The digital radio station preserving Montreal's DIY spirit in the age of the creator

Nine years in, the 100% volunteer-run non-profit digital radio station N10.AS proves the internet can build community rather than erode it—but only if you design it right.

Anahi Pellathy

September 23, 2025- Read time: 5 min

N10.AS is a 100% volunteer-run non-profit digital radio station run out of a booth overlooking the bar Le Système in La-Petite-Patrie. | Photography courtesy of @n10.as

In 2016, Sebastian Cowan had returned to Montreal following a stint in London, where he had witnessed the development of the digital radio phenomenon NTS. Excited by the possibility of implementing what he had seen overseas, Cowan—already a seasoned figure in Montreal’s DIY music scene, having founded Arbutus Records in 2009 and now back to throwing loft parties—decided to start one.

Alongside a team of cofounders whose web development expertise complemented his background in audio engineering, he launched N10.AS: a 100% volunteer-run non-profit digital radio station.

N10.AS (an alphanumeric code or 'vanity callsign' in radiospeak that means “antennas”) stands as a grassroots projects utilizing the internet for community building, providing an accessible third space in a time of socioeconomic precarity and increasing social isolation.

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