We're back to the "real" stream after extensive and educational troubleshooting. Fingers crossed!
Sure seems like TwangCity has been hanging on by a fingernail this year. Legal challenges, financial challenges, hackers, technical issues. And, more daunting, personal bandwidth challenges.
It sounds so easy . . . start your own online radio station, play the music you love. Add more music all the time. Share it with other folks who might have similar tastes. Promote it.
Not that easy.
But this is really important to me. Radio has been very important to me since I was a little kid. I don't get to do live on-the-air radio anymore, I "manage digital initiatives" for radio companies instead. Whatever that means. Looks good on a resume, I guess, pays OK, and I'm damned good at it.
But TwangCity is the only way I have to scratch that radio itch.
Funny thing I've learned, though. For me, the itch is not about performing. I spent 25+ years as a morning DJ, telling jokes and waking folks up with banter. I don't miss that much. Usually. But I miss playing great records, talking to listeners, blasting the monitors while I smoke a number, digging through the library for another great tune, meeting musicians, previewing new releases, tormenting the management.
I miss the smell of radio stations. Old studios share a distinctive smell. Probably the asbestos in the wall tiles, the spilled coffee behind the board, the cat living under the rack with her kittens, the overnight guy's stale smoke. Smells like radio. At the top of the page, a photo of the station where I got my first fulltime radio job. For trivia buffs, that station is now KIGS, Hanford, originally KNGS, and the inspiration for a Journey album cover.
Terrestrial radio isn't like that any more. Hasn't been for a while. Won't be again.
And TwangCity? It's a bunch of computers hooked up across the Internet. Our studio is my home office, and smells like woodsmoke a little, but nothing like a radio station.
But sometimes it FEELS like radio. And I love the music. That's why I do this. Thanks for your support, and thanks for listening.
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