{"id":248346,"date":"2026-04-02T11:38:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T11:38:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/248346\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T11:38:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T11:38:19","slug":"abandoned-piece-of-history-in-san-francisco-sees-big-transformation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/248346\/","title":{"rendered":"Abandoned piece of history in San Francisco sees big transformation"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I wrote a story back in January about the last Fotomat left<\/a> in San Francisco, I didn\u2019t expect the derelict little kiosk on the corner of Haight Street would hold out for much longer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Abandoned for years and mottled in graffiti with a wad of gum stuck to its pyramid-shaped roof, the relic of the 1970s drive-thru photo development craze sitting in a vacant parking lot seemed destined for demolition, despite a few creative ideas I heard about how it could be\u00a0repurposed: as a zine shop, maybe, or even a kissing booth.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

But Arthur Javier and Erika Martinez, co-founders of the radio station and record label program.audio<\/a>, read the article and saw potential in the architectural oddity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cI hadn\u2019t even seen the inside just like you, but I just felt like one person, DJ equipment, had to fit in there somehow,\u201d Javier, 27, told me on a recent Thursday afternoon. \u201cWe\u2019d figure it out, even if it was a complete mess. We knew it could be Pandora\u2019s box in there.\u201d<\/p>\n

By mid-March, that vision became a reality when the duo signed a three-year lease on the walk-in closet-sized booth, rigging it up within the span of a week during a record-breaking heat wave<\/a>. The DJs, who go by sfcowboy and erika, live and work nearby, but for years, they never knew what the booth was. They noticed a sign next to it with a QR code and a phone number to reach the developer, David Peng.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Arthur<\/p>\n

Arthur Javier and Erika Martinez (and her dog Animal) are pictured in the doorway of the former Fotomat booth they transformed into a radio station on Haight Street.<\/p>\n

Charles Russo\/SFGATE<\/p>\n

Martinez, 26, said when they came by to see it for the first time, a heavy planter was propped up in front of its only doorway, and they weren\u2019t able to get inside. Eventually, she climbed over, using her phone to capture videos of its dusty interior, where years of trash had been dropped into the slot that attendants once slipped film through.<\/p>\n

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It didn\u2019t have running water, and just a few shelves lined the walls in the modest setup. Both Javier and Martinez knew the viable options for other types of businesses in the space were slim, and after briefly considering a trial run, they decided to take the plunge. They negotiated $400 a month to rent it out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did not tell anyone,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cOnly our members.\u201d<\/p>\n

Building a radio station<\/p>\n

Founded as a collective in 2023 after starting out as a late-night event series on the heels of the pandemic, program.audio now has its own print magazine, \u201csoulseek,\u201d and throws parties all over the city, from the wine bar Arcana to 1015 Folsom, as well as warehouses in the East Bay. Javier cites his early influences from his upbringing in San Jose, where his mother\u2019s taste oscillated between early house music and No Doubt. He played the saxophone for eight years while delving into electronic music and new wave.<\/p>\n

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\"Discnogirl<\/p>\n

Discnogirl DJs on Haight Street inside a long defunct\u00a0Fotomat booth, as seen on Friday, March 27, 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Charles Russo\/SFGATE<\/p>\n

\u201cI was obsessed with Talking Heads and all these weird, freaky, fun, goofy sounds as a kid, and then you just go dig more and more from there,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Martinez, who was born in San Rafael, said her taste also evolved out of her parents\u2019 background in music: Her dad was a b-boy and still plays in a Latin jazz band, and her mom loved clubbing and listening to Madonna. When she got into electronic music and started DJing, melding deconstructed Latin club music with pop vocals came naturally to her.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Javier and Martinez met one night in 2021 at the Make Out Room. They dated for a couple of years, ultimately continuing their relationship as creative collaborators, and program.audio was born. Javier\u00a0helmed the visual side of the project while Martinez covered outreach and social media, finding a fast following on TikTok<\/a>, where her videos have gone viral, amassing millions of views.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cA lot of the initial engagement was combating the idea that SF is dead,\u201d Javier said.<\/p>\n

Martinez added that while more content creators use TikTok to promote nightlife today, she thinks that wasn\u2019t really the case when she started out a few years ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think for the reason of [people saying] like, \u2018Oh I don\u2019t want to be a TikTok DJ,\u2019 but I was definitely using it more to just educate people on the fact that San Francisco does have nightlife,\u201d she said. \u201cYou\u2019re not going to find it in the Marina.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018A third space for the community\u2019<\/p>\n

Program.audio\u2019s name stems from the song<\/a> by the \u201960s electronic duo Silver Apples, who are considered pioneers in the genre for their early use of a self-constructed synthesizer. Javier, who has long been fascinated by the Summer of Love, which inspired him to move into his apartment in the Haight, said the track feels symbolic, \u201cbridging the gap\u201d between electronic music and the psychedelic rock scene the neighborhood is known for.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn the \u201990s, there was a Second Summer of Love happening in the U.K. that was more about raving,\u201d he said. \u201cBut a big pinnacle of raving was in San Francisco, which people don\u2019t talk about leading into Burning Man<\/a>. So I just love forgotten history and tying those things together.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Martinez said another point of inspiration for the station came from The Lot Radio<\/a> in New York City, a popular radio booth converted out of an old shipping container in Brooklyn, as well as Kiosk Radio<\/a> in Belgium, which operates under a similar model.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou show up, you don\u2019t have to pay anything, DJs are playing,\u201d she said. \u201cWe wanted something that could be a third space for the community in that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Arthur<\/p>\n

