Station programming

[progdirjim(Admin)]

OK, a few ground rules.

We will not remove the ability to request music on Aural Moon.

All current shows are staying on Aural Moon as long as the hosts want to do them.

Marketing is great, but we are not lacking for listeners. We are lacking for money. I am dropping close to $300 a month into the streams. Patron donations offset part of that, but trust me, it costs me a lot. (The more patrons we get, the more we have to pay for the 128K stream. I can explain the cost structure offline.) If we can figure out a way to parlay more listeners into more revenue, that's great. I am OK with subsidising much of the cost, but adding to the costs becomes harder for me to justify personally.

We can also discuss shows offline. I can offer a justification for each of our shows. I just wish we had more streams available, to give people choices. We have way too much music that doesn't get played as it is. The main reason I got involved with AM in the first place was to hear new (to me) music, and I want that to continue to be one of the focuses of AM.

[VAXman(Admin)]

Originally Posted by progdirjim

OK, a few ground rules.

We will not remove the ability to request music on Aural Moon.

Originally Posted by progdirjim

Marketing is great, but we are not lacking for listeners. We are lacking for money. I am dropping close to $300 a month into the streams. Patron donations offset part of that, but trust me, it costs me a lot. (The more patrons we get, the more we have to pay for the 128K stream. I can explain the cost structure offline.) If we can figure out a way to parlay more listeners into more revenue, that's great. I am OK with subsidising much of the cost, but adding to the costs becomes harder for me to justify personally.

Send more money moonies!!!

[Rick and Roll]

Originally Posted by progdirjim

I am OK with subsidising much of the cost, but adding to the costs becomes harder for me to justify personally.

We have way too much music that doesn't get played as it is. The main reason I got involved with AM in the first place was to hear new (to me) music, and I want that to continue to be one of the focuses of AM.

At some point, send me a summary sheet of costs/amounts for Aural Moon (a while ago I think you mentioned maybe having me look at that). I can take a look at it sometime in October and come back to you with some ideas.

Totally agree on the new music (and new to the listener, just as important, great point). To add to that, hearing music you haven't heard for a awhile is a big part of how I select music for the show. I really enjoy hearing someone say "I haven't heard that in ages"....

[the_original_ib]

Originally Posted by progdirjim

We can also discuss shows offline. I can offer a justification for each of our shows. I just wish we had more streams available, to give people choices. We have way too much music that doesn't get played as it is. The main reason I got involved with AM in the first place was to hear new (to me) music, and I want that to continue to be one of the focuses of AM.

I am certainly happy to discuss my show with anyone anytime they like. Obviously there are some things that can't be helped; the focus is what it is, and there was some guy who posted once who hates my voice/style who's basically SOL. But other than that, constructive criticism can only improve things.

Regards,
Sean

[Cozy]

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.

Originally Posted by VAXman

FAQ:
Gagliarchives is a radio show. 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.

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.

Originally Posted by the_original_ib

I am certainly happy to discuss my show with anyone anytime they like. Obviously there are some things that can't be helped; the focus is what it is, and there was some guy who posted once who hates my voice/style who's basically SOL. But other than that, constructive criticism can only improve things.

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


- Cozy

[VAXman(Admin)]

Originally Posted by the_original_ib

I am certainly happy to discuss my show with anyone anytime they like. Obviously there are some things that can't be helped; the focus is what it is, and there was some guy who posted once who hates my voice/style who's basically SOL. But other than that, constructive criticism can only improve things.

Regards,
Sean

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"!

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.

[Rick and Roll]

Originally Posted by VAXman

My playlist comment was directly about the people complaining that Tom's show has too much talk and not enough music.

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.

[VAXman(Admin)]

Originally Posted by Rick and Roll

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.

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!

[progdirjim(Admin)]

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

[Rick and Roll]

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.

[the_original_ib]

Originally Posted by VAXman

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"!

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.

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.

If that bothers AM listeners, they are not forced to listen... go spin up a CD.

Tom's got a great show. Amen.

Regards,
Sean

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

How about a few more????