At approximately 4:30pm yesterday afternoon, Edgewater Gold Radio along with hundreds of other internet stations went off the air. It wasn't anything wrong with our system but once the signal leaves the studio, it's subject to many processes that are beyond an internet radio owners control. Our encoded signal leaves my computer and goes directly to Live 365, our service provider where it's distributed to many servers in different locations. If something goes wrong with any of these servers, a service disruption can occur which is beyond the station owners control. The only thing an operator can do is closely monitor the situation and inform our listeners of the status of the issue and when i

The classic rock opera Tommy is returning to Broadway. Here's the story for RTT Music News. The Who's Tommy" producers Hal Luftig and Patrick Catullo have announced that the iconic rock musical will return to Broadway in 2021. Speaking about the new story line, director Des McAnuff said, "[Tommy] becomes lost in the universe as he stares endlessly and obsessively into the mirror at his own image. This gives our story a powerful resonance today as it seems like the whole world is staring into the black mirror. The story of Tommy exists all too comfortably in the 21st century." "Tommy combines myth and spectacle in a way that truly soars. The key question with any musical is 'Does the story si

Chicago was one of my favorite bands during my college days and even today. I'm glad to hear that they are still going strong and doing an 8 day Las Vegas residency. Here's the story from RTT Music News. Chicago have announced plans for a new eight-show Las Vegas residency at The Venetian Theatre next year. The band plans to perform at the venue from February 28 through March 14. Tickets for the new Vegas shows will go on sale to the general public on Friday, October 25, at 10 am PT. On October 11, Chicago released a new holiday album, called Chicago Christmas, on CD, digitally and via streaming services. Chicago is an American rock band formed in 1967 in Chicago, Illinois. They have recorde

Music and memories go hand in hand. Most memories can be associated with a certain song or songs. When I hear the song Wedding Bell Blues by the Fifth Dimension I associate with the death of my Grandfather in September 1969. We were driving to the airport to pick up my Aunt who lived in Kansas City, Missouri . She was coming to attend the funeral. As we were driving, this song was playing on the radio. It was high on the charts at the time and I always associated it with my Grandfather who just passed. I do like the song and the memories are good ones of family getting together on a sad occasion. I associate Beautiful Sunday by Daniel Boone, with driving to Rhode Island with a bunch of frie

When I see a young student singing a Beatles tune, first I become baffled. I always stop to ask how they know of The Beatles. Almost all of the time, they tell me "dad or mom likes them and I hear their songs all the time." or my Grandmother or Grandfather likes them." Now there will be a new Beatles singles box set released. Here's the latest from RTT Music News. Music legends The Beatles have announced a newly remastered reissue of 46 of their most widely beloved singles. Titled The Singles Collection, the box set features such classics as "Love Me Do"/"P.S. I Love You" and "Let It Be"/"You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)" and is due out on November 22. The limited-edition set will conta

If you make the commitment to start an internet radio station, it will only be worth you while if you plan carefully and commit to the time necessary to run the station efficiently. Otherwise, I wouldn't bother. There are so many radio stations both internet and terrestrial that really don't serve their purpose at all. The operators remain complacent after the station is on the air. First of all, determine who your audience will be and stick to it. Develop programming that serves the needs of that audience whether it be music or talk. Always stick to the plan. Once the station is on the air, always look for ways to improve. Keep your programming fresh. Offer new features every now and then.

If you have the passion and the persistence, then just keep going. That's my advice to the operators of internet radio stations. I first started Edgewater Gold Radio back on 2002 when myself and many others didn't even know what we were getting into. The audience began to grow but so did the problems. The biggest one was the increasing cost of royalty payments. I kept working with my provider, Live 365. Luckily I was to keep going with barely affordable payments for services and royalties. Another obstacle was getting the station to sound as professional as possible. In 2002, internet radio was in its infancy. I basically uploaded the music and radio elements to a cloud and created daily pla

Abbey Road is back on top for the first time in 49 years! Here's the story from RTT Music News. The Beatles' Abbey Road has returned to the top 10 of the Billboard 200 chart for the first time since 1970, spiking from No. 71 to No. 3. The album, which was reissued on September 27 to mark its 50th anniversary, logged 81,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending October 3, soaring 803% from a week earlier. 70,000 of that sum came in album sales, a rise of a whopping 3,091% from the previous week. Abbey Road was first released on September 26, 1969. It spent 11 non-consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in late 1969 and early 1970. The album first reached the top of th

I always tell myself to limit social media to just a few minutes per day. Sometimes, it's difficult to do given the political climate in this country. As most of you know, I'm very passionate about radio. LPFM (Low Power FM) is a social media board that I sometimes follow. The board is run by an administrator that's passionate about LPFM but seems not to like any opinion that doesn't coincide with her line of thinking. It's seems that all she does is spew out rules and regulations without considering that other ideas may make sense. This really frustrates me. With that said, currently in order to start a LPFM radio station, there's lots of red tape and in my opinion some very counterproducti

Maintenance to servers is a necessary function but sometimes this maintenance and cause a service disruption. Live 365 our service provider performs maintenance on the servers periodically. Internet radio stations using Live 365 are always notified on a timely basis. Last night maintenance on the servers for Edgewater Gold Radio was performed by Live 365 at 5am eastern time. This morning, I noticed an unusually low listener count and my stream was cutting off several times. Things seem to have stabilized now. Internet programmers that use a service such as Live 365 must realize that from time to time, necessary maintenance must be performed and streams will be interrupted. Fortunately this m

In today's radio world, we push a button and out pops the next day's playlist. The computer algorithm chooses the music according to what we have programmed and generates the list for each day. I recently added a three hour night time show called "Nightmemories." It's a soft blend of oldies and standards. I programmed my rotation for the show and built in the elements but after I generated the first show, I was disappointed at the results. It wasn't quite the sound that I was looking for. The show is unique in that I'm looking for a certain flow and certain lyrics. The show is unwinding and romantic. What I've decided to do is let the computer generate the playlist then I personally add and

So many times we listen to the thousands and thousands of internet and local radio stations, we like what we hear but we don't know the name the station we're listening to or really what it does. Chances are we will move on and never hear that station again.Why? because there is little if any imaging. Imaging is the key that tells listeners who you are and what you do. There are so many stations who play song after song and never identify themselves. I was always told by former Program Director, "When a DJ or programmer gets bored of hearing something over and over on the station they work for, that's when the audience starts to remember it." What this means is you the programmer may think