Building the "Ultimate" Country Music Station!!

I haven't had much time to post lately, so I thought I'd give you a heads-up on what I'm
working on behind the scenes.

The internet royalty rates have kicked in, which means that all webcasters are now paying more
just to be allowed to broadcast. In my case, it meant paying almost $48 a month for a stream that is considered a "personal," or hobbyist, stream. That basically means that I'm not allowed to sell any ads in it. The provider, however, can - and they do. Roughly every 12 minutes at this point.

I've decided to take what I think is a good product - classic country - and upgrade it to something that will ultimately sound better.

I'm in the process of building the "ultimate" country music station.

Following the previous blog post regarding "lost" songs - I was able to locate a number of songs on that list. One gentleman mailed me a collection of his country music from his radio days. He
did send them on mp3s..I believe there were something like 819 songs in that collection alone.
When added to the collection I originally had, which was increased greatly a few years ago when my friend Erwin O'Conner brought me some country albums - well, I've got no excuse for dead air, do I?

I grew up listening to country music on 1330 AM, which back in the old days, was WMEN. That
was the station of choice for most of my childhood, until WOMA-FM 94.9 came along (which led to the demise of WMEN's country era.) But 1330 played songs that I remember, that I never, ever heard again - until the past few weeks. And I've been LOVING it!

Matter of fact, I received songs I didn't know before - and I'm enjoying them.

This week I have spent hours upon hours producing the mp3 files into CD form so that I can use them during live programs. Of course, the mp3 files will be the default playlist, the one the station plays from when I'm not manually in there doing a live program.

How many songs are there, you ask? I don't know. Out of the cds I've produced this week, there is something like 1500-ish titles spread over about 75 discs. Then I have the 54-disc set I produced earlier; two rooms of vinyl LPs and 45s; the new mp3 collection..I'm not planning to count how many songs there are. Way more than most country stations now will ever play.

My plan is to get the bitrate up..moving from the tin-can sound of 8kbps to something in the FM quality range, like 32k or 56k. I'm also going to come out of "basic' mode broadcasting, except when I need to be in the studio for production or some other programming.

Ultimately, the stream will move to "professional," meaning that all of the ads are placed by me or others helping with the station.

Another move will be the streaming of the MUSIC OF NEW LIFE classic Christian music program, which is syndicated now - but is not streamed. It will stream in real time on Sunday mornings. the same time it airs now.

So, the finished product will be: A renovated Internet stream broadcasting at a higher quality
bitrate with an increased playlist of great country music..all in LIVE mode, in real time. No
voicetracking. And even my old liners are going to be phased out, although the old WJJD jingles are staying.

I'm predicting that it will take me most of the summer to do everything necessary to unveil the new sound - but I'm betting that if you LIKE is now, you'll LOVE us after the changes. because the classic country music is staying right where it is.