2NG - Oldies Radio

So, here I am sat at Dulles airport just outside Washington, DC. It’s a quiet evening and I am awaiting the late red-eye flight to London. After waking up in London I shall battle the UK rail service and head “up north” to my family and then off to a friends wedding on Saturday. On Monday I shall reverse the whole route and by Monday night I shall be back home. Overall about 8,000 miles in 4 days.

For many stepping on a flight across the Atlantic is a major feat, an adventure, yet for me, having done this route in excess of 60 times in 8 years, it is like stepping on a bus or a train, and getting to your destination. It’s why, when I fly cross-country here in the States, the five hour flight feels short.

I’m very fortunate that with the three carriers (BA, United and Virgin) I have experienced all their cabins from FIRST to economy. The premium cabins are thankfully due to either work (back in those days) or using my frequent-flyer miles. FIRST is really really nice, Business is really nice, Economy, well, if you like the knee’s in the nose, so be it!!!! But if I pay with my own cash, knee’s in the nose is attractive!

One thing the flight gives me is thinking time, no real interruptions and one of my targets the next few days is to think about 2NG. I have received the new jingles from PAMS, they sound really good. I have a stack of CD’s ready to be ingested and added and I have some other ideas to make the station sound better. Once I get back from my August vacation, all of this will start to appear and the 2NG facelift will be complete. Keep listening and once again, don’t forget to write and let me know what you like. It all helps.

So, the real steamy nights a week or so ago have gone, ready to return when we expect them in July and August, but work has already started on giving 2NG its summer holiday/vacation!

What does this mean? Going silent? NO. That wouldn’t be right, I know many of you love the oldies, some listen a lot, some listen for a few hours a week/month. We’ll still be here, but behind the scene’s things will be happening!

When the holiday period is over 2NG will sound a little different! How you ask. Nothing major, but we will be adding more fifties and sixties to the mix and doing what professional marketing people (don’t get me started on that subject!) call “re-imaging”. Name stays the same, but some of our ‘imaging elements (jingles!)” will be changed. They are already ordered, can’t wait for them.

I’m starting to stockpile some “new” CD’s from artistes already under or not represented on 2NG and they will be all added in one big swoop one day. I’m going to mix up the rotations and also adding some more fun stuff, along with some more “shows”. Shows will be more at the weekends etc.

So, it wont be a huge change like flipping formats. No way. I still love that great mix from the late 50’s to the early 80’s and that stays. Just mixed up a but more, refreshing the station as they say.

When does this all happen? Well, we’re already working on the bits and pieces and we’ll add them progressively in mid-late August. All will be ready for the Tuesday after Labor Day (Mon 1st Sep). That’s when America thinks summer is over, although I’ll probably be wearing shorts at the weekend until mid October. (try that in the UK without freezing your knobbly knee’s!).

Stay listening and if you haven’t signed up for our 2NG newsletter, why not now. We wont hassle you, and we will never sell your email address (nor give it away!)

No, nothing to do with sordid or saucy nights underneath the sheets! Summer has appeared with a vengeance here in DC. Temperature started to climb, then we had real violent storms on Wednesday. I’ve never seen anything like it. The area had a tornado touch down, and so for a rare moment, it was like the midwest, otherwise known as tornado alley.

We were very fortunate that at our house (and also the 2NG studio) we only suffered a few power bumps, the next road and the rest of the neighborhood to the North had no power for over thirty hours!!.

Then today, the real high temperatures came barreling in.  Right now we are at 97 degrees Fahrenheit, that’s nearly 37 Celsius. Mowing the lawn this morning we went from 81 to 87 in less than thirty minutes. Lot’s of liquids and plenty of air-conditioning.

When summer starts, internet radio listening starts to slow down, and 2NG is no exception. Listenership has dropped slightly, which is fine, it’s routine and also the summer months will give me some time to tweak the station, modify a few things and be ready for September.

Time for a nice cool one, see you soon.

Where oh where is the year going? June already! I was doing some work on the station this evening, and realized that suddenly, we had missed nearly half of 2008. We started of the year here on 2NG with a Top 100 survey. Well the data got stuck in the survey application, and I finally found a way (thanks to Google!) to extract the data, so I’ll be sorting that out real soon.

What a busy month June is turning out to be to. I’m performing with “The British Players” in about a week. We’re doing “Old Time Music Hall”, which is the UK’s answer to Vaudeville and I have to say, it’s jolly good fun. It’s consuming as we have twelve performances in less than two weeks!

Ah, well off to bed, thinking about music hall and the top 100. Also, I’ve been scanning, trying to find some more oldies. Suggestions have been made about donating CD’s and hopefully I shall start that initiative soon.

Take care and see you soon. Stay listening.

Well, the last week has been nice here in Washington, DC. Yesterday reached a hot 86F (30C) but today is a lot cooler, around 75F (24C) with a breezy wind. Sat here, contemplating firing up the BBQ, got some nice sausages for it (not as nice as the bangers I miss from Blighty) and some good UK beer. (Hooky Gold from Hook Norton, what a pint). 2NG is playing in the background.