Arthur Javier works on his laptop at the Fotomat booth-turned-radio station in the Haight.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Charles Russo\/SFGATE\"Buck<\/p>\n

Buck Wilson DJs on Haight Street inside a long defunct Fotomat booth, as seen on Friday, March 27, 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Charles Russo\/SFGATE<\/p>\n

Program.audio plans to have DJs play every Friday and Saturday from 4 to 8 p.m. When Javier and Martinez recently put out a call for residencies to fill out their programming schedule, they were flooded with over 200 applications. Many of them were from artists based in San Francisco, but others came from all over: Los Angeles, Atlanta, Miami, Chicago and even from a couple of DJs in Asia who wanted to stop by during a visit to the city next fall.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing is, we weren\u2019t surprised,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cWe knew that people wanted this.”<\/p>\n

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Drawing crowds<\/p>\n

The process of getting the idea off the ground and starting an artist-owned space hasn\u2019t been easy. Javier and Martinez were previously working toward opening up another club in the city, but red tape and lengthy permitting processes felt insurmountable.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hear all the time that the city needs more nightlife, but without making it easier for artists or small businesses to actually contribute to it,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cThen we\u2019re noticing that the government and bigger corporations are partnering to put on these nightlife experiences, which is great, because people who don\u2019t necessarily listen to electronic music are getting introduced to it. But they\u2019re not investing in the locals that have actually built the scene here, so this is really important to us.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A pedestrian stops to photograph the Fotomat-turned-radio station on Haight Street, while Tom Marsi and Discnogirl DJ on Friday, March 27, 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Charles Russo\/SFGATE\"The<\/p>\n

The radio station is bringing new life to a quiet corner of Haight Street.<\/p>\n

Mireya Acierto\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

As she spoke, standing outside the booth with her dog, Animal \u2014 named for the cult favorite\u00a0In-N-Out fries \u2014 someone walked up, asking if they could pet him. After introducing themself as a neighbor living a couple of blocks away, they expressed how excited they were that the little booth was being used before wishing Martinez and Javier luck and heading on their way.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cThat happens all the time,\u201d Martinez said with a laugh.<\/p>\n

Over the past couple of weeks, they\u2019ve gotten their fair share of curious pedestrians who want to take a peek inside. Some said they used to work at\u00a0Fotomat; others\u00a0just wanted to know how the space was being repurposed as Javier painted it in a new shade of aluminum silver. He said a few people have lamented the loss of the booth\u2019s mushroom paint job \u2014 including an A24 film crew that was recently shooting at Amoeba Music<\/a> and wanted to use it in the backdrop of a shot for its counterculture-adjacent imagery, despite the paint job only dating back about a decade.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut people who have lived in the Haight for years come up and tell us they\u2019re excited,\u201d Javier said. \u201cThey see the neighborhood like I do, which is a place that lets the youth bring in new cultures and movements. The mushroom isn\u2019t the Haight. The Haight is what we\u2019re doing, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n

The soft opening for program.audio launched on a Saturday afternoon, drawing about 300 listeners over the course of six hours. Groups of people trickled in and out, leaving to grab dinner and coming back to dance. Passing double-decker buses that once ignored the kiosk altogether now stopped to let tourists out so they could listen to the music.<\/p>\n

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\"Tourists<\/p>\n

Tourists drive past the old Fotomat kiosk on Haight Street in San Francisco, on Wenesday, Jan. 28, 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Charles Russo\/SFGATE\"Arthur<\/p>\n

Arthur Javier and Erika Martinez (and her dog Animal) are pictured in the doorway of the former\u00a0Fotomat booth that they are turning into a streaming radio station in San Francisco\u2019s Upper Haight neighborhood.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Charles Russo\/SFGATE<\/p>\n

The beauty of it for Martinez is the reciprocal relationship between the DJs, who get exposed to new listeners, and the crowd, which doesn\u2019t have to pay a cover charge or be over 21 to get in. \u201cYou can just pull up here and hang out with a La\u00a0Croix or something,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Javier and Martinez share high hopes for future gigs, especially with the Haight Ashbury flea market<\/a> taking over the nearby parking lot every\u00a0Thursday through Sunday until September. Their label’s latest compilation, a surprise Bandcamp release, serves as a fundraiser for the National Immigrant Justice Center and features tracks from Oakland-based producer and DJ Linda Lo and Los Angeles’ Avi Loud.\u00a0They could see a collaboration with Amoeba on the horizon and hope to invite some of their favorite artists, including the \u201990s electronic duo Underworld, to stop in.\u00a0In the meantime, they\u2019re still troubleshooting the livestream component of their setup and focusing on other things, like making sure the electricity still works, while DJing themselves for hours on end.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe have literally spent every waking hour here for the last two weeks,\u201d Martinez said, adding that she screen prints T-shirts out of Javier’s nearby apartment.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

On my visit, a man drove up next to the booth, stepping out of his car to scrutinize his parking job. He looked over at Javier and Martinez. \u201cIt\u2019s safe here, right?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

Javier told him that as long as he fed the meter, he was good to go. The man thanked him and headed into a nearby restaurant.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe are becoming a little bit of an information booth,\u201d Javier said with a grin. \u201cWe wear a lot of different hats.\u201d<\/p>\n