Atlantic Oldies 2NG

So, once again, my blog updates seem to be quarterly!! Truth is that is kind of embarrassing. Weekly at the very least but with a 11 month old, time really really does fly.

A few friends have suggested I launch a Facebook page for the station, and so I did that today. Why not take some time and become a friend of 2NG. Just click here and then “Like” us. I would love to hear from you on that. You can also follow us on Twitter as well at www.twitter.com/atlanticoldies. Modern social networking for old music!!

Summer is a great time to do some major tweaks to the station. I’m pondering some small changes to the rotations with some of the DJ’s as well as maybe some schedule changes for the shows. Nothing decided yet, but if you have any thoughts, then please let me know. Email me or post a comment to this entry. We’ve already made one change last week, you no longer hear the news during the week. We’re an oldies station and we’re concentrating on the music.

So, off to the heat as we enjoy! those muggy DC days. I’ll be back again soon, certainly less than 90 days!!! Thanks and see ya soon.

I really am getting slack on writing blog posts. I have made a spring resolution(!) to improve that!

Two weeks ago the clocks moved forward here in America, and so psychologically my brain started to think Spring was on the way. It’s something we in the Washington, DC area really needed. We were whacked by the snowiest season on record. Normally we see around 19 inches or so, but we received over 72 inches as recorded at Dulles airport(IAD) which is just 30 minutes away. No doubt I burned a lot of calories shoveling merrily away but I have never seen anything like it!

All though this Natalie just carried on growing and growing! It was a shame she is too young to enjoy the snow. If I was a kid again, I would have been in my element but alas I couldn’t relive those moments with her as I don’t think sledding with a 6 month old would have gone down well!!!

Atlantic Oldies 2NG goes on from strength to strength. We were featured prominently a while ago in the Windows Media Guide and so we saw an influx of listeners. One of the sad things is that when the feature is removed, the listeners go as well. A few stay and I did receive some nice emails.

April is almost here, so time to break the back with yard work. Need to plant more grass and also do more exercise. All things I don’t like. Now, I do like recording my show (Rick Ainley) and sometimes I get the chance to do the Sunday show live. Hopefully I can do a few live ones in April. Time and Natalie will tell.

Hopefully we will be bringing back our Top 100 songs in April as well as some other features. More to follow.

Have a great Spring, keep listening and let us know your feedback.

Well, it has been some time since I last wrote a blog entry. As usual, time gets away and before I know, we’re at the end of 2009. So let me wish you all a very Happy New Year and I thank you for listening to 2NG Atlantic Oldies. It’s been a pleasure and I hope you’ll continue into 2010.

We took steps to save money last year. Internet Radio doesn’t make a profit generally unless you run 200 bland channels etc. I now share a server with a friend and this helps cut down the costs. This way, I hope to keep the station going well into 2010.

The last few months have been very busy for me, so 2NG kind of ran on auto-pilot a bit. Well that changes now, I’ve regained some time back and focused more on 2NG again. In the next few days a lot more songs will be added to the mix (over 500) and I’ll be jiggling the rotation a bit to make it a fresher sound. As always I’d love to hear from you with comments, good or bad.

I’d also like to thank the people who do shows on 2NG. Without them, I’d be a great oldies jukebox, but each of these help create a better sound with their own styles. Each one different. Each has created a great show, and so, in Alphabetical order we thank, Kurt David (Takin ya Back), Roger Davies (Rare 60’s), Mike Landecker, Bill Rollins (Teatime Special), Richard Todd (Retro Chart Countdown) and Mike Walker (Saving the 70’s). I’d also like to thank “Spy“. He contributes quite a bit to my weekly show including “Spy’s Triple Tenuous Connection”. We keep getting offers of more shows and so there may be some additions in the coming weeks.

Myself, I enjoy recording my show (Rick Ainley) and have been fortunate to also have shows on a European powerhouse. BigL 1395kHz from the Netherlands. You can hear me on Saturday and Sunday mornings at 0300 GMT, 0400 CET right across Europe. I felt really proud to actually hear my own show last weekend whilst we were in the UK. Admittedly I was driving in Cleethorpes at 3am because my precious daughter was teething and needed some good old fashioned driving to “calm down”.

Now, that my sanity has returned, I hope to be creating more blog entries soon. Thanks for reading.

The Proud Father

So, armed with a large collection of diapers (nappies in my English), baby wipes and the “best thing since sliced bread”, the Diaper Genie the last month has just gone so quick. I deliberately didn’t record any new shows on 2NG (The Rick Ainley Show) as I knew time would fly but nothing prepared me for just how quick it went.

I was able to restart recording shows and that’s going well. This week (Labor Day week) the show is dedicated to Natalie and daughters everywhere. I enjoy the show and periodic emails that come my way as well make it really worth it. Check us out here

I’ve also been looking at adding new shows to 2NG as well. Mike Landecker, a seasoned DJ from Texas came on board this week, and I have some emails from fellow DJ’s that I need to sit down and go through. It seems that whilst our listeners love the great music mix, having some personalities goes down well too. Helps make us different to some other stations. If you’re a DJ or Show host and I haven’t got back to you yet, my apologies.

iTunes also spring cleaned its listings last week. Previously we were listed in two genre’s but sadly now only one, “Golden Oldies”, but most importantly we had two speeds listed. 128k and 24k. The 24k was popular with office listeners etc. It did account for between 20-30% of my daily listeners but sadly, only one speed is listed now (128k). The 24k is available and can be found here.

One thing that sticks out in my mind is that many people said to us recently was “Watch out, you’ll be driving her to college soon”. We laughed, but deep down we now know that those 18 years will go so quickly. Oh, diaper change coming…..

