The Smartmuzik stint didn’t go quite well due to technical problems that are out of my reach. This country has set a lot of restrictions on the internet that some Icecast server hosting abroad are either blocked or set with limited connectivity depending on the ISP. So after some searching I was able to stumble upon Shoutca.st, one of the cheapest and reliable Icecast hosting companies on the net. They offer a free plan and I used it for testing and it worked like a charm, so I went ahead and upgraded to their premium package. So why did I do that? I wanted to start my own online radio station. Since I already have webserver for this blog and other experimental websites I created, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to set up one for an extra couple hundred baht a month even though the competition is quite difficult and diverse.
So after careful consideration, and because I’m a fucking cheapskate, I decided to get a free domain for this online radio from Freenom. So the domain I registered for it is RADIO101.ga. The “.ga” TLD (Top Level Domain) stands for the country of Gabon. So with a domain under that country’s TLD registered under Freenom, a Netherlands-based domain registrar, pointing to a web server in Thailand that is hosted by Orangewall, a company now based in India, with an audio streaming website content, from an Icecast server located in France that is hosted by Shoutca.st, a UK based company, I can now perhaps say that I may have started my first multinational company.
So anyhow, I now installed a wordpress CMS to run the site and added a few other scripts for a chatbox, community website features, and social login features. I uploaded over 4gb of music and set up an Auto DJ in place so it is now playing random songs with a Station call ID every after two songs. I’m still going to figure out how to add more variety to the programming and probably have some free podcasts aired as well as soon as I have enough time to do it. Then later on will try inviting some interested people to DJ. Looking at the stats, there has been a few visitors but they don’t stay long to listen. I guess they need more interactivity like a live DJ, or a contest or something to keep them hooked. Unlike real radio, it is more difficult to have listeners tuned in to online radio because they can easily go to other sites to listen to the music they want on demand, like youtube, which has a lot of music videos. So at the moment, I’m not worried if nobody listens to it.
So I’ll consider this as a work in progress, something to pass the time with, a hobby. Even if it gains a few stable listeners for a short period, it is still worth it.
It’s been a while since my last blog post. I promised myself to write consistently however, doing so is just plain difficult because of my laziness and constant procrastination.
One of the things that I’ve been doing lately (although is not necessary and I do it purely for fun and sentimental purposes) is being a deejay again. Yet this time not in an actual radio station, but in the confines of my own home. Internet Radio. A new form of broadcast medium but using the internet. Although broadcasting is live and in real-time, there is a bit of a lag for a few seconds in internet streaming. This is due to the conversion of signals into data and how fast data reaches from one point to another, which relies on the speed of the internet wherever the receiver is.
So it isn’t that glamorous like being an actual radio station deejay. And although the audience can be any person with internet connection all over the globe, there are already lots of online internet radio and some people find the radio just too old school, they would rather download their own songs and listen to their own playlists.
But for the sake of personal enjoyment and reminiscing the past and glorious days of my being a radio station disc jockey, I decided to relive it and perhaps make it a hobby. When I was in high school, I thought being a deejay is the best job in the world and I would do just that for the rest of my life. And when I did become one, it only took seven years to fall out of love from the profession, abhor it and finally quit it. It was amazing to know that there were people listening to the music you play and what you have to say.
My interest in being a deejay began when I saw the movie “Good Morning Vietnam” with the late Robin Williams playing a deejay character for the American GIs during the war in Vietnam. His jokes and antics in the movie as a deejay was hilarious, that it inspired me to be one. Yet I sadly did not develop the quick comedic wit of that character. Then there was another movie based on a real deejay, played by the actual deejay himself, Howard Stern in the movie “Private Parts.” This movie is one my personal favorites in comedy. Below is a clip from it, the “Match Game” one of the funniest parts and I couldn’t stop laughing every time I watch it.
Another movie was “Pump up the Volume” with Christian Slater playing a deejay character who does unauthorized broadcasts from his own illegal make-shift radio station.
As a teenager, these movies gave me the drive to be a radio deejay. I wanted to be funny and more vocal like those characters, however the first and only radio station I worked for didn’t provide enough freedom for me to develop my skills and show. I only hope I would do much better in this online radio deejay hobby.
So as a teenager, I professed to my mother my interest in being a deejay, so she encouraged me to apply at a radio station but I got turned down because I was still in 3rd year high school then. When I graduated from high school, I still wanted to be a deejay and with the help of my grandfather (he wanted me to work while studying college to stay away from drugs), I was able to apply in a radio station being managed by a distant relative (he was a nth degree nephew of my grandpa), luckily got hired and worked for free (under probation) for the first five months, took the KBP exam, and became a fully licensed radio station announcer/deejay for the radio station.
During my stint as a deejay, I was not able to improve my lines and talking points because our radio station was more of a music station, and therefore talk would be considerably less. The station manager made all programming and show decisions, even when I became Radio Program/Production Chief. So my talents and creativity as a deejay deteriorated as well as my interest in it. There would be many times I would just go on board, set a playlist with all songs and commercials ready, then sleep on the job. That’s how bad it became. I ended up hating the job after 7 years because of a bad boss and his poor management.
There’s an upside to it though, because I didn’t have to concentrate my work in developing the radio programs I was handling, I delved into other projects during my free time, such as developing my computer repair and troubleshooting skills, learning computer networking (I was also the designated IT guy), learning photoshop, audio recording, video editing, camera operation and many related aspects. In a way, as I slowly lost my love for being a deejay, I gained from learning a lot of other things. Things that make up for the skills I currently do today.
Before I left for Thailand, my first encounter with internet radio was meeting the guy who ran Radiopilipinas.com. He was into the indie music scene and he was looking for people to fill in as deejays. I planned to produce our own talk/rock music show with Chip and Kym, bought a couple of microphones, headsets and used Chip’s old PC with Cooledit Pro for recording. We tried and fumbled with making the show and its talking points, some of them were pure nonsense. I wanted it to work and perhaps continue doing recording of it through Skype when I went abroad. But like many plans it didn’t push through.
Then years later, Eric, the guy who ran Flipradio.net invited me to be one of their deejays. I was interested however, I didn’t have the equipment and place to do a live broadcast because they also required a video stream of the deejay. I also had internet problems then, so it wasn’t meant to be.
Then recently when I met Chad, who also used to be a radio station deejay back in my hometown Tacloban, during my time and now also living and teaching here in Thailand, he mentioned he started an online radio, but purely audio, and no video stream. He invited me to be a deejay and I gladly took it, provided I would have programming freedom and only do it for three hours late at night during weekends.
This show I started in his online radio station “Smartmuzik.com” runs from 9pm to 12 midnight (GMT +7) and is entitled “The Late Night Weekend Radio Show” and is currently a music show featuring Top40 hits and classic hits. I am currently working on making it a better show and perhaps make so fun segments, but it does require a lot of work and a lot of time. So hopefully, it will get better and gain ground gradually. Maybe start actually doing the thing I wanted to do in the first place.
