This will be a very long post, but if you read to the very end, I promise you will not be disappointed. So earlier this year, something unexpected happened in my life. And it all started with an ad on Craigslist. Normally I don’t look at Craigslist since it doesn’t have specific ads for the town that I live in. However, one fated day in June, I decided to look at the tv/film/video posts under the jobs section. Once in awhile, there will be casting calls etc that are not BS. Well on that particular day, I saw an ad for Radio Personalities. It was a telecommute position. The ad was looking for radio personalities from around the world for this new radio station. And that is where this tale begins.
When I first read the ad, I was very excited because I live to entertain people. I have been acting and dancing on stage from a very young age. I thought, “OMG this position would be fantastic for me PLUS I get to do it from home!” Being able to work from home is a must for various reasons that I will get into at a later time. But that joy and excitement quickly faded to a “Shit! This ad is probably listed multiple times in multiple cities! DAMN! The market is so cut throat at the moment! GAH! They will never get to my application and my demo. (Part of the application process was submitting a short 30 second audition Mp3.) And I KNOW I would be perfect for this! WELL JEEBUS MURPHY!!!” How cruel fate seemed at that moment in time. So I closed my web browser and tried to not give it a second thought. But over the next three days, my mind went back to that ad. And every day, I would go back to Craigslist and read the ad. And every day, it was more cursing and swearing about how this would be the perfect opportunity. Well on the third day, I said to myself, “Fuck this, I am going to apply anyway. What is the worse that could happen? They don’t get to my application. Exactly. So do it already.” So once I decided to apply, a new set of problems arose. How on earth was I going to bring across my ideas, my personality and all that I had to offer the station in a mere 30 seconds?!?! It was impossible! There is so much to me, I have so many ideas, 30 seconds was not enough! So I spent yet another day trying to figure out how to complete this mission impossible. Finally, I came up with an idea and tried my best to execute it. Once the Mp3 was created, I composed the email containing all the information asked for, attached the Mp3, held my breath and hit send. This was at around 1 am my time (pacific). I thought one more time that there is no way on earth that my application will be read let alone have someone respond to it and off to bed I went.
The next morning, I got up, made coffee and sat down to do my morning routine. This consists of waiting for the coffee to brew, checking my email, checking the many forums I belong to, checking the blog I read and checking my email. Until I get many many many many cups of coffee into my system (they need to make coffee available through IV) I am far from coherent. My family knows that it is bad policy to say too much to me until my morning ritual is over and done with, cause crabby bear has nothing on me. Once my 20 or so daily emails downloads, I go and look through to see what needs my immediate attention and what can wait. And then I see it! YES IT!! I thought I was dreaming. How can this possibly be? NO BLOODY WAY! I looked at the time stamp. NO BLOODY WAY!! 5 am?!?! This cannot be true. I need more coffee cause now I am hallucinating! After giving my head a shake, rubbing my eyes and then looking at my inbox again, my heart leaped right out of my chest! HOLY SHIT! I AM NOT SEEING THINGS!! So I opened this fated email, and it is the General Manager saying he got my application and wants to arrange a telephone interview. Shut the front door! Four hours after sending out the email, I get a response?! When does that ever happen! So I answered right away saying yeah sure and giving good times for a phone call. Well three more days go by, and I haven’t heard anything in return. And that is when I started having that inner fight again. Of course it was too good to be true. Nothing like that ever happens in the entertainment industry. When I had just given up all hope, I get another email saying sorry I haven’t gotten back to you sooner, do you have MSN and we will do the interview there. So I email back my MSN ID, we add each other and the interview begins. He tells me the concept for the station and how it works and my mind began to race. What he was telling me has never been attempted before and it was about time someone did something like this! Oh the possibilities! So without a second thought, I accepted the job as a Radio Personality. And I thought, wow this cannot get any better. Well, I couldn’t have been more wrong!
About a week goes by and I get an MSN asking me if I could help out with a couple of things, because the other person who was suppose to help out didn’t have the time. It was nothing major and wouldn’t take much time. I said, “Well what do you need help with? I have spare time right now.” It was simple, he needed help interviewing people. He had a script all typed up, names and phone numbers for me to call. I had done this many times before for previous jobs. So I started to make the calls, interview people and get the paper work process started. Well this little bit of help, turned into more and more. Then one day I was asked if I wanted to be the Assistant Program Director. Are you serious?! YES! And then I began getting more and more duties. Next thing asked was did I want to be the Program Director? Again, without a moments hesitation, YES! After a lifetime of wanting something even a fraction of this, how could I say no? After that began the many many hours of training a staff of around 80 people, making sure the website was ready and a whole bunch of other things to make this wonderful project lift off. On September 13, 2008, all the hard work put into this project, became a reality.
Now what is this wonderful project? How can a radio station be wonderful? All you hear is the same tired garbage over and over again driven by record labels and corporations and big media wanting to make a quick buck off of the consumer. Well that certainly is not the case here! And when I try to tell people that, they find it very very hard to believe. But it is true. Now please hang on with me even more while I explain exactly why we are different and why I am so excited about this project, more excited than I have been about many things in a very long time.