I had some professional jingles done some time ago, they play frequently through the day, but I’m starting to think I need a new fresh image for 2NG, different jingles possibly. As ever it costs money do what do you think?

The last BLOG made reference to the fact I should ask our listeners to help with the music, and I think, that overall is not a bad idea. There are some caveats, the license I broadcast with insists I have an original copy on hand, so it would have to be original CD’s (not copies or MP3 files).  Is this doable? Maybe I’ll start putting together a list.

So, I’ll sign off now on this beautiful day surrounded by fresh air and a pile of clean clothes. Thanks for listening to the station and don’t forget to email us your comments, good and bad. 2NG has been tweaked heavily based in comments. Take care and see you soon.

Well, apologies, I didn’t realize it has been over a whole month since I last wrote a post. Sometimes in life, busy just takes over. We flew back to England for my sister’s wedding. That was great fun, then we went from DC up to New York for a weekend. On the way back we stopped off in the Poconos mountain area in Pennsylvania and discovered that Fawlty Towers does exist. The waiter at breakfast would make John Cleese proud of his work…

Well, so what has happened on 2NG this last month. Well, I did add a few songs, new tracks from the Sixties and more will be added soon. Many of our faithful listeners let us know what their favorite songs were in our Top 100. Would you believe it, but about 33% of them are ones I don’t have in the library, but I’m slowly working my way through them so I can have a great Top 100 theme soon. Watch the website for more details…

Talking of the website, I did change the website this weekend. I was getting bored of the layout, so I’m trying this for a while. Let us know what you think.

Oh well, time to continue editing my sister’s wedding. See you soon.

We woke up this morning to a loud noise and three large holes in our front yard. We knew this was coming. In a nutshell, we’re getting Verizon FIOS in our neighborhood. What’s FIOS? It’s fiber to the home (Called FTTP, “fiber to the premises”). It will deliver phone, tv and internet all on one pipe to your home if you so desire. I’m really interested in their top tier internet, apparently 15Mb/s down and UP, cool.

So, how long before we get the service delivered? Won’t be too long before we get those nice salesmen knocking on the door! I’ve noticed that Cox, our cable provider has stepped up their tactics to us, I’m getting about one letter every other day with some offer or other. Have to confess I’m tired of getting a bill and every other month it creeps up. Time to kick it to the kerb. Will Verizon be any better? Time will tell.

The vast majority of the radio stations in the U.K. will have a brief news bulletin at the top of the hour, no matter what time of day it is. I grew up with and got used to it. Over here in Washington, DC, I can get a brief summary of the news during what they call their peak hours, “drivetime”. Other times, forget it. I need to swing to a news station (which to get impartial news is not one of the most easy tasks, but that is another story).

A common request over the couple of years has been to ask for a news bulletin. Until recently there has been very little option for us small internet radio stations, cough up some $$$ for a small ad-free bulletin that may get updated or nothing. Being a small station, every $ counts, so that was not an option. USA Radio News has been around for quite a while providing syndicated programming and news bulletins to many stations and has now offered Internet Radio stations like mine access to these bulletins. The only caveat is we have to air the commercials that they place with them. This is called “barter” in the trade and is a small price to pay.

As we concentrate on the music, I’ve decided for now, just to air the news bulletins every three hours from 1am Monday to 7pm Friday night (EST) and just twice on the weekend days (7am and 1pm EST, although I will add 10am soon). The reason I play them less at weekends is that I know we’re often a frequent choice for dinner parties etc. We’ll be mellowing those hours soon.

Initial feedback is encouraging, and you’re never more than two minutes from that great next oldie.

As ever, let us know what you like and don’t, and don’t forget to take part in the 2NG Top 100 Survey

In a year when most of us are being driven nuts by the U.S. Presidential election, I’m asking you to cast your vote and this time, it doesn’t matter what country you are a citizen of, how old you are and what political party you affiliate to wherever you are.

2NG is attempting to put together a Top 100 for Easter and and we are asking you to take part. By letting us know what your favo(u)rite  oldies ar, up to five of them, it will help us immensely. Click here to vote and let us know. We have already had some good nominations and it may be difficult to actually have a Top 100 as so far, no one has listed the same song twice, so it may 100 Listener Greats!

Once again, thanks for  listening.

Sitting on the shelf by my desk is a pile of CD’s that contain some great music from the Sixties and Seventies. Although the process of importing them and converting them to MP3 files that I use in the automation software (currently Station Playlist), the process of getting the details in the scheduling software takes the real time and so slows me down. I’ve gotten it down to the quickest I can do, but still it takes a while to compare the tracks against my big books of songs (both U.S. and the U.K.) !

That way I can ensure that I play the hits, not  some crappy album track that they knocked up in 5 minutes, sounds bad and just filled the original second side of the 12″ LP (remember them…)

Anyway, this coming weekend is Martin Luther King weekend here in the U.S. and so with the extra day off I’ll be adding a ton of great oldies to 2NG.

Also watch out, we’ll be asking for your input again, we want to compile your most favo(u)rite songs and oldies…. Watch this space.

Keep Listening, Rick.