photograph by Alexandra Furstenberg

Recent Commentary

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Why I Stopped Running an Internet Radio Station

When I was thirteen I used to listen to a black and white transistor radio tucked under my pillow. One night I found a Chicago station and heard  The CBS Radio Mystery Theater hosted by E.G. Marshall.

Just like that I was hooked. I fell in love with radio dramas and wanted to hear more.

Popular for its time, CBSRMT was a modern program aired by CBS during the late 70s and early 80s and produced by Himan Brown. It was an attempt to recapture the magic of Old Time Radio. When we moved from Illinois I always made it a point to find a station that aired this program so I could continue listening, and I would often ask my grandparents what they remembered of OTR.

As an adult I discovered real OTR, old time radio, and its fans. I began to collect and research these old programs and listen to them whenever I could. As a professional writer I saw the intrinsic value of these radio shows beyond their nostalgic worth. I knew I could learn a lot from these programs on how to write a tight cohesive story, and I did.

I had fun running the station for two years, but it got difficult to maintain. We don't have the best Internet around so I always had to worry whether we were streaming or not. Sometimes the electricity went off at night, a regular occurrance here in Dallas. So I had to restart the computer and more often than not go into the server and restart that.

It got too difficult to maintain. I was always worried I wasn't providing the promised service I wanted to provide. Sure, the Internet station was free for listeners, but even so that shouldn't mean they had to put up with spotty service.

I think we did well given the fact a lot of people said they liked it and enjoyed it, but the service didn't live up to my standards.These were because of things outside my control (Internet, electricity, servers down) but that didn't mean I wasn't concerned and bothered by it.

So, the Internet station is off the air. I am going to miss it. I am not going to miss worrying whether we would stay on the air when a thunderstorm came through or why the computer shut down during the night or why everything appeared to be working correctly but we couldn't connect to the server.

--KMH



Kennetth Mark Hoover reads his Haxan story "Grand Guignol" at Blood of the Bean, a reading hosted by Kickbutt Coffee and the Horror Writers of America in 2009. (Photo by Kenneth Matthew Hoover)

Industry News

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