Re: Station programming
 

Wasn't SAM set up to do this (play random new additions to the moon, nothing "old") at some point in the past? I'm having vague recollections ...

Re: Station programming
 

Interesting thread. I'm certainly willing to help more to solidify AM programming when I can. I had several ideas to take AM to the next level that I mentioned early this year. None have been implemented as of yet, which is fine. But if AM ever wants to expand in certain directions, I'm all for 'fighting the good fight'.

Re: new moon additions. Good idea, but RF Wednesday has both a Fusion Reactor and Interzone replay, correct? Perhaps another day with less programming would be ideal.



I was a little surprised by this quote. I'm not offended by this comment, but I must say that calling Interzone a "glorified playlist" really is a demoralizing comment to read (not to mention inaccurate) coming from someone involved in keeping the radio station operational.

One could say Aural Moon is fortunate to broadcast Gags every week, as he puts on a great show from an FM outlet. But you really can't compare his show to the others on AM, nor expect any of those people to live up to the standards of a weekly FM radio broadcast. I could go into several reasons why, but no need to bore everyone. :)




I completely agree. Nice to have you back, btw.


- Cozy

Re: Station programming
 

I like your show. I'm always amazed that you can find the music you play for a particular country. The "Greenland" prog I mentioned in an earlier post was a joke... but somehow, I'd bet you could probably find 2 hours worth of "glacier prog"! :D

Some moonies have complained about Tom speaking too much during his show. You say people are complaining about your voice; I don't know anything about that. My playlist comment was directly about the people complaining that Tom's show has too much talk and not enough music. Most of AM's shows play a list of songs, yours Sean included, with a minimal bit of commentary. On the otherhand, I know Tom has had artist interviews which exceed 1/2 hour in length. He also has public service announcements and South Jersey history. Gagliarchives is broadcast on a college radio station and the FCC requires such stations to provide certain level of public service announcement. It's also transmitted in the South Jersey area; hence, the South Jersey history tidbits. If that bothers AM listeners, they are not forced to listen... go spin up a CD.

Re: Station programming
 

Maybe, but I must say you did a poor job of relaying that. Trust me that is not how it read.

Here is your quote:

"He presents interviews, noteworth information, in station (or virtual in station) live performances and, after 15 years of doing so, has a very polished professional show. AM's other time slots here are really glorified playlists in comparison. No offense intended."

No offense was taken, but you must realize that after you say "polished professional" then say "other time slots" you are painting a brush over every other show, and it's not the most complimentary light. I must say though Cozy had some fun with it on his show...but please reference why you write that first, and we all won't get the wrong idea next time.

By the way, Cozy's show has a lot of commentary. He catches grief for his opinions too - someone said "he doesn't like anything"! We had fun with that one also.

If I could, while I'm here, please let me ask you about this quote:

"It's because I love the music that I donated the server and the bandwidth. I believed that it might offset Jim's costs and that others might have felt compelled to be altruistic as well... Silly me."

I took this hopefully a different way than you intended it. Can you expand on this? Thanks.

Re: Station programming
 

Yeah and I just want to emphasize, my nose is not out of joint over anything you said, because:
1) Everyone has a right to their opinion, and I would respect yours regardless of whether I agreed with it.
2) I am more interested in working on any aspects of the show perceived as weak than worrying about who said what and why, so I am very open minded to any constructive criticism you or anyone else has.

There is definitely an absurd aspect to doing a six part series on Yugoslavia. Some people will say "Great", some "Oh please", and others might not even notice there is a show at all.

If I did not have a full-time job I might be able to track down an ex member of Spilverk Pjodanna or Ma Banlieue Flasque each week for an interview and I think it would be very interesting. I am totally serious! But realistically I can't do this. Tom's four hour show also involves at least another eight hours of prep throughout the week. Prep time is something I acknowledge having skimped on in the past when I get busy. I do most shows without a script now, where at the start I usually had more notes written down. But I think the way I was working at the start, I would have gotten to ten shows and quit, whereas this way I'm now at 102. I did a two-part article on Canadian prog history for Expose Magazine and the thought of repeating that task for multiple countries drains me.

Tom's got a great show. Amen.

Regards,
Sean

Re: Station programming
 

Tom's show and all the others are here to stay as far as I'm concerned!!!!

How about a few more????

Re: Station programming
 

No because I'm still awaiting for you to answer to the bombshell you dropped in my email over a week ago.

If it really bothers you, I can pull the plug on the web server.

Respectfully, VAX
.... who is now happy he has to only spend 1 day at SEfest!

Re: Station programming
 

May I intervene? I want everybody in the Aural Moon family to get along, at whatever level is comfortable. Being friendly is ideal, but tolerating each other is a minimum.

