[WXBH-Discuss] Interim Radio Committee Appointments

Sun Jul 22 06:24:40 EDT 2007

is earlier better for radio meeting today?

John Hicks <johnhicks at wxbh.org> wrote:  James--

I know of your interest and we'd love to have you involved. Give me a call and we'll talk about the possibilities!

And to the rest of you on the list: It's an exciting time as everything seems to be happening at once! Now is the time to get involved.

The current governing structure may seem a little complicated. There's a committee of the Brick House board of directors whose job has been to appoint a governing board for the radio. Although that governing board is already in place, it has been rather inactive. I hope and believe that it will become more active and that we will be adding to that board over time and will be drawing from those who are actively involved in the radio project (or the radio "collective" as we like to say at the Brick House).

Most of the actual work and effort, of course, is not done at board meetings. and, thus far, most of it has fallen on the shoulders of just a few individuals. Here's a quick list of what needs to be done:

1. Operation and monitoring. Right now most everything is automated (thanks to computers and the Internet), but is subject to hiccups that require manual intervention. Since we don't have a full-time station manager, we need a crew of people who monitor the stream and the broadcast to alert us when a hiccup occurs. And we need one or two technically oriented folks who can correct such hiccups. (The skillset right now is Ubuntu Linux crontab, shell scripts, mpd playlists, ssh, screen, etc. all of which I'll be happy to teach you.)

2. Scheduling. We published a tentative schedule here a couple of weeks ago (http://scheduler.wxbh.org/schedule.html), but that is very crude. It is nothing more than the Pacifica feed superimposed over the WRFN (Nashville) schedule. We need to do a better job of scheduling our local content in a consistent manner. And we can also bolter the schedule with other syndicated programs. And then we need to publish that schedule for all the world to see.

3. Building a studio. We are finally free to go ahead and install a studio at the Brick House. The space has been reserved for us all along. There is a motley assortment of audio equipment. We need to rig up a simple setup with a microphone or two so we can record shows and/or broadcast them live. We probably will then want to do a little soundproofing. And for the next couple of months, we could really really use some way of air conditioning the space. (Ideas are solicited. I've been wracking my brain to figure out how we could maybe jury-rig two or three window units into a makeshift forced air system, for example.)

4. Programming. Yes, we need people to produce radio programs. You can do it right now by recording onto a computer or a digital recorder. And once we get the studio ready, you should be able to just show up and start talking (or playing the kazoo or whatever it is you want to do), so we really need that studio.

5. Promotion. We need to start letting the world know that we are on the air (and on the Internet) and soliciting listeners and programmers. This is especially true in our primary coverage area (Fern Creek, Buechel, etc.) where we have not done much publicizing.

6. Membership and underwriting. We need to get a program into place to start generating some modest revenue.

Along the way we want to be working toward a structure that keeps the radio (and the entire organization) grounded in some solid principles and not vulnerable to power struggles that would narrow the range of viewpoints that can be expressed. We need to assemble a solid crew of individuals who believe in free speech, the free marketplace of ideas, the importance of local community, and the importance of free and open communication among all people within that community. Come and help build a new institution that we can all be proud of!

Our radio collective meetings have been at 6 p.m on Sundays at the Brick House. (However I see there is a concert scheduled at 5 p.m. at the Brick House, so we may have to reschedule this week.) But even if you can't make the meetings, you can still get involved. Most of the work is not done at the meetings. 

Feel free to speak up on this list or to call me directly with your ideas and/or offers of help.

Thanks,

--John Hicks
Phone: 502-213-0428

James Kelley wrote:     John,

       Considering I have interest in this, I might want to serve.  The real question is not motivation, but the ability to give that would be needed.  Could you tell me what the requirements would be, so that I can decide if I would be able to live up to the commitment? 

  On 7/18/07, John Hicks <johnhicks at gulfbridge.net> wrote:   Although the duties of the Brycc House board's radio committee were
completed by the appointment of the radio governing board, as Brycc 
House board chairman I must take note of the fact that two of the four
members of that committee have now resigned.

As a standing committee of the Brycc House board, the radio committee
was due to be reappointed after our annual meeting (which has been 
postponed until next month).

Until that meeting, I do hereby appoint the entire board of directors of
Brycc House Inc. to serve as the radio committee. I don't see that they
have any duties to perform, but I believe we should have a full 
committee in place just in case.

The radio governing board remains in place, although they haven't met
lately. Let's wait a few days until the dust settles and then we can
call a meeting of that board and see where to go from here. 

Thanks,

John Hicks
Chairman, Board of Directors, Brycc House Inc.

--
John Hicks, President
Gulfbridge, Inc.
"Putting the Web to work for your business."
http://gulfbridge.com
johnhicks at gulfbridge.net
502-213-0428

--
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