letters

The Last Radio Station

Listener Feedback

   		Dear Y'all:

	Even though this webcast exists in its own little world, we do try to keep up on what's happening in the conventional radio industry.  Recently there has been a spate of major-market FM stations converting to a "Jack" or "Dave" format.  They claim "we play everything" in an effort to win back listeners from their Ipods.  The intended effect of these so-called "formats", as I understand it, is to loosen up the playlist and create a bit more variety in their song selections, playing everything from 1965 to  today.  We applaud this trend away from the sonic anorexia that has chased off vast numbers of over-the-air listeners in recent years, but we want to emphasize that we were here first.  When The Last Radio Station went online in the spring of 2002, the concept of a no-format music source was laughed at.  Our playlist was a "train wreck" and it had no "flow", they said.  Since then, our playlist has grown to over 4000 tunes, with a larger selection of North Carolina-based performers than any other webcaster.  Our detractors claim "we don't know Jack", but that's okay with us.  It has been said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.  It's also the sincerest form of having no new ideas.  When the terrestrial broadcasters resort to imitating little pissant web- casters like us, you know some big changes are on the horizon.  And it's about damn time.

KL

5/11/05


	Hey man,

 	Hitting on your stream this morning -

	Back in college there was this unkempt guy a few doors down in Dearborn Hall who I referred to as "Rob the Radio Shack guy".  He's the one who first turned me on to prog rock like, early King Crimson, Procol Harum,  ELP, Renaissance, and anyway, he used to listen to alot of Keith Emerson & The Nice!  I've always been a little scared (scared?) yea, scared. Scared to go down that road. Like it seems that Emerson was taking the whole art rock thing WAAAY (that's 3 A's) to seriously and his music was just getting much too pretentious.  So I never borrowed  Rob's albums by The Nice.  Actually, he made some comment about how their music dealt with imagery involving whips and blood and smoke and flesh and I think that my sophomoric mind couldn't wrap aroundthat and that's the real reason I got scared - not so much of the music, but of the imagery it all might reveal and hence the control that I would need to give up to it.  (of course by the time I was introduced to the Velvet Underground a year later I'd be more than happy to eat up Venus In Furs with a fork & knife!)

	Anyway, you and your Last Radio Station were just streaming the Five Bridges Suite by Keith Emerson & The Nice... thanx for the free sample all these years later.  I more than kinda grooved on it, but I'm still worried that an entire album's worth might try my aesthetic sensibilities in ways that I'm unwilling to compromise.

	But, all this is to say that I and us "WBCQ types" (such an unfair stereo-type) are seriously digging what your doing (and I'm not talking about that McCartney penned  tune off of The Beatles VI album in the latter part of that sentence there).

	Your presence does serve a purpose, don't forget that!

	btw, your station followed up with another psychedelic, slipstream poetry reading from Stanley Unwin, followed then by some "Prologue" by Renaissance!  See, see, do you see how exciting it all was (is)?

	It's All Too Beautiful!

	Dig,

	JimE.


	Dude you sure know how to make a guy's day.  It's nice to know somebody's at the other end of the wire, much the same way it is for you when someone emails in to let you know they're listening to the shortwave signal.  Just for the record, I have gotten several emails about the reruns of Lost Discs Radio on the LRS, wanting to know where they can hear more.  I've referred them to the WBCQ website and/or the Lost Discs Radio site. They also want to know why no one is doing a similar show on local radio here.  I've asked several radio programmers why that is, and I get the standard answers: we don't have the budget, the research doesn't support it, the advertisers won't like it, yada yada.  But events of the last few months indicate the terrestrial radio guys (with the shining exception of WBCQ) are running scared, seeing their audience figures plummeting like the proverbial lead balloon.  Maybe now, finally at long last, they will be willing to try something different. 
	As for The Nice and ELP and Renaissance, they present a challenge to the casual listener but I promise they won't bite.  I never liked the term "prog" because for some reason it makes me think of fish ("Hey, we caught a bunch of progs today!"),  but your story brought back a lot of good memories.  In high school my classmates often ragged on me for listening to "weird" music (it was the heyday of Led Zeppelin, Bad Company, The Eagles, etc), but in later years I did a bit of social networking and found other enlightened ears.  We're still the best of friends today and we occasionally email each other about new music.  Anyway, The Nice had a classical/punk mixture going on that I found intriguing, whereas ELP sort of blew that image by wanting to be Serious Musicians.  Renaissance, on the other hand, was all about the golden voice of Annie Haslam.  My ultimate collaboration would be Annie Haslam and Kate Bush in the studio with Todd Rundgren producing.   It'll probably never happen but I can dream.  My son just turned 14 and he is an avowed Kraftwerkfan, so the tradition continues.
	I seem to be rambling a bit here, but I can promise The Last Radio Station will be around as long as there are people searching for new and exciting music.  And as long as WBCQ keeps on rockin',  I'll be listening.  Take care... peace, we out.

