And a very special welcome to another
batch of new subscribers to the Radio George newsletter. Glad to have you
aboard!
If you're not a subscriber, you're
missing out on great monthly freebies, plus the latest news about new channels
and what's happening inside Radio George. It's FREE, you know!
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The BIG News
As you may be aware, over the last
month or so, Radio George has been experiencing some intermittent problems.
These have mostly been what I call slowdowns of transmission, although in some
cases, the player appears and then doesn't do anything.
For over two
years now, Radio George has been using music provided by other online services.
The slowdown problem stemmed from the original service, which has failed to
respond to my emails. Not a good sign. Another service was sold and while
promises were made to continue the service, the new owners changed the format
and conditions of use so radically, the service is just not suitable for Radio
George.
So after much
soul-searching, contemplation, and financial figuring, I've decided to perform a
massive upgrade to Radio George that will result in MORE and BETTER
listening for you!
Essentially,
Radio George will control 100% of the music, which will be on a secure server
that can handle virtually unlimited traffic: No more slowdowns!
Also, I'll be adding some rare oldies that were formerly simply not available.
The Doo-Wop Channel will return! So will The Fifties Top 40! And don't be surprised if a couple of
Country Gold and Big Band channels make their appearance later in the year.
Yes, this is
exciting news. You have contributed a large part to this decision by answering
the call to tell your friends, thereby building the audience for
Radio George. Keep it up.
Now, I must
tell you that all this is certainly not going to happen overnight. Acquiring the
music licensing rights, building all-new players, and all the technical stuff
will at least eat up between 4-6 weeks. I've found that there's ALWAYS stuff
that pops up that eats up time, so a realistic time frame is probably 2 months.
In the meantime, it will be business as usual, so keep listening.
I do need one
favor from you, and I'll tell you what that is in a minute...
Your Monthly Special from the Radio
George Newsletter Sponsor
Dear Radio George friends,
March is here and it is time to start incubating our emu eggs so we have
chicks on the ground by the beginning of May. Mark your calendars now as we
open our farm to the public on May 8 and May 9. If you would like a farm
tour brochure please send us an email or give us a call. We will get one
placed in the mail to you as soon as we get the brochures from the printer.
Well, spring is just around the corner and as we venture outdoors more, we
will be using the outdoor grill, working in the yard, thus exposing
ourselves to burns, and even the itchy rash that accompanies poison ivy, so we
have placed Derma 50 on sale for the month of March. Order your jar today
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Thanks for your time and keep listening to Radio George.
Mike & Dee Martin
4 D ACRES, Inc.
1-877-837-4119 (order)
1-209-790-1832 (fax)
info@4dacres.com
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Internet
Radio in Cars Picking Up Speed
In last month's "Radio Musings," I commented on the continuing development of
Internet radio in cars and received a lot of feedback from Radio George
listeners. A few thought I was projecting way too far ahead, talking about
freely available coast-to-coast wi-fi and the ability to select Internet
stations easily without having to take your eyes off the road and/or fiddle with
a mini-keyboard type device to tune in.
Well, since last month, the Obama administration has been mildly pushing its
desire to transform "unused" TV bandwidth into wi-fi service space for the Internet,
and today (March 4) these announcements came down at allaccess,com, one of the
daily trade websites for radio:
|
RADIOTIME, INC. will integrate their web radio service into its BMW's MINI,
bringing web radio and a unique USB interface for integration of the APPLE
iPHONE in the car’s audio and infotainment system.
"Drivers love radio
because it’s free and requires no registration or setup, but accessing
Internet radio used to require patching a smartphone into a car’s existing
sound system, and fiddling with a smartphone’s controls," said RADIOTIME CEO
BILL MOORE. "Now, instead of looking at your smartphone screen, you can use
the dash display and MINI Joystick to tune to web radio. Radio has always
been an integral part of our cars, and we’re opening up the world of music,
news, talk, sports and entertainment that only web radio can offer." |
Also in the news from allaccess.com:
|
PANDORA recently announced a business partnership with FORD that will enable
listeners to access their personalized PANDORA radio stations through voice
command over FORD SYNC. ALPINE and PIONEER have also announced support for
PANDORA's recently launched "PandoraLink" technology in aftermarket products
that those companies are distributing later this year. |
I don't think this makes me a guru, since I've been following this for the
past three years ago. An engineer I hired to develop the first version of Radio
George told me then that he was one of a team of engineers tasked with the
creation of the prototype of a car Internet radio (commissioned by the unlikely
team of Ford and GM). Looking at this in light of the current news above, I say
it's just a matter of time before autos will come with Internet-ready radios for
everyday use.
I just hope they'll be able to let you listen easily to Radio George!
This Month's Freebie
With more and more webcams built in to computers,
especially netbooks, many users are toying with the idea of doing "something"
with video. Older computer users are concerned the learning curve is long
and not easily traveled.
Here's the easy way to get your feet wet, and as usual,
radio George has spotted a FREE way for you to do it: Webcam XP Free
This program lets you stream live on the Internet or
upload via FTP. It will let you add overlays or watermarks over your streams. It
allows capturing video or record at fixed intervals.
It supports a single video source (such as your webcam)
and is great for putting live webcam shots on your home page and "broadcasting"
as well.
There are many more features that you can examine on the
home page.
Naturally, the company gives away the free "limited"
software in the hopes that you might want to upgrade someday. But if you want to
just mess around without spending any cash, this is a dandy freebie.
Go to this page:
http://www.webcamxp.com/home.aspx
and click on the "download now" link. It's the first
product in the vertical display of products. The links do not look like links
(they're not in blue on the website):
|
application (installer) (5Mb)
download
from filekicker.com (USA)
download from
darkboard.net (Switzerland)
documentation (pdf format) (9Mb)
download
from filekicker.com (USA)
download from
darkboard.net (Switzerland)
|
Will You Do Me a Favor?
If you haven't taken the Radio George survey yet, I'm asking
you to take just a couple of minutes to do so. It is only 4 questions long, and
will help me a lot in shaping the "new" Radio George described above. This
should take no more than a minute or two, literally.
Click Here to
take the survey.
Until Next Time...
Keep listening to Radio George and keep spreading the
word!
If you have any suggestions or ideas to make Radio George
even better and more fun, the contact link is on the homepage.
Sincerely,
George Woods
Radio George