Earlier this week, I joined that popular world of parenthood. On Thursday at 2:01pm our new daughter, Natalie arrived, and from now on, my years of being selfish are over. For those you who have experienced this, you were right when you said “Nothing in the world will prepare you for then”. That moment when she is born is one that I will never ever forget, and for those who will experience it one day, “Just relax and enjoy”.

The long journey begins now, and so 2NG’s youngest listener is now officially “Daddy’s Girl”.

So, obviously 2NG won’t be tended too as much for a while, but the oldies will still keep coming and I should be back with my shows fresh in September.

Wow, I was looking at the blog and noticed I haven’t posted for about three months. Time flies, I’m entering baby world and they tell me time flies even faster, so that is scary in itself. Express train to old and creepy!!

Well, we’ve been having some fun on Atlantic Oldies 2NG. I’ve added a few more shows, even one by myself. The Rick Ainley show can be heard three times a week. Sundays @ 11am, Tuesday @ 2pm and Thursdays at 10pm (this week @ 8pm). All times Eastern.

Starting next week, Bill Rollin’s Teatime Special will get a West Coast Teatime presentation. Thursdays at 5pm Pacific (8pm Eastern). It’s a great show, if you get a chance listen. (Sunday & Tuesday 12pm, Thursday (after 9th July) 8pm, Eastern)

Richard Todd’s Retro Chart Countdown is also new(ish), every week he takes a look at the Top 40 from the UK charts for a given year. That show really goes through the memory, plenty of songs you had forgotten about!! (Sunday 9am, Monday 8pm and Thursday 12noon Eastern)

We’ve also jumped on the Twitter bandwagon! www.twitter.com/atlanticoldies Why not sign up. We tweet infrequently so we won’t inundate you.

Have some music to add to the library soon, so the sounds get even better. Take care and be safe.

So, I find myself with a few spare hours thanks to the economy, having been “furloughed” for a week. Well, yesterday I decided to do a live show in the middle of the day, which is peak audiences. Hell, it’s my station and why not.

So this morning at 11am EDT, I went live for two hours. I had already made the second hour a request hour, and I received requests from the U.S, UK, Holland, Germany, Canada and China. This was all exciting, but it led to a song I would not normally play on Atlantic Oldies 2NG, but it does meet the criteria..

My criteria for inclusion is simply, Top 40 from 1956-1985, in the US or Europe, and not rap, or real heavy metal…, and this request was for a Christmas number 1 in the UK charts in 1980!!

Now, the sad thing was, I actually had the single. A piece of Vinyl, all 7″ of it. So I transfered it to MP3 yesterday, and subsequently it aired for the first time this afternoon. It did receive a reaction. John in NJ remembered some trivia, in that John Lennon had sung three numbers 1’s, and penned a fourth, but this song and one other bad one interrupted him from having four consecutive numbers ones..

The song – Yes, it did get to number 1 was St. Winifreds School Choir and “Grandme, we love you”.  It will make the odd rare occurence, but in the meantime, in case you really like it (and hey, who bought the single!!)

Regular listeners cannot help but have noticed that 2NG – Two Nations Gold has now become Atlantic Oldies 2NG. Just like that, and I have received the odd email asking why?

Well, 2NG has existed for about 3-1/2 years now and truth is a lot of the music that entered the charts of either the U.S. or U.K. came from European singers and bands. As anything, things become stale and a change is a good as a rest so I decided to change the name. It comes down to trying to reflect more of what I play, and as time goes on I hope to be adding more of the chart topping sounds from some of the European charts. Many crept into the American or British charts but generally didn’t do well.

This all takes time, my real job has kept me very busy with the Inauguration right now, and I write this before I head off to a roof-top in freezing temperatures to make TV pictures. Once the dust settles, the sound of the station will be tweaked.

Let us know your thoughts and once again, thanks for listening.

Wow, one of the great unwritten mysteries is that time flies quicker the older you get. I can recall writing some entries in my blog last year and suddenly here I am, writing an entry for the end of 2008.

Whilst I love Christmas music, it does drive me nuts if I get immersed in it, so that’s why I like to pop in one an hour during the run up to Christmas. That way I get my fix of oldies and Christmas oldies at the same time. Traditionally listenership drops during December as many listeners do like the Christmas music and pop on when they work or do the chores around the house.

Bill Rollins hosts the Teatime Special here on 2NG, and I was able to hear the whole show today, he played two hours of great Christmas hits, quite a few I haven’t heard for years. You can enjoy this show again on Tuesday and Christmas Day itself at 12noon EST, 1700 GMT and 9am PST. Well worth a listen, with a mince pie and a tot of brandy.

So anyway, I think it’s time to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and to those listeners who celebrate Hannukah, have a very Happy Hannukah. Here at 2NG house we celebrate both and I look forward to the potatoe Latkes tonight. Be safe and have great 2009.

p.s. We should be playing the 2NG Top 100 in January!

Last Sunday (9th) I took the opportunity and took 2NG live for two hours. It was great fun, we had many listeners and really took radio back to that golden era when it wasn’t controlled by liner cards, consultants and the urge to maximise profits.

Many listeners took the opportunity to use the Webchat and interact with me in the studio as well use the phone line. That said, I would have loved to have more callers, but hey, even real stations sometimes struggle with callers as well.

I played a great range of music, introduced the Top 5 from this month in 1966 and 1974 with a twist! I played the number 1 in Holland and the U.K. as well as the U.S. Added a few news headlines and a new feature is born. So, this next week you can hear November 1974 again, and then thanksgiving week, you can hear the music and headlines for November 1963. Some great music.

I really did enjoy the live show I did, and the listener comments were favorable, so I hope to be able to do it again. Can’t guarantee when yet, but will update the website when I can.