Thanks to Hans Knot, who informed us that Ian MacRae has written a book titled The Beginner's Guide To Becoming a Radio Star, which is available to download from Ian's website. Says Ian in his introduction:
My name is Ian MacRae and I've spent close to 35 years of my life working in radio. (Insert jokes about brain damage here!)
I have worked on-air in country and city stations and even had a two-year stint working on the U.K. offshore 'pirate' stations of the time.
There's been some great times and some bad (really bad!) times. Highs and lows and some boring bits in between.
But one thing that has kept me going is the love of radio and all it can offer.
Any More Charts?
I love your Big L site, absolutely "Wonderful". Particularly the Fab 40 pages, so many memories of those songs I've not heard since they were broadcast from the Galaxy. It was good to see Soft Machine in the Fab 40 a couple of weeks back and I laughed out loud when I read that "Yellow Balloon" by Jan and Dean was John Peel's 'climber'!
I'd like to see the charts of Radio Caroline, Radio City and Radio England but have never found them in any books or websites.
All the best, Paul
Perusing the WPTR tribute site, Alan Field noticed in their Hall of Fame:
Thanks, Alan. Not much resemblance between the original Johnnie and our Radio Two man!Pictures of the late Roger Scott, (Radio One/Capital) looking very young, and the original US Johnnie Walker.
Cardboard
Shoes was right give that man a Sony!
In February's Happenings,
we reported that Paul Rowley had received over 100 messages
of congratulations since the broadcast of his superb documentary, Kenny
Everett - The BBC Local Radio Years on most of the Beeb's local stations
over the 2001 Christmas period. The hour-long programme tells how Cuddly Ken,
anxious to continue his radio career after his sacking from Radio One, recorded
shows for many BBC local stations in return for very little money. Fortunately,
fans lurked everywhere amongst the BBC staff, and tapes of the shows, which
were supposed to have been recycled to save money, were rescued for posterity.
Keith Skues described the documentary as, "First
class, fully professional, and most entertaining" and Peter
Young called it, "A joy. Well put together and researched by someone
who knew their subject through and through."
Cardboard Shoes was convinced the programme would be entered for a Sony award,
and it has! Paul tells us that his documentary has been nominated for a Sony
in the 'Music Special' category. The awards ceremony takes place on May 2nd,
2002.
The full list of nominations is: Music special Badly Drawn America (BBC Radio 1); Ilkley Moor Blues (BBC Radio 4); Kenny Everett: The BBC Local Radio Years (BBC Local Radio); The House That Jack Built (Vibe FM); World Routes: Kershaw In Iraq (BBC Radio 3).
A repeat of the programme can be heard on BBC Radio Kent on Good Friday, March 29th, 1700, and Radios Berkshire and Oxford, at 1300 on Easter Monday, April 1.
We shall all have our fingers (and knees) crossed for Paul on May 2nd!
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Earlier this month (here), John Schneider brought our attention to the fight against CARP (Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel), which threatens to silence many Internet radio stations, because of the sheer cost of playing music. CARP wants to charge a fee from the audio streaming companies on a "per song, per listener" basis! They also propose to collect information about who's listening. Things are hotting up. John says:
Hi everybody,
Here's the link: www.saveinternetradio.org. It's filled with all kinds of info on how the currently proposed fees came to be, how people can help, message boards, etc. I really hope you can take a minute to check it out and pass it along!
Thank you!!
John
Hans Knot reports that the Dutch
Radio Day on March 3rd was most successful, with over 300 people attending.
Graeme Gill was one of the special guests and
can be seen in photos of the event on Martin
van der Ven's site. (Scroll down on the Home page.)
Hans writes:
February 11th: Today Graham Gill was again on Dutch cable Radio Caroline and it was very nice to hear he had a short telephone call with Tony Allen. More than 25 years ago they were heard for the last time together on the English Radio Caroline.
A very nice MP3 greeting arrived this week at Radio London, from Jonathan. With the greeting:
I love what you do! And I dedicate this tune to you! Here are quotes from the song Pins (NeedLes) by Mindshift "Stand up for yourself. The bigger they come, is the harder they fall!" This is sincerely dedicated to you and all others who support Free Radio, and the spirit you breathe.
