans turned pressing plants into clandestine printing presses, offering eagle-eyed listeners a fleeting, human connection right before the needle lifts.

Hold a record up to the light and see what you can find. It's like adding a side quest to your week record shop digs.

The etching in the photo reads "COOL X" and can be found on Milli Vanilli's Girl I'm Gonna Miss You.

It's been a month since The Dig event took place. The event comprised of 14 stores around East London who all joined forces to celebrate the amazing community of crate diggers and record lovers through DJ sets, special drops, sales and merch giveaways. Whilst Funk Rocket Radio HQ weren't able to attend the event on the day, this week we have been able to travel over to London and visit some of the stores involved, a month on. For those wishing to do the same, I found this handy map of all the store locations made by Spilt Milk. Happy hunting!

Support mental health in music by donating to Tonic Music. They are a dedicated UK charity providing completely free, qualified mental health care, including therapy sessions, peer support groups, and training, to music industry professionals, youth, and music fans. Every donation directly funds these vital resources and helps break the stigma surrounding mental health, ensuring those within the music community always have a safe place to turn.

When traveling, half the fun is discovering the little, unique record shops and having a good old holiday dig to source new tracks for the station. On our recent trip to Florence, we stopped by Rock Bottom Records. Tucked away in the backstreets of Florence, the shop is wall-to-wall vinyl, offering a a huge selection of soul, funk and obscure European pressings that my son was on the hunt for. It’s the kind of shop where you can easily spend hours flipping through the crates. Plus, as we visited in the middle of a heat wave, the shop offered a cool distraction from the sweltering temperatures outside. We left with a good selection of new vinyl and on exiting the shop, slapped a Funk Rocket Radio sticker in the lamppost and continued with our adventures.

After months of broadcasting from our secret underground location on the west coast of Wiltshire, we’ve put together a little zine detailing how we got on the air. The Funk Rocket Flight Manual is a little piece of analog goodness, sharing the steps we followed, from how we made the home studio and setting up the live streaming. There are also a few suggestions on how to publicise your station.

We hope that this little zine of ours is useful to those who wish to start their own online radio station. Zine packs can be purchased from our shop at a cost of £3 to help contribute to postage. Alternatively, you can download and make your own Flight Manual zine for free here.

Everyone loves a sticker, especially a Funk Rocket Radio sticker. Whether you want to slap one on your laptop, your skateboard, your car bumper, or your favourite vinyl crate, these slap-ready stickers are the perfect way to show the world that you too ride the funk wave.

Welcome to the official homemade studio! It’s a custom-built booth designed to look exactly like a classic British telephone box, complete with a fully functioning BT payphone. Originally, I had this grand idea to use the actual payphone handset as my broadcasting microphone. Turns out, while that grainy audio quality is fine for a casual chat, it’s an absolute nightmare for live streaming. The backup plan? Keep the phone around so listeners can actually call into the show live. That’s the ultimate goal, anyway, as I continue to piece together this absolute Frankenstein’s monster of a studio.