KL

      Greetings,

      First off, let me tell you that I absolutely love your radio station. I heard of you from a friend and I can't tell you how cool it was to click and hear Sly & The Family Stone! Way cool! I really love your idea of free format internet radio. I was wondering if you are looking for some folkie type stuff. I'm a folksinger from Chapel Hill and I'd love to have my stuff considered for your station. I have some MP3s up on my site. I'd love to hear what you think and please, if you like what you hear, use whatever you like! Thanks again for your time and I will keep listening! I'm loving what I'm hearing!

Thanks & Keep it up!
Don
www.donontheweb.com

    Wow.   It's not every day we get letters like yours.   We're glad there's actually someone on the other end of the wire because that's what it's all about.
    I visited the site and I have added three songs from it to our playlist:   "Hey Dave Matthews", "Straight To Hell", and "The Bidding's Closed".   Look for these songs to come up at any time of the day or night on the webcast. If there are any other bands in your area that would like to contribute an MP3 or two, please feel free to pass it along.   Thanks for making our day.

KL

Keith, I received an e-mail on alt-music-chapel hill about your radio station. Attached is a brief bio and mp3 of my band, Red Skeleton. We're based out of Raleigh and Chapel Hill. You can also find more info and more mp3s at our website--> redskeleton.net

Thanks,

Brian

Brian, thanx for the response.   Since the LRS currently has a promo budget of $0, I've taken to "making the rounds" of NC band websites and IUMA and downloading whatever I can from them. I've found some real jewels in the rough there. Anyway, I have placed "The Damage Is Done" and "Wires" in the rotation and I will probably add more later this evening when I go thru the zipfile.    If there are any restrictions on their usage, please advise .   On the Last Radio Station they're liable to come up at any time of the day or night because hey, we're just funny that way. Again, thanks for your tip and please tell your friends about us, and best of luck to you.

KL

Keith,

Thanks so much for the kind words, and for playing us on your station. Can't thank you enough. Glad you know Anna to the Infinite Power, too. We had a lot of fun in that band. I'll let the Orange Co Daredevils get in touch with some MP3's - they actually might be a good album to broadcast - it was an acoustic rock opera with a really great story. Really funny, really good music. The Unmentionables are working on their demo - I'll let them know about the station. I'll let other people know too, of course!

Some songs you might like are:
27 Years Old
Mindreader
Mr. Myagi
and Hungry: The Musical

All the best,
Mitch
"Reluctant Beating"

    Thanks for turning me on to this great music. I have downloaded several songs from the site and they are presently esconced in the playlist of The Last Radio Station.
    I also have a few tracks from Anna to the Infinite Power that I've been running for a while.   Do The Unmentionables and the Orange County Daredevils have MP3s for download anywhere?   My objective is to have more NC bands than any other webcaster (except maybe WXYC) on my list and develop our reputation thusly.   Tell your friends about it and let's get this party started.

    KL

Hi from France ;

I’ve heard your stream for a while and I ‘d like to tell you that your kind of music is ok and stream is ok here in France.

Agree with your position I send you all my best.

Paolo

Hi from eastern North Carolina in the USA and thanks for tuning in. We always enjoy hearing from our friends on the other side of the big pond. Last summer I was at the Outer Banks of NC and as I looked out over the ocean I realized that with the LRS I could now communicate with the other side. Tell your friends about us, won't you? Also, if there's new rock emanating from France these days, we'd love to hear it and possibly add it to our playlist.

    Hi!

    I just tuned in from Germany. Man, you're doing a damned good job. That's what I call a great playlist. Tony Powers is real great stuff. Have you ever thought about saving some bandwidth? There are many stationsstreaming ogg vorbis http://www.vorbis.com/ . The audio quality is impressive, it's absolutely free (gpl) an widespread. it supports stuff like variable Bitrate and makes compression a lot more effective. Maybe you wanne check it out.

    Yepp... please... promise to keep on rocking!

    GreetZ!

    Jan

    Wow, I finally encountered another person who has heard of Tony Powers. I didn't know until recently he had bit parts in such flicks as "Goodfellas" and "Cadillac Man".   To get the full experience one must see the video; it is like a short film noir piece set to a funky score. A friend videotaped it from USA TV back when they ran little filler video things between shows, and for the longest time we thought they may have broadcast it by mistake. Nobody and I mean nobody else around here knew anything about it.    Are there any webcasters currently active in Germany? How's the online music scene over there? We are investigating the Ogg Vorbis encoding scheme as well as Windows Media in an effort to make our stream available to more people. Feel free to write back any time and thanks for listening.

