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see end... ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tom Fine" <[log in to unmask]> > I wasn't talking about internet-only at all. I was talking about using modern technology to make > equipment investment minimal. > > Net-only is very easy, just do a podcast. But, as I've said before, beware of ASCAP/BMI rules. And, > even if you load up a podcast file of 192K MP3 (which becomes a rather large file when you get up to > 30-60 minutes), the quality is still sub-par from a good-quality FM broadcast (but better than > over-processed headache inducing garbage found on most FM frequencies in most places today). > > The thing that interested me about community radio is that it would be nice to have a real-deal > FM-quality signal (albeit low power with limited range) with something aside from what Evergreen and > Clearchannel decide is good content. I'd also love to open it up to some of the local high school > kids and older folks who are into music -- see if exposure to different tastes and styles broadens > everyone involved. > > But, given the PITA factor, I'll just revert back to my norm -- staying happy with 1000+ LPs, > hundreds of tapes and several thousand CD's. Music is becoming less and less a shared experience > anyway, with the iPod revolution and decline of music-based radio. Back in high school, many years > ago, I tried to gin up interest for a school radio station to go over the cable TV system (we > already had a TV studio, so it wouldn't be a big deal to piggyback onto that infrastructure). Could > not get enough commitments to make it feasible, and got outright hostility from the union AV and > library staff. Oh well. At that time, my friend, who was in a serious Deadhead phase, told me, > "dude, I feel your pain a little but I gotta tell ya -- the best radio station in the world is your > own turntable, man." Since this guy introduced me to MANY still-loved musicians and music genres, I > listened to his words even if we looked like a 60's refugee and was a bit bleary-eyed (he now works > for the UN, so go figure). He was right, of course. > > Somewhat relevant to all of this, and worth reading, is Chris Anderson's "The Long Tail". It started > with this article: > http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/tail.html > and was expanded to a book: > http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1401302378/sr=8-1/qid=1152787909/tomslinx > and Anderson has a related blog: > http://www.thelongtail.com/ > > I don't buy it all, hook line and sinker, but there are a lot of interesting facts and predictions. > Bottom line is, there might be hope for our oft lament: languishing out of print copyrighted > commercial music. Under the Long Tail theory, the Big Music mega-glomerates will wake up to the fact > that there is demand for this stuff, though small compared to their "mainstream" offerings, and will > make it available in some cheap/efficient manner (ie iTunes). As I've said numerous times, my fear > is that the quality level will be leagues worse than the master media and even worse than the > original release media. > > Anyway, a little veered from the Community Radio topic, but it started there! ;) > Well, the big difference is that you are thinking in terms of (I'm guessing here) classical music, mainly from the LP or even the stereo LP era. For this, you would need/want at least "CD quality" sound...probably two-channel...for "webcasting" and for "community" FM. The former takes a lot of bandwidth...and I have no idea what the latter would require! In my case, what I own...and what I'd like to webcast...are my 40,000-odd (some QUITE odd) 78's. Of those, about 98-99% are (at least currently) public domain up here in the "frozen northland"...and, better yet, they are all mono and most of them have minimal bandwidth (even the electrics cut off around 6 to 8KHz). So, MP3's of my old acoustic discs won't...in fact CAN'T...sound worse than the originals! What I might consider doing is to convert them to MP3's, and then assemble THOSE into one large MP3 file (how does one do that?)... Steven C. Barr