59-year old occasional DJ and even more occasional music producer Derrick May from Detroit has found a new hobby. This is something which Ears To The House can get well and truly behind – this article on Develop Good Habits lists 22 benefits of having one, such as “they help transition you to retirement”.

Recently, May has started broadcasting on Transmat Radio. Yes, the brand that we suspected was all but dead is apparently still with us – even if May’s old manager Patricia Altisent took almost all of the Transmat Agency’s artists over to her own firm Nyaera. Transmat Radio can be found whenever May feels like doing a broadcast, courtesy of Blast Radio.

What’s Blast Radio, you might ask? Sadly, it’s not the student radio station for the University of West London. No, it’s an online service where anyone can be a DJ – so long as they’re prepared to pay. It’s $40 to broadcast straight from a DAW, rising to $199 for those using a more traditional format, such as CDJs or vinyl.

A quick look around the website reveals a number of other people who use it – and it includes none other than Carl Craig…

During the first Covid-19 lockdown, a number of people urged Derrick May on his social media pages to start livestreaming in this way. May refused, pointing out plenty of others were already doing it. Yet here he is two years later, doing what he said he wouldn’t. So what’s behind this volte-face?

A regular source in Detroit reckons “If Carl Craig is doing it and Derrick May is doing it, it’s probably because Hagi [Craig, manager for both men] has told them to do it. It’s in her interests to revive Derrick’s career, not least because she gets paid if it does, so these are the things he has to do.”.

You can find him over here – although given the lack of cheesy jingles and awful exaggerated radio voice, you honestly wouldn’t be any the wiser it was him…