Sunday, August 7, 2011

ROBBLOG # 300


Did you notice this is RobBlog # 300?
That's correct 300 times I have laid pen to paper- or fingers to keyboard, providing you with a little something to entertain or piss you off. I never thougth I would get to such a round little number but here it is.
Enjoy...

Rob*

I guess I would be correct when I say I am the “Big Cheese” here at Swisssh Radio and I don’t have many other “small cheeses” around the place to do my bidding. No, here high above the skyline of the Sunshine City, I pretty much sit alone in the massive Swisssh Radio Complex. 

Yes, it would be correct to say I am the “chief cook and bottle washer”- although we don’t usually wash bottles or cook round here, since we are a communications company.

I also have a lot of gadgets here at the gigantic Swisssh Radio complex. I have a leather chair in the control room that gently vibrates to soothe my aching back. However, I can’t have the microphone “live” when the chair is switched on because the mic picks up the noise of the vibrations.
Not a good thing.
So the chair is not usually plugged in, yet it still serves the general purpose of being seated. 

A fellow broadcaster has a similar problem with things in the vicinity that operate and vibrate. He can’t record anything when the washing machine- located in the laundry room next to his studio, kicks into its major spin cycle. He says some cycles- such as the delicate cycle for “poo poo undies” and other finery, are quieter allowing recording to continue. A major spin of sheets and towels however, makes it impossible to proceed unless he’s doing a radio commercial for a laundry product or washer or dryer! 

The trials and tribulations of Internet Radio stations! 

Now, there is perhaps something new to announce.
I am hoping- come the autumnal season, to have a few more people around the Swisssh Studio. It will be an experiment of sorts. I am looking at producing 3 or 4 shows- some “live” some pre-recorded, to air on Swisssh Radio and perhaps “air” on some other Net Stations too.  It’s time to move forward. It will mean some extra work and extra people around the studios in the evening but we will proceed slowly and see what transpires. 

Oh, to have a downtown storefront location where pedestrians and shoppers passing by could see “live” radio being performed. Maybe one day that will become a reality for Swisssh Radio like it has for another Net Radio station close to the “Big Smoke”. 

So, here in this little world of Net Radio, Swisssh Radio continues to entertain a host of listeners from many countries and places. Cooba Pedy in Southern Australia comes to mind. 

I still enjoy having this smallish Net Radio station broadcast to the world! 

What is the alternative?
If you remember, long before Marconi threw a few tubes together in a box and punched some small holes in the front for the sound to escape, basic radio was yelling out an upper storey window at the neighbour’s house- just to share news and gossip- or weather details.

There was another option. That is procuring the services of a “town crier”. 

Some even passed along their news by singing “sparkling” little ditties in the town or village square-mandolin in hand, at the top of their lungs. People would listen and perhaps even applaud and throw a ducat or two. I am sure the audience even grew a bit during colder, winter nights when the sound from the square would travel farther over hill and frozen dale. 

So my nice desk with its three microphones, computers, headsets and the like may soon be shared with other folks who have a yearning to “play” radio such as I do.It’s not playing really. It’s serious stuff- just not as serious as in the Terrestrial world. 

Stay tuned.