If you go the station’s
website, and then click on the
about page, you will read this:
Party 934 is a new type of internet radio station. We are the first truly multigenre station, which means we do not have a set “format.” Our “Party Mixologists” have their own shows throughout the day and they get to play whatever type of music or talk about whatever they want.
How we are different
We have Party Mixologists playing pretty much every genre you can think of — from techno, house, dance, hip hop, R&B, rap, gospel, indie, alternative, jazz funk, Americana, Britpop, punk, and more!
In terms of our on-air personalities, we truly have a diverse team. We have
a professional music producers, like Alexander Cortada (Senior Party Mixologist EvilSeed) who has been making beats and producing music for over seven years. We also have Al-Kesna “AC” Shaw (Senior Party Mixologist AC) who has been extremely successful in terrestrial radio. At Bethune-Cookman College in Daytona Beach, Florida, AC served as the Program Director. Then, he got accepted to work at WHQT in Miami, Florida on Sundays as well as Assistant Production Director for Cox’s Radio cluster of stations. AC can also be heard doing colorful traffic reports on WHQT and sister station WEDR. In addition, we have two students from The University of the Arts (Philadelphia, PA), Chris and Mike (hosts of “Chris & Mike at Nite”). They are the host of a very popular Broadway/musical theatre show on Party 934. We also have Felisha Ener – Senior Party Mixologist Mz. Fee (host of “Grown Folks Party”) who used to run a community radio station called 96.1 Tha Zone in Houston, Texas.
So, as you can see, Party 934 is extremely diverse — from professional deejays, to terrestrial radio personalities, to students, and finally to those just looking to do something constructive with their time!
Our views on the Top 40
You’ll never catch a Party Mixologist on Party 934 playing anything from the top 40. Party 934 feels that most artists who are on the top 40 do not need any more marketing for their music – which is not even that great to begin with. Party 934 wants to be different – we will never play anything from the Jonas Brothers, Fall Out Boy, Panic! At the Disco, Linkin Park, or Miley Cyrus. These artists are already extremely popular (for whatever reason) and do not produce good music for the community. We feel that independent and semi-mainstream artists deserve more attention and promotional consideration for their hard work and efforts. Some musical artists on the top 40 don’t even write their own music or lyrics! We feel that promoting local, unsigned, and independent bands will help them in their musical ventures, because they deserve it for their hard work!
Now, I feel the about page really does not do the station justice, and I have thought many time that it need a re-write. First, we have a huge staff. Each staff member gets to play whatever music “does it” for them, their own personal brand, without having to find radio safe music. The listener gets to hear the music as the artist intends. As well, we do not censor our mixologists. They are free to talk about what they want. Of course we have rules about using racial slurs and derogatory comments re: sexuality, gender, religion etc, because that is not needed. It is not their jobs to be discriminatory. They are free to talk about what they want, but of course it needs to be kept professional at some level. If they are wanting to have a themed show, it is all up to them. We allow all of our personalities to have complete creative control over their own shows. If they are not enthusiastic about what they are doing, how on earth are the listeners going to be enthusiastic about tuning in. Another way we are extremely different is you will never hear the same personality for more than 2 hours (unless an emergency comes up and they have to cover for another mixologist). That way the listener doesn’t get tired by hearing the same personality every day for hours a day. In any given day, the listener has the opportunity to hear anywhere from 12-24 different personalities each playing their own choice of genre. You can listen from anywhere in the world that has internet connection. People who live in the Hudson Valley, NY also have the option of tuning in at 102.5 FM. And you get to hear personalities from around the world, bringing to you music that you will not get to hear on most radio stations in North America. We have mixologists in the following countries: The Philippines, Greece, Germany, Russia, the UK, Italy, Brazil, Canada and the USA. I am sure we will be adding more countries to the list in the near future, bringing variety you will not find anywhere else. There is no pressure for them to play any song since we don’t answer to the record labels. Yes, we are fully licensed and we pay all the necessary royalties, something that is very important. But it is even more important for the independent artists to get air time, since they are the one that have to work that hardest to be heard and we are a voice for them. At Party934, there is no need for long letter writing campaigns begging for air play. All an artist has to do is approach one of the mixologists, and if the mixologist likes their music, it gets played. Something else that is unheard of these days. We have a strict no current top 40 policy. Songs in the top 40 get played enough as it is, they don’t need someone else playing. Yes you will hear songs that have once been the in the top 40, but that is because the mixologist chooses to play it, not because some record label is giving the station a kick back for it to be played. I know some of the information in this paragraph is repetitive from what is on the about page, however I feel it needs to be stressed. Honest to bob, this is real. Its about time people had some real say in the media they not only have to put out to the public but that they choose to consume as well. And it is this creative control, this real voice that many people get to enjoy in what tends to be over ceonsored media, espcially in the states, that has me so very excited!
Well I think I have rambled enough for now. If you made it to the bottom of my post, kudos. Please check us out and support us. I promise you, you will find something that you like.
Main channel @ 128kbps