KL

Hello,

I saw your post on the chapel hill newsgroup and wanted to know what you need as far as what to send. My band is The Laramie UK and we have some songs up at www.duckonbike.com It's a little 5-song-demo-ep or something that I could send to you. Let me know what else to send. Do you need a bio, or picture or cocaine or something? Also, where should we send it to?

Thanks a lot,
Matt

Thanks for responding to my blatant solicitation for new music from new people. You can send them to the address on the main website and we'll listen to anything that's good, twice if we like it. Many of the tunes I use on my stream were downloaded from the Duck On Bike site, and I will check out your stuff ASAP.

the last radio station is too cool! you stated on your site that you have past broadcast experience...you are who i need to talk with desperately. i too did the late night insanity trip and loved it, but we'll talk about that later. my name is jaden foxx, from casper, wy...the great dustbowl of america and boy have i got some tidbits for you...anyway, aside from the previous, if you want to talk about the next big thing, it is right here next to me. his name is dan fisher, and he is a musician that plays with a metal band called pagan rage. they have been together for 10 years now, and although they are talented beyond belief, what they need is a little polishing and guidance, but im telling you as a music lover and having been in the "industry"...they have what it takes to hit it big. one song in particular is called "fingerpaint", and originally done as a metal heavy brain take you there song that would be able to cross over into just about all genre's simply because it can be re-done accoustically (which is out of this world) as well as rock, even toned down into a country kinda tune because of the melody that leaves a stain on the brain and lyrics that are newly discovered in meaning everytime you hear it....it is sort of like the musical bible...read a verse once it means toodles, read it again 5 minutes later and although the significance is still impacting, the verse means oodles...i know you know what i mean. k, dan and i are about to attempt the great feat of trying to hook an unsuspecting slimy finned one on the end of a stick and string, but we will be returning later this evening to chat. you can find us via e-mail at jadensboxx@hotmail.com, or im us using msn, or even better, go to people and chat on msn around midnight your time, and you will find a chat room listed under the music category called where's jaden foxx...hopefully one way or another we will sit for a bit and discover new worlds....medication couldn't cure this fever....feel the heat, and we'll c ya in the witching hour....there's a rainbow calling dan's name, or maybe those are the voices in his head

jaden foxx

Wow. Send that dude to the 7-11 for a burrito and a Mr. Pibb.

. The Last Radio Station maintain an open-door policy on its playlist. Everybody is welcome, from bedroom producers to garage bands and anyone else who creates any kind of recorded sound and wants it to be heard by someone besides themselves. The songs will also be added to the playlist of our audio stream. If Mr. Fisher would like to send some MP3s, he's got our address. The same goes for all independent bands and artists out there. Let's hear what you've got.

KL

So anyway, there I was riding the Last Train to Clarksville, eating the Last Supper, passing the Last Chance Texaco and wishing that I could be listening to Everlast....

Man, what a fantastic mixed bag of goodies! As a small-market radio programmer, I used to strive for the same kind of eclecticism...but you take eclectic to a whole new level.

The sound quality of your Shoutcast at 128 kbps is superb, and in fact sounds better than our local F.M. broadcast outlets. I also really enjoy the comedy filler, spoken word stuff and so on.

I hope that your program does very well for you. I'm enjoying it, and i'd love to see it stick around for awhile.

Regards,

Paul Shallbetter
Secret Studio of Minnesota
secret_studdio@charter.net

Paul: Thanks eversomuch for the good words about The Last Radio Station. Right now I'm just one person with one computer, but it's always nice to hear from the folks at the other end of the wire. We're watching the ongoing legal developments re: online broadcasting, but I can assure you we'll be here as long as Shoutcast will have us. We're adding new stuff to our comedy and spoken word repertoire every day and we're planning on doing a regular Sunday night comedy show soon, so stay tuned. Again, thanks for listening and spread the word.

So I'm here at work dying to listen to a web radio station that will get my toes tapping, sing-along, recall some hits from the past, have the time go by easier and I discovered your station and I'm digging it. I love the eclectic mix of songs, it's exactly what I need because that's how my tastes are...very eclectic! I was just listening a minute ago and in the background I hear this piece of music I remember and it turned out to be - TODD RUNDGREN- There Are No Words. Any station that plays stuff like this will have me coming back.

All the best, Craig

Wow! I'm just listening to TRIUMVIRAT- The Walls Of Doom, I haven't heard that since I owned it on vinyl.

    Thanks for the nice words about The Last Radio Station, Craig. I really believe there is a sizeable portion of the population out there who can handle this kind of all-over-the-place format, such as it is. Frankly I think it's fun segueing from The Stooges to Judy Garland to ELP to Kraftwerk to Ernest Tubb. Then, a sudden strange rude noise segueing into The Ramones to Julie London to Yes to Eisturzende Neurbaten or however the heck they're spelled. Where else are ya gonna hear stuff like that?
    The music on The Last Radio Station has not been tested by focus groups. It is not in bed with any corporate entity. I take full responsibility for the selections. Some of the spoken-word selections may have a naughty word here and there, but it's nothing any sane adult can't handle.
    The Todd Rundgren cut is an interesting one. A friend of mine once brought a small concert PA out here (I live in the country) and we played that cut into the night sky as loudly as possible. When it ended we had every dog in the county howling themselves crazy. It was eerie.
    Again, thanks for writing, keep listening, and spread the word. Peace, we out.