Everybody who contributes to the Moon is appreciated, and please read nothing into the order in which I address concerns.

Avian founded AM, and I would turn over operations to him on his request, at any time. I wouldn't be here without him. If you annoy him, you've annoyed me. That's outside the issues in this thread, but it's a fact.

Vax hosting the web page and providing the bandwidth is huge. I don't know what it costs him, but it saves me $60/month. The $300/month I mentioned in an earlier post is after that, however.

As far as shows go, I like all of them.

Sean's may be my favorite. His depth of knowledge, attention to detail, and systematic way (country by country) of addressing the prog scene works really well for me. I like your voice Sean, and appreciate the fact that you actually pronounce French correctly. (Je parle un peu.)

Rick's show is probably the most popular. That may be due to the incredible amount of posting he does, but that doesn't change the fact that people like it. I enjoy the fact that he often brings in music not on the moon.

Cozy's show is great. He's turned me on to a some great artists, and I think he strikes a good balance bewteen the "playlist" and "FM show" extremes.

I've always loved fusion, so I like Moses' show.

To be honest, the Gags was my least favorite show until I met Tom. Sitting with him at Nearfest, I got a good insight into how much passion and energy he puts into the show. I do wish we could edit out the commercials, but it's a fair price to pay.

If you have any concerns with your status/standing at AM, please e-mail me directly. If you have issues with someone else, also e-mail me directly. Otherwise, PLEASE "play nicely with others"

jb:vaxman:

Re: Station programming
 

Thank you Jim for the intervention.

I will do my part to make sure this doesn't happen again.

And apologies again to Magoo, to started a good thread. Let's hope we get some feedback to your inquiries.

Honestly, I'm embarrased this happened.

Re: Station programming
 

Whew, thanx Officer Jim! I've no idea how this keeps getting distorted.

So, to re-iterate & paraphrase:

1. I've no intention of asking for changes to request parameters; I threw out an idea that wandered in from the evil side, my apologies.
2. ditto for shows.
3. over requests & lack of diversity has morphed into focusing on new music; suggestions are:
   1. featuring music additions more prominently, how?
   2. reserving time for new music, when?
4. enhancing user participation:
   1. I'll take on compiling & getting FAQ's posted, including the SAM rules.
   2. more streams; requires more $, see below.
   3. stuff that engages users is good; live DJ's, theme'd Thursday, collective shows; comments or other ideas?
   4. I'd like to add playing nice in the black box & forums; I think some of the recent arrivals are a bit daunted by our family quarrels.
5. finances; Jim & Vax are currently donating ~$4.3K/yr; how do we get that back, and more for expansion?
   1. Rick&Roll has volunteered an 'audit' followed by ideas.
   2. PSA's, pledge drives, goodies, collective shows; comments or other ideas?
6. Cozy posted ideas before; I've asked him to re-post herein.

Please play nice & focus on pro-active solutions...

PS: welcome back Sean, and thanx!

Re: Station programming
 

Re: Station programming
 

First, let me say I'm VERY grateful for all the work and funds that those who are responsible for the Moon put in. FWIW I just re-upped :), sorry if I'm late.

I hope you guys can work out any differences you have, I'd hate to see AM go under due to conflicts amongst the contributors, it's too good for that IMHO...

Having said that, I can certainly understand how some folks might feel under-appreciated, and if I have contributed to those kinds of feelings in any way (it's possible, I've said some negative things a couple times in the shoutbox), I apologize if I made any comments that made anybody feel as though they weren't appreciated for their contributions.

Overall IMHO, AM is the best internet stream for interesting music (except maybe for classical & jazz, sorry, I guess I need to qualify that, but AM is prog after all ;)), I've heard SO MUCH music on AM that I've not heard elsewhere that it frankly makes me wonder how you guys do it and I am truly grateful for it.

I like some shows better than others, and although I think it is important to listen to people's comments, those who are willing to create a show shouldn't take it personally (if possible). Opinions are like assholes, everybody's got one and most of them stink in one way or another (mine included). In other words, don't take any criticism too seriously. If that sounds like captain obvious pontificating, sorry, but the point is if you are willing to put together a show and AM airs it, then it was worth doing and I for one am grateful for it, even if I don't like it. My personal opinions of any particular thing I hear on AM don't really matter all that much, the point is to keep the music flowing. If there's some huge listener uprising against something, then OK, maybe a change is necessary, but from what I've heard you guys are doing great, keep it up! Thanks!

Anyway, that's my $0.02.

Re: Station programming
 

The real question is how the artists do it. All we do is play it. Being an artist yourself, it's probably second nature. But I never fail to be awed by the performance of an artist.