And now the part most of you are waiting for.  Freeze-Frame Radio is back on the air!  But we've got some changes that some of you may not care for.

I have created a website which is almost completely self-contained.  There is nothing I need to update.  The pages contained in it are either auto-updated or contain information that never changes.  Thus, no work is needed to maintain it.

The stream is up and completely free for anyone to listen to!  It will go between 32k and 64k right now (which is what Live365 provided).  But on weekends we'll offer 128k which is a REAL improvement.

We are now on a different network that has NO commercials (not even at the initial load) and better yet NO ANNOYING "Are you listening?" breaks!  Tune in once via the webpage, iTunes, Windows Media Player, RealPlayer or WinAmp and you'll stay tuned in as long as you want to be! 

It should be noted however that we are no longer jockeying for position on anyones "charts" so we prefer that if you're not listening you turn us off until you return.  The spots can be used by someone else while you're gone.

When we originally went off the air several people contacted me wanting to know if they could help with the financial aspect of the station.  The problem is that the way royalties work is that any "donation" accepted by the station immediately turns us from a hobby into a professional station, even if we're losing a ton of money every month.

That's where MZ's "Listener Owned" station idea comes in!

The website has a password protected section which only the owners can get into.  We're offering the opportunity to be a minority owner in the station for a small monthly fee.  The thing is, we really want everyone to SERIOUSLY look at this as an ownership, not a donation.  The idea is that everyone will have the opportunity to provide their input on major station decisions when they arise, and using the request system (which is only open to owners) will actively program the stations music.

Furthermore everyone is invited to offer suggestions on how to improve the station, provide some kind of content for the website or on-air if you'd like to (and we can fit it in), or anything else that you can think of.

You all know how opposed to taking donations I've always been, but I just can't keep paying for this all myself.  We really think this could work.  The price  for being an owner is less than the cost of being a VIP was at Live365, so I think it's a reasonable rate.

MzHartz is also going to help me set up a once or twice a year fund-raiser type event.  Something fun, not just asking for a handout.  Something along the lines of the cookbook thing we did last year, or there has been talk about an ebay sale, where we ask people to donate some stuff from their junk pile they don't want and we can auction it off on ebay, letting the listeners track the progress of the items.

Owners will receive quarterly email updates filling them in on our financial situation, and asking for their votes on any issues that are in front of us at the time.

If the response is poor then we'll have to throw in the towel and shut down, but atleast we gave it our best shot.  If the response is good then we have 50 slots available at 32k or twenty five at 64k that we can broadcast on.

If the response is great, then we'll actually be able to offer 50 free listening slots at 32k and twenty high quality 96k slots for the owners to tune into.

The request system should be less congested as only the owners will be requesting music.

Well, there's a ton more I could say, but I think I've blabbed enough.

I'll be around ALL MORNING to field your questions either privately or on the forum.

The website will be up and running at 10 AM Central time.  I have a few last minute tweaks before we're ready to go.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed you all wind up liking this idea.

-- Edited by Jeremy Riggs at 01:28, 2007-10-29

-- Edited by Jeremy Riggs at 01:37, 2007-10-29