Your songlist sounds great. Format radio is for targeting audiences for advertisers, it has never been for listeners. Continued success and good luck on your radio station.

Tom Hendricks, ed. of Musea
http://musea.digitalchainsaw.com

Tom: I completely agree with you about the formatting. Since we have no advertisers, why not play everything I can get my hands on? Frankly, I think listening to the same genre of music all day long is a big honkin' bore. As evidenced by the other letters here, listeners CAN handle some eclecticism in their musical diet. Maybe the commercial broadcasters will catch on to that one day, but I'm not holding my breath waiting. In the meantime, thanks for listening. The best is yet to come.

Where did you get all the songs from? I have recently started listening to you and all I can say is 'WOW'! Keep up the good work, and where should we send MP3 files that you might want to play?

Phil Couch
Age 54
Never to old to rock and roll!

     Phil: Thanks for the nice words about The Last Radio Station. From the sound of it you'd think the entire music industry was geared towards the twelve-and-under crowd, but we intend to show that is not the case.
     MP3s may be emailed directly to us or you can let us know where they can be downloaded from. A large percentage of our playlist is unsigned local bands, especially from Chapel Hill and eastern NC. Dunno about our being the next Seattle, but there's a whole bunch of really good bands in this state that are being totally ignored by mainstream radio, and I think that's almost criminal.

    KL

Looks like 99X is getting some evening competition to Howard Stern :)

Scott James

You think so? I doubt if we're putting any significant dents in their ratings but you never know. The program you're referring to, "Imus In The Evening", is actually taken from an album he released in the 1970s entitled "This Honky's Nuts". High Fidelity magazine reviewed it and called it "no doubt the filthiest album ever made". But it sounds downright tame compared to some of the other stuff out there nowadays. How innocent we were back then.

        I listen to talk radio usually , but have found myself tuning into your station some evenings . Where is your studio ? Do you accept input from your listeners ?
      I have some pretty obscure stuff you might like to add to your playlist ! Some of it is bootleg , and some is just not heard anywhere but in the odd home or two (those who own the album)
      I like what you're doing ! Keep it up ! I might be interested in contributing .

Art Beaman

        Thanks for your input re: The Last Radio Station. We aim to please.
        We are emanating from Greenville NC. Our "station" such as it is, consists of a Compaq 7360 computer with a second hard drive especially for MP3 files and a cable modem for smooth streaming output. I also have a nifty bit of software called CoolEdit that handles all the production chores.
       We certainly do accept and appreciate input from our listeners. If you've got some juicy MP3s that will make people say "whoa, what's THIS?" and turn up the volume, by all means send them in or let me know where I can download them. Any genre is OK.
        By the way, that is an absolutely gorgeous bike in the photo on your website.

K.L.,

I've listened several evenings over the past couple of weeks. It's a blast. Do you have the "I want to marry a lighthouse keeper" track from A Clockwork Orange? I think it would be great to hear that again. Carol and I listen together, it's like the ole timey radio shows except I get to change the winamp skins every 5 minutes if I want.

A Loyal Fan,
AL

Like we say, The Last Radio Station is the end of radio as we have known it and the beginning of a whole new thing. Glad to have you along and say hi to everyone down there on the water's edge next to the big towers.

Dear Last Radio Station -

    Thank you for existing. Do you know about WFMU.org & WPKN.org & Erika.net?
    How are you dealing with the new copyright performance royalties?
    I'm working with a Zen Buddhist Monastery that is interested in starting a web radio station that will include both Zennie content and freeform music. I'm currently researching different approaches. If you can offer me any tips or guidelines I'd be grateful. Do you support your own server or use a service provider? How loaded is your computer? Are you streaming through your roadrunner connection? How many listeners at a time do you / can you have? Are you the entire staff?

Julie Greenwood

Julie: For the technical specs on the Last Radio Station, see my reply to Mr. Beamon's letter above. Yes, I am the entire staff- the GM, the PD, the CE and any other acronyms I can think of. The copyright and performance issues are something we hope to address in a way that will enable us to stay online while keeping everybody happy and legal. I think an audio stream from a monastery would be quite interesting, so I have sent you a separate letter describing in detail how we do whatever it is we're doing here. If your audio venture gets on the net, please let us know. As for WFMU, they are the masters of the freeform genre and I am eternally indebted to them for their inspiration and guidance.

Return to the main page