My Webcast Turns 6 Years Old Today!

It's hard to believe, but today is the sixth anniversary of my streaming station, now known as WJJD. Here's the history...

Back in 2001, I was getting ready to launch an Internet radio station. I surfed into Live365.com while searching for providers, liked what I saw, and created an account on June 20. I spent the next couple of weeks getting things ready, deciding on my playlist, and getting a decent Internet connection.

On July 10, Delta Star Radio signed on with a contemporary Christian music format. I still had
technical bugs, and so had to feed CDs into the CD player on the computer one-by-one. Whew..

Ultimately I got the studio working and ran off of 5-disc CD changers. I added some parts and got other elements to work, such as doing totally live shows from home. It ran with the CCM format for three years.

Then, it seemed to me that the numbers were abysmal. Days of "0" hits bugged me. Was this thing even worth doing anymore?

I began mixing country with the CCM. The numbers began to improve. Then, as I added classic country into the mix, the numbers got even better. I ran with the God-and-country mix until 2005, when I renamed the stream after Chicago's country WJJD.

That move garnered the station listeners from all across the U.S. and from more than 26 countries. The country/classic country/ mixed with some Southern Gospel format continues today.

Of course, the future of Internet radio as we know it now faces an uncertain future. I hope we are able to continue WJJD for a long time to come. Time will tell, I suppose.