Broadcasting Live.."Loud and Proud"..to the Neighborhood!

Today I did my first three-hour live radio show on Musicbox 1610.

And..I was as happy as a kid on Christmas.

Despite the fact that my 100-milliwatt pea-shooter has a limited range, I've already begun receiving some reception reports.

So far, we've been picked up at:

Gainous Landscaping, 5460 Apalachee Parkway (1.64)

Nino's Restaurant, 6497 Apalachee Parkway (2.24 miles)

Twin Lakes Subdivision (covers it)

Sam's Club on Dick Wilson Blvd. (2.2 miles)

Murphy Oil, 3501 Apalachee Parkway (0.9 mile)

State Employees Credit Union, 2770 Capital Circle, SE (1.15 miles)

Leon County Tax Collector's Office, 1210 Capital Circle, SE (1.7 miles)

Advanced Auto Parts, 3406 Apalachee Parkway (1.06 miles)

Adkins Forest Lane (1.8 miles)

(Distances are from transmitter site to the received location)


I don't know who may have heard the show this afternoon..but I had fun doing it, and that was the point of building the station in the first place. I'm finding it nice to actually turn on the
radio during the day and be able to listen.

Excitement of the Week: Alan Falls Off A Ladder

I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later with the climbing I've been doing lately.

And I wasn't even working on the radio station OR its tower, OR the Rangemaster.

I was trimming limbs. At least I was trimming limbs for a short while.

Then..

...the old ladder buckled. I flew off of it and kind of..well, hugged a tree somehow during the process. I've got scrapes on BOTH arms. My arms don't feel so good right now.

But nothing's broken. Thankfully.

That was around 2:00 this afternoon. During a time when there's not much of anyone around.

I already promised Marianne I'd never climb the tower/pole when she's not here. I never really
worried about a stepladder disaster.

But, like I said, I'm in one piece. Just a kind of scraped-up piece.

Musicbox 1610 Signs On..

I am pleased to report that after some initial stalls, burps and tweaks, Musicbox 1610 has,
indeed, made it on the air in September.

The first night I got on the air was September 13. Didn't get an audio signal through to just before dark. But..the signal and audio were there and sounded pretty good for a Rangemaster system mounted barely 2 feet off the ground.

This past weekend, our friend Robert came out and helped me with some of the "tower" work.
The Rangemaster is mounted at the very top of a telephone pole, and with the 102" whip, I'm
estimating that our antenna is roughly 24 feet high.

Just getting the Rangemaster higher more than doubled the coverage. Then we added the ground line and added 3 25 foot copper radials that point east, a little northwest, and one to the west. I didn't try to tackle the underbrush on the south side of the pole!

The radials added about a 5% increase in coverage. We also did some other tweaking, and I believe I'll probably need to do a final fine-tune on the unit..but Sunday the signal went from Capital Circle N.E. to Nino's Restaurant on the Parkway..about 3 miles.

Trying to add a ground to the greenhouse frame, didn't help at all, and, in fact made things worse. We lost the signal out at the Parkway. Came back, took the greenhouse loop out and got the coverage back.

For 100 milliwatts (one-tenth of a watt) I think we are doing OK.

The format seems quite listenable and I've enjoyed actually turning on a radio for the first time in years.

I had a litle technical trouble Monday morning..but today even in the pre-dawn hours there was a signal there up to Mom and Dad's. I'll be interested when someone with a car and radio can help me discover some other reception points..if there are any.

I'm delighted to be on the air locally again..for the first time in over 2 years.

Finding A Place in the Copywriting/Marketing World

It seems like it has taken me some time to find my groove in the copywriting/marketing world.

I think my problem has been that I don't have the same passion for copywriting that I do for..oh, radio, for example. I mean, seriously! It took me hours and hours to get things ready for
the upcoming launch of Musicbox 1610. That station will never, ever be a gold mine. It's a
Part 15 station, after all.

But that itch had to be scratched.

Today I mailed off the final paperwork for what looks to be a three-year gig. Although I
have been presenting myself as a copywriter, this company needs someone to do classified
and print advertising, direct mail, brochures, possibly website ads..it's more like being a
one-man advertising agency than a copywriter.

And, I realized..that's what I LIKED MOST about this particular venture. It will be challenging.
It will take work and dedication. It will require a learning curve of sorts.

The potential pay is quite good. It excites me. It is not get-rich-quick. But with three years, I have time to grow with the company. Make mistakes. Try again and grow some more..while still getting paid.

..while still not being an EMPLOYEE of the company itself.

This comes at a time when I also just received information about fellow copywriter Donna Doyle's new Desktop Marketing course. Basically, this course lays out the details of being a one-stop shop for marketing for small businesses. It talks about the benefits of doing the writing, graphic design, and such..providing multiple services for clients.

Although I've been not taking any courses since the catalog copywriting one, I may spring for this one..just having the templates for some of the services might be worth the price.

As of today, I have a whopping three clients/projects. One involves only writing. The other two..
go back to the desktop marketing idea. The many-jobs-rolled into-one ad agency-type projects.

And I really have discovered that those are the ones I like best of all.

Musicbox 1610 Update

I fired up the Rangemaster for testing purposes last night.

Nothing is being broadcast yet. I'm still stringing cable, figuring out the final temporary antenna installation and finalizing the programming.

The only thing that gave me trouble was matching the audio into the studio/transmitter interface.
It didn't seem to want to work correctly.

But, I'm confident I can rig up something..I hope to go on the air on or about September 17.

I'll keep you updated.

In the meantime, a few sponsors are coming on board..check out the station's website for details.