Paul de Haan and son Mark say:
We have updated Marine Broadcasters with mv Mi Amigo photopages and a story from Lasse Karlsson during his work onboard in 1961/62 when the old lady was broadcasting as Radio Nord.
The Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel (CARP) has set royalty rates for broadcasters who stream music online. CARP was designated to create a royalty rate as part of 1998's Digital Millennium Copyright Act after broadcasters and Webcasters could not agree with the record community on the amount to pay the artists and the labels.
Under the plan outlined by CARP, commercial radio stations that stream their signal over the Internet would pay 0.07 cents per performance. A "performance" is defined as "each instance in which any portion of a sound recording is publicly performed to a listener via a Web site transmission or retransmission." Which means the streaming of any portion of a single track from a CD to one listener.
Webcasters who retransmit over-the-air AM or FM broadcasts, such as Yahoo! and StreamAudio, will pay the same rate as traditional broadcasters 0.07 cents per performance. However, Internet-only broadcasters will pay 0.14 cents per performance.
The CARP report will be reviewed by the Copyright Office, which will recommend to the Librarian of Congress whether to accept, reject or modify the rates and terms in the report. The Librarian must accept or reject the report no later than May 21, 2002.
We need it to be REJECTED, folks. If the fees stay in any form or fashion, not only will traditional radio have to stop simulcasting on line completely, but Internet-only stations (like Radiopoly) will never have a chance to succeed. My music friends (many of whom are among the nearly 100 people on my e-mail list) know that I would NEVER even CONSIDER trying to shortchange them with regard to being compensated for their work. But the proposed new royalty fees (which would be in ADDITION to the already existing ASCAP and BMI fees that compensate artists) are not really about artist compensation. They're about the record companies seeking to gain as much control as possible over music on the Internet.URGENT UPDATE, MARCH 3RD
This goes WAY BEYOND whether or not our web site makes it. The recording industry is trying to hijack the Internet, plain and simple. Think I'm crazy? Read on.
To download the files you'll need the "Adobe Acrobat" reader (the files are PDF), which can be downloaded for free. The e-mail address for public comment on the webcasting fee issue is: copyinfo@loc.gov Just put "webcasting fees" in the subject line, and tell them to REJECT THE PROPOSED FEES AND REGULATIONS COMPLETELY.If you have already voiced your opinion at I thank you. If not, PLEASE take a minute to do it. They're accepting public comment until March 11th.
In addition to the proposed fees that by themselves would make it impossible for Internet broadcasters to remain viable, there is ALSO an absolutely insane set of proposed rules for keeping records of music streamed on line. I've pasted the info below, but you can also find it here: www.fmqb.com/fmqb/upfront/upfront2f.html
If the proposal makes it into law, those who stream music online would be required to report a lot of information, including: Name of the service; the channel of the program (station call letters); date of transmission; time of transmission; time zone of original transmission; numeric designation of the place of the sound recording within the program; duration of transmission; sound recording title; the ISRC code of the recording; the album release date (year); featured recording artist; retail album title; record label; the UPC code on album; the catalog number; the copyright owner information; and the musical genre of the channel or program (or station format).
Broadcasters would also be required to provide a listener's log that lists: the name of the service; the channel or program; date and time the listener logged in; date and time the listener logged out; time zone where the signal was received; unique user identifier; and the country of the listener.
THIS MUST NOT HAPPEN!! You can read more at www.loc.gov/copyright/carp/webcasting_rates.html
Svenn Martinsen the CEO/Chairman of Northern
Star International Broadcasters AS, informs us that his company is
the conditional licence-holder of new Norwegian-based station, with the
working title of Cruisin' 216. The station
intends to broadcast in English to Scandinavia, the British Isles and many
areas of Western Europe by means of a 1.2 million-Watt transmitter on 216
kHz AM Long Wave. The station will also be heard around the world in other
media, such as the Internet.
Northern Star International Broadcasters AS is a registered Norwegian broadcasting
shareholding company whose aim is to hold commercial radio licenses, and
to trade in commercial radio and related media on a Christian foundation.
The station website has information about the company, the history of the
project, and the team involved. www.northernstar.no
(Look out for a familiar face!)