New streaming radio station, programming thoughts

My desire to create a new radio station is still looming in the front of my mind. My biggest concern is programming. Wanting to keep the station on the air 24/7 makes programming paramount. In the past we had live DJ's playing tunes during the evening hours (eastern US time zone). If the station was on at other time it was just playing a big music play list. Programming of this type just doesn't keep listeners for a number of reasons. The first being, there are thousands of stations streaming doing the same basic thing. Secondly, the web offers many options to listen to music while you are at your computer. Many of these services allow the listener to tailor music played to their specific preferences.
Thus I am looking at a number of other programming options. The world of pod-casting has possibilities. There are thousands of pod-casts out there for download on about any topic you can think of. In most cases, people interested in listening to a particular pod-cast download it and listen to it either on their computer or portable device. Quite often you can subscribe to an automatic download of a pod cast. I am considering adding a twist to this concept. With the pod-casters permission, we would stream their pod-casts. It would be a twofold concept. We would have diverse programming while giving the pod-caster exposure to more listeners. the pod-casts would cover a wide range of topics and provide entertainment for most everyone. The daily schedule would be posted on the station web page. This service would be provided free to the pod-caster in exchange for a link to the station web page on their pod-cast page.
Do you pod-cast? Would you be interested in having your pod-cast aired on a streaming station? If so, leave a comment or email me at miiikeeeworld@gmail.com.

Why do i blog

Why do I blog? I've been asked this question enough to make me ponder on it. Many people blog on a specific topic or interest. My blog posts can head in most any direction. If I find something interesting I might blog about it to share with others. Quite often my posts are about a project I have in mind. Getting feedback from others expands my thoughts on the project and quite often determine if I go forward with it or not.
More than anything, blogging is my way of thinking out loud. Do you blog? If so, why? Post a link to your blog in the comments section. I would love to check it out.

Internet Radio

In the past I've really enjoyed streaming an internet radio station. About a year ago I took a break from it. My buddy Rick and I had been streaming for quite some time, but with minimal listeners it didn't appear it was worth the effort.

I have the urge to get back into it and I know Rick is ready for it. However this time around I want to try things a bit different. Rather than just start streaming and attempt to get listeners through our IRC chat room I want to do a much larger web campaign to get listeners. I'm considering several things that will generate revenue to help support a good advertising campaign including but not limited to the following:

1. Sell advertising. Offer 30 second or one minute spots for extremely low rates. These spots would be a good part of the advertising campaign of small "web" based businesses. ie: someone selling software, hardware, gadgets or online services.
2. Web page promotion. For a very small fee, advertise your web page to drive traffic to it.
3. Offer both of the above services at no charge in exchange for a link to the radio station page from your "active" web page or blog.
4. Package any of the above services with links to your web page or your advertising on the radio station web page.
5. Run advertising for your online business in exchange for a commision on sales generated through the advertising.
6. Relay your live radio program on our station.
7. Run your recorded programming or podcast at an extremely low rate.

Initially we will only be running a broadband audio stream. If there is enough interest we will add a lower bandwidth stream for those with a dial-up or other slow ISP's. The station will be on the air 24/7. We want to provide as much live programming as possible with replays of the previous days programming during non-live hours.

I am interested in hearing from anyone that is interested in any of the above services. The station will be run in a "free Radio" format.there will be no censoring of material although we will not allow programming that is racist or discriminatory. Feel free to leave your comments here on the blog or email me at miiikeeeworld@gmail.com.

Vortec IRC Chat

Being active in IRC chat, I always am looking at various IRC Chat Clients. I've been chatting since the infancy of IRC and have tried about every client that came along. Most of the time, I have reverted back to Pirch98 because of it's simplicity and realiability. My wife Meg is a die hard Pirch98 user so needless to say we have it on all of our computers. The main problem with Pirch98 is it hasn't been supported ot updated since 1998.
I recently discovered Vortec IRC. Vortec is freeware developed by John Kirkland. As is the usual case with projects of this type it has to be a labor of love for John as he devotes a lot of time to the project. Vortec isn't Pirch98. To quote the Vortec webpage, "Vortec IRC was developed as a response to a lack of Pirch updates. Vortec is not meant to be a replacement for Pirch, but rather a client which looks and behaves similarly in order to offer a logical choice to users who would like to try something new, but still maintain the same ease of use and flexibility which was characteristic of Pirch."
That is exactly what Vortec does and it does it well! I always have liked the way you could write an Alias in Pirch98. For those not familiar with what an alias is, it is a method of designating a short /command of a few letter or numbers to perform a command in IRC or provide strings of text without having to type out the text. The alias function in vortec works exactly as it does in Pirch98. That in itself earns an A+ from me. For those that like to utilize Popups in chat, the capability to get creative with them can be had in Vortec.
As with any software, Vortec has had it's share of bugs. There is a support forum on the vortec site and John is very responsive to getting the bugs fixed. Another A+ for Vortec.
Below is a screen shot of Vortec. The display, font and color options are nearly endless. Click on the image for a larger view.




Click here to get your copy of Vortec.
While Vortec is freeware, a small contribution to the program can be made via Paypal on the the site to help defray costs involved with making it available. Money well spent!

The Economy, Politics and Life in general.

I take a good dose of the daily news via television as well as the internet. While many things concern me and I will occasionally voice my opinion on them, I find myself assuming a more passive role as I age.Writing a member of Congress or posting on this blog or blogs of others expressing my views on a given topic gives me satisfaction. But, that satisfaction is short lived. After 61 years of life on this earth I've realized that I can get my opinions out to others but after it's all said and done my opinions don't change the world.
So how do I deal with the fact that my opinion has little if any value? I find great satisfaction in improving my life and lifestyle within the confines of things that I can't change. I approach the poor economy as a challenge to maintain or improve my lifestyle. As more laws and regulations come out that try to restrict the things I do or want to do I work at finding ways around them.
I view my world as a much smaller place than most people. I can be concerned about all of the problems of the world knowing that I can't do much (if anything) to change it. What I can change is things much closer to me. Finding things I can do to make things better for family and friends is my world. I find all of the challenges I need in this small world.

Web access via handheld devices?

I know this is the "in" thing among many people. I can't get myself into it! The concept of using the small screen and keyboard seem too awkward to my liking. Additionally since retiring I don't spend that much time out and about. If I am traveling I get by with my netbook and wireless access. Thats about as small as I can go. I'd love to have readers enlighten me in what can be gained by a handheld device. What would an Iphone or Blackberry bring to my life?