Radio KENT
| Radio KENT | |
|---|---|
| Type of site | Members' internet radio with call-in |
| Owner | Molecular Reality Corporation |
| Launched | March 2026 |
| Current status | Live sessions held by video call |
| Programming | Talk; scheduled recordings |
| Host | Kent Kemmish |
Radio KENT is the internet radio station built into EQBio-OS, the members' software of Molecular Reality Corporation, and named after the company's founder, Kent Kemmish. It was built in the spring of 2026 to carry live talk and scheduled recordings to members, who could listen in the browser and wait in a queue to call in. When the station is on the air a ticker crosses the top of the software reading "BioSingularity TELETHON live NOW click to join". When it is not, members read the station's away message: "Radio KENT is currently off the air. Check back soon!"[1]
Between March 17 and April 24, 2026, Kemmish recorded a series of broadcasts on the station.[1] Its own audio was later switched off, with a note in the code that "we could not fix recurrent bugs", and the station's live sessions moved to a video call.
Origins
Audio was part of the company's plans four years before the station existed. Its technical overview of December 2022 promised "streaming audio feeds where topics like nanopore science and synthetic biology will be discussed by both players and leading experts".[2] Those players were the members of what became the Molecular Streaming Corps.
Name
Radio KENT spells the founder's first name in capital letters, but members rarely meet the name. The entry in the software's menu, the ticker, the button on a phone and every message a caller receives all say TELETHON. "Radio KENT" appears in the away message, and in the host's own controls.[1]
Design
LiveKit, an open-source system for live audio and video in the browser, carries the station, an open-source system for live audio and video in the browser, in a single room. It was built as a small broadcaster. Its host could put shows from a library of recordings on a daily, weekly or monthly schedule, take over a scheduled show with a live one, keep a log of broadcasts, see a list of listeners, and record each session with a description.[1]
A member joined by clicking the ticker. In the left rail of the software the station appears as "TELETHON", followed during a broadcast by a green "ON AIR"; on a phone it is a small pill with a radio icon.[1]
Calling in
A listener could ask to call in, and was told "Call-in request sent. Keep listening while admin reviews." The request waited until the host approved it. The approved caller then saw "You're up. Turn on your microphone to join TELETHON." beside a button labelled "Turn on microphone". Callers could mute themselves or hang up. A call could also end from the other side, with one of two messages: "Your call was ended by Kent." or "TELETHON went off the air."[1]
The software took care of one awkward case. If a caller started one of the videos posted in the members' inbox while on the air, such as "SCIENCE" ("Watch this video for an overview of our scientific challenges.") or "GAMES", the station muted the caller's microphone for the length of the video and turned it back on at the end, but only if it had been on before.[1]
Broadcasts
The company's calendar for the spring of 2026 listed a "LATE NIGHT SAVE THE WORLD EMERGENCY BROADCAST" on April 10, a "Saturday TELETHON" on April 25, a "May Day All Hands Meeting" on May 2 and an "Epic Jamboree!" on May 18.[1] The first recording, on March 17, came eleven days before EQBio-OS opened its inbox to members with a welcome message on March 28.[1] After the session of April 25 Kemmish sent members a message thanking them "for attending our sparsely attended meeting and coming up with the 'secret third thing' framing!"[3]
Video-call workaround
The station's own listening and call-in were later disabled. The comment that switches them off calls the arrangement a "Kludge for Telethon" and says that "we could not fix recurrent bugs". From that point, going live required "A full Google Meet link", which the software checks before it lets the host start. Members see "TELETHON is on the air. Join via Google Meet:" followed by the link. Call-in is hidden too, and a member who tries it is told: "Call-in is turned off while we use Google Meet for audio."[1]
In lower case, the software's guided tour describes the result: "this is where we meet! will be our own platform soon, for now it opens a google meet link. nothing fancy. show up, say hi, see what we're working on."[4] Still in the software is the original listening code, "retained below for future restoration", and the comment that disabled it ends with a promise to "revisit when there is time".[1]
Error messages
Traces of the bugs remain in the station's messages to listeners, which include "Could not connect to the broadcast. Please try again.", "Audio playback failed. Please try again." and "Lost connection to listener registration. Tap listen again.", the last after three failed check-ins in a row A listener who could not be registered was shown a message that suggested, if the TELETHON was on, running a maintenance script on the company's server.[1]