Atlantic Oldies 2NG

Radio has been in my blood as long as I can remember. Huddled under a blanket as a kid listening to the Big L – Radio Luxembourg on 208 metres MW (or 1439kHz AM!) and the Top 20 on a Sunday evening at 6pm when Stereo BBC Radio 2 would hand the precious stereo to Radio 1 for the hour.

Career wise I planned to be a radio magnate but for some reason I ended up in Television where I still am today. It’s as fun as ever but more pressured today. That is why 2NG was born. My station broadcasting the music I love and I know, by listening you do to.

So, a few years ago I was contacted by another Internet Radio station owner, Alan who started Rewind 45. Musically very similar to mine but different all the same. He had different songs to mine and different playlists. We emailed back and forth over the years, listening to each other’s station and frequently we asked for and offered each other advice that helped make our stations better and run more reliably. We both knew it was fun and a hobby.

Sometimes I would have his station on as I worked or pottered about the house. Even though I had many UK oldies, I was always amazed by the tracks that he had and many memories that they bought back. Alan concentrated on getting some presenter led shows as they gave the station some personality and did that very well. Roger Davies had a brilliant idea, those Rare 60’s tracks and I was pleased when Alan suggested that I air it on 2NG as well. Now I do and I hope it continues. Rewind 45 had another show, and I hope to be able to take that soon.

Last week Rewind45 had to close down. Alan, for personal reasons felt he would be unable to continue administration of the station over the next few months. I felt sad for him as I was in the same position 18 months ago when I closed 2NG down due to finance. Alan went one stage further and had some last shows, one by Roger Davies and the final hour by Bill Rollins. I listened all afternoon, and it bought back all of those memories I had in the seventies. Radio was a living breathing thing…, it had personality, it talked to you and it played a wide variety of music that you loved. Today, sadly radio is too focused and too narrow.

When Rewind45 closed, I actually felt sad. I had gone though the same emotions when I closed 2NG last year. I was fortunate that I was able to revive 2NG a few weeks later and I hope that Rewind45 will return in due time. Let us hope it’s “au revoir and not good-bye”

So, it is really amazing how time flies. Have you noticed that the older we become, the quicker time flies!! We’ve been remodeling our kitchen, and I write this the countertop people are here drilling merrily away. Also, as some of you know I work professionally in TV so as we get closer to the U.S. Election my time is getting sucked up!!!

Last weekend I modifed our streams, and they sound better than they ever did. Previously our highest MP3 stream was 64k but for now, I changed that to 128k stereo MP3 which sounds a lot lot better. We still also offer the 24k mono stream for dial-up and office listeners. Offering higher quality than MP3 at lower bitrates we also offer a pure Windows Media stream and also a AAC+ stream that sounds fantastic as just 48k!

So, now we offer the following:

• 128k MP3 Stereo – Almost CD like
• 48k AAC+ Stereo – Almost CD like
• 64k Windows Media – Almost CD like
• 24k MP3 Mono – like AM(MW) radio.

The Windows Media stream will most likely need Window Media Player and the AAC+ stream will work just fine on Winamp (PC) and VLC (for MAC, PC and Linux).

Happy listening, Richard

One of the more popular pages on our website is “About Us“. That in itself surprises me however but I also have promised for some time that I would pop up some pictures. Well I did that this week, but I thought I would take a little time to explain a little about the 2NG studio here in Washington, DC.

So, here is that picture. The 2NG studio deep in a bunker somewhere. The actual computer that houses 2NG and the thousands of songs sits to the right of this picture. THis operates 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

The Studio is only powered up when I need it, and so a few times a week I’ll throw the switch, and add or categorize new songs, look at the following weeks playlist and sometimes record new promo’s etc. This is also where I’ll perform live shows when I have the time. I’d love to do a weekly show but frequently we’re often traveling or doing other things!

For the techies that love this kind of thing, the audio mixer (or board in American!) is an old Arrakkis 2100SC that I found on eBay. The mic is a Sennheiser MD421II and the headphones (cans in British broadcast speak) are Beyer Dynamics DT100’s (These are very common in the U.K. but rare in the U.S.). The computer screen on the left is showing Station Playlist. What you see is the main screen for the 2NG computer, however when I go live I run a different computer (same screen) and use another copy of Station Playlist in Live Assist mode. I also use Adobe Audition etc. for production.

So, next time I shall go further behind the scene’s. Any questions, please email me and let me know.

Thanks

So this weekend is a bank holiday in the UK and next weekend, it’s labor day when we have a holiday weekend. Officially summer ends September 21st, but for some obscure reason, and despite our temperatures here in D.C. still will far higher than Cleethorpes would ever see, summer will ‘end’ next weekend!!!

Always been puzzled by that! Anyhow, I’ve added a fair amount of music this summer, and this week we added a new show. Roger Davis presents “Rare 60’s Flashback” which plays some rare tracks from a great decade. Check it out. It airs three times each week. 1pm Sat, 3pm Tues and 8p Weds (all times Eastern).

I promised some pictures from my road-trip to Kentucky, they’ll be coming soon.

So technology is moving at a very fast rate. Who would have thought that I could write this and listen to 2NG with an iPod!

We are visiting relatives in Kentucky (what a beautiful drive, more later) and I bought an iPod touch with me. It works with wifi and let’s me listen, browse and write this. An iPhone would allow me to do this from the car but I have enough phones!

Cool, more when we get back.

So, last week has gone down as crappy in my life. It started off with a six hour delay getting back from New Hampshire due to massive storms screwing all flights. (At least it was not canceled!). Then the throat started to get sore and by Thursday, I was laid up in bed, started to get scared it may be pneumonia!! Fortunately it wasn’t but it wiped me out for four days and still lurks in my gene pool.

OK, so crappy may be strong, I am more fortunate that a lot of people, and I am more than aware of it and should be so.

Anyhow, once I started to feel better I was able to start doing some work on the station. I have added some 378 new tracks ranging from some fifties classics to a pile from Elvis. Yes, this oldies station was deficient in someone who dominated the charts in both countries for so long. That is rectified. Now, not all tracks are now in play, probably about 50% of them. I takes quite a bit to add a track and soon I shall have all in play.

And finally, the one I’m proud of. You may have noticed that I have some new jingles in play. Yes, they were recorded by PAMS, these are the people who made many of the classic jingles from those brilliant stations in the U.S. (like WABC and the 60s, Top 40 stations) and the Pirate Ships (like Big L and Radio Caroline etc.) in the U.K. Two varieties are now in play and I love them. I hope you do too. No doubt the rotation of them and the music will need tweaking but I hope you like the changing sound of 2NG. Let me know as usual.

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.