Friday, January 9, 2015

Why Only A Seasonal Stream?

Hello everyone. I've decided to write up a blog entry on a detailed reason of why Old Time Radio USA 24/7 stream is only seasonal. 

Old Time Radio USA, just recently (last year actually), went to a 365 day a year station when normally it's not. The station would always return Thanksgiving eve night and end just after the new year. The reason for that is, it takes a lot of time, and resources to maintain a 365 day a year old time radio show station. When I first started Old Time Radio USA back in 1999 (under the name WOTR Indianapolis), it was a 365 day a year station, but with the advent of broadband internet back in those days, internet radio stations of all kinds exploded on the scene. Old time radio show stations were no exception. Nowadays, most are ran by retired individuals with plenty of time or individuals that run it as a source of income. Or, it's a station that has multiple individuals that do different functions. One might be in charge of programming while another person is in charge of the social media aspect of it, while another is in charge of the website and so on and so on. But for me... I'm a one man show. I'm in charge of the website, the social media accounts, the programming, tech support, webmaster, etc. I'm everything. One person running the whole show so to speak. 

I'm not retired or use this as a source of income. Nor do I have any other assistance with this station. I have a full time job that takes priority obviously but I run Old Time Radio USA as a hobby for the love of old time radio and the love of trying to get it out to as many people as possible. So when internet stations exploded on the scene in the early 2000's, I was unable to compete with them at the time, so I scaled back my station to just seasonal starting around the Christmas time frame with Christmas radio shows. It then expanded from there starting around Thanksgiving to just after the new year and then expanding even further to the end of January. Starting last year, I decided to keep the station on the air all the time broadcasting big band music, otr clips, etc. 

While resources are no longer an issue, time is. I mean if I really tried, I could pull off a 365 old time radio show station. But over the years, faithful listeners to this station have come to accept, appreciate, expect and look forward to the seasonal return. I've been doing this seasonal thing for so long, I, along with others, now associate the seasonal stream with the holidays. When Thanksgiving is right around the corner, so is Old Time Radio USA 24/7. It is now officially part of the listener's holiday season that shouldn't be altered. So instead of taking the station off the air completely which would include internet addresses that's linked to TuneIn.com and iTunes Radio, the station is kept on the air 365 days a year with big band music mostly in the off-season, with nightly radio shows, keeping it on the air for 24/7 to return. 

I hope that helps explains why only a seasonal stream of 24/7 old time radio shows. In summary, it is mostly a time constraint along with it being a tradition to return.

Cheers everyone!

-B








No comments:

Post a Comment