End of Year Update and Random Thoughts in Between

Hope everyone had a great Christmas! I'd like to take the opportunity this New Years Eve and talk about the past year, and what my thoughts are going into 2016.

It's been an interesting year as far as the live show is concerned. Since the now infamous justcastlive crash and our subsequent move to camup (see previous blog posts for more details) it's been a slow reboot of the show. It's a real shame that justcast had to crash when it did, we were really starting to gain a following over there, one that has been slow to nonexistant on camup.

Keep in mind of course that camup itself is still very new, and by the increasing number of live shows that I'm seeing I have no doubt that it will take off. So far my experience has been very positive, hardly any issues with broadcasting at all.

Looking ahead to 2016....

I plan to continue on with the show, with an eye on when my XSplit license renews in mid February. I use XSplit (and highly recommend it, well worth the $14.95 every three months) to stream the live show. If things are starting to pick up I'll stick with the audio/video format on Camup with the rebroadcast on awdio, but if it's not meant to be then I'll go back to an all audio format on awdio. Of course none of this is set in stone and I could easily change my mind, broadcasters prerogative :)

In any event I wish everyone a happy, and safe New Year!!!!!

- Jack

Holiday Hiatus

Hey everyone, taking the rest of the year off as far as the live broadcast goes, we'll be live again after New Years.

I hope everyone is having a kick ass holiday season and thanks for the continued support.

So The Short Version Is This

Hey everyone, just a followup. I know I posted a long ass update the other day so here is the readers digest condensed version...

The live show is broadcast on camup every Monday night starting at 9 pm (EST) and here is the link http://www.camup.tv/users/indie-spotlight-live

After the live show and when time permits we REBROADCAST the show (which is recorded during our live broadcast on camup) on our channel on awdio so people who missed the live show can listen to the archive. That link is http://www.awdio.com/indiespotlightlive

I'll change all the links on our FB presence as well as our blogger page so we don't have any more confusion, sorry about that!

November Update and Our New Broadcast Home

This is earlier in the month than usual for my monthly update blog but since it is November and we are about to get into the time of year where people spend less time online as well as what is currently going on with the live broadcast it makes more sense to post this now.

First of all I want to thank the team at justcastlive. You folks have been amazing as far as your support of the show, and I want you all to know how much I appreciate it. It's really unfortunate that the downtime has run this long, up until now my plan was to be "Indie Spotlight broadcast on justcastlive" for however long I decided to keep doing the show however with the site being offline for this long at this point I feel I have no choice but to move on.

Now, for the big announcement;

We've been using our old page on awdio.com as a stand-in until justcastlive came back online. Despite often posted assurances that justcast was coming back online "soon" the folks running justcast have yet to define "soon". I'm not trying to be critical, apparently there were some serious issues that need to be addressed before they could bring the site back. I've been standing by for almost six weeks and while I love justcast I can't stand by forever so I had to make a decision, and break a promise.

When blogtv shut down and sold out at the end of March of 2013 our broadcast started bouncing around like a jackrabbit in heat as far as where and when the live show was broadcast. When we found justcast last year I told you folks "this is it, the last time I will ask you to reset your bookmarks yet again" and this is where the broken promise comes in.

I'm about to ask you folks to reset your bookmarks yet again. Over the history of the show this will be the 9th time I will ask this and I'll explain why.

We need the audio/video/chat platform. While I enjoy the ease of broadcast of just doing the audio format I've been getting messages on Facebook asking me when the live chat was coming back. I did a test show on camup.tv last Monday and it worked really well, from what I could see there didn't seem to be any issues at all. We also simulcasted it to our channel on awdio, and overall it looks like things worked out well. I say it "looks like it worked out well" because I didn't announce the show and didn't have the usual suspects in chat or on skype to tell me otherwise, I can only go by the word of the one camup moderator that popped in to chat and featured the show and told me that it sounded really good. Hopefully regular listeners/viewers will return to the show and confirm this for me.

So here is the big announcement;

We're moving the live broadcast to our channel on camup.tv and will rebroadcast the show on our channel on awdio.com so folks can check out the show on the archive if they miss the live broadcast and the reason I don't plan to simulcast the show is because you have to allocate a segment of time on awdio and if the show runs over that time it's still broadcast live but not archived which obviously defeats the purpose of an archived show. So instead I'll do the live show on camup, and after I see how long the show actually lasted, I'll schedule the rebroadcast on awdio with the appropriate amount of time and rebroadcast it there so people can check out the archived show on demand.

This is a really tough call for me, while I'm not happy with their site being offline for so long I have to say that I really liked justcast, but at the end of the day I have to do what is best for the show. Many of these musicians aren't getting airplay unless we're broadcasting and right now camup seems to be our best option because the site loads easily, is mostly user friendly, and seems to be on a solid server, we had no dropped frames during the two hour test show.

So, the live show going forward will be broadcast at http://www.camup.tv/users/indie-spotlight-live and we will have our "official premier" Monday night starting at 9 pm (EST)

If you miss the live show sometime after the live broadcast it will be rebroadcast for archiving purposes on our page on awdio.com, that link will be http://www.awdio.com/indiespotlightlive

Thank you all for your continued support as we embark on our latest journey. While I'll miss the following that we had started to get on justcast I really have a good feeling that we'll build just as good of a following on camup.

p.s. Anyone notice that I didn't promise that this would be the last time that I would ask you to update your bookmarks? Yep, learned that lesson :)

Happy Halloween!

Quick show update, I've decided that I'm going to play around on www.camup.tv this week as well as try to simulcast to our channel on awdio.

Please watch our FB group as well as this blog for dates and times. If it goes well then I will do something like an "Official Launch" the following week.

Happy Halloween!

The Past, Present, and Future of Indie Spotlight

This post will first be a history lesson on Indie Spotlight, my thoughts on our current broadcast situation, and the future of the live broadcast.

First, the history lesson;

Indie Spotlight started in January of 2009 as an offshoot of my previous online broadcast known as NewsTalk which was broadcast on blogtalkradio.com. NewsTalk, which had debuted in Feburary of 2008, was just as the name sounds, it was a news magazine style program that covered the news of the day although the primary focus was on the election of '08. Shortly after the election my friend Deb from the Unsigned Musicians show suggested that we use my platform to talk about some of the things that were going on in the music industry at the time, how independent musicians were effected by the nonsense and interview musicians as well as movers and shakers in the industry. I thought it was a great idea and the initial shows were called NewsTalk, Special Report. 

As music began to be incorporated into the program I decided that Indie Spotlight was a more appropriate name for the show, since most of the guests that we had were independent musicians and I felt that since we were talking about the music industry and the issues that the indie guys had to overcome to even have their music heard I felt that a name change was in order.

During the period between January to May of 2009 our broadcasting site blogtalkradio.com was undergoing a transition of their own. Frequently there were issues either with the live broadcast, the archived shows, or the chat so after much nagging by Deb I made the decision to move to blogtv and go to the hybrid video/music format.

If there is anyone keeping notes this will be the first time we changed our broadcasting home.

Indie Spotlight Live debuted on blogtv.com in May of 2009. Over the course of the next year the show transitioned from a primary talk format with some music played, to mostly a music show. We still had musician interviews but as time grew on they became less frequent since on blogtv the interviews had to be conducted via skype whereas on blogtalkradio they had a handy guest line that they could call in from on any phone, One of the advantages that doing the show on blogtv had was their "co-hosting" feature where I could bring someone on live to be a part of the show and especially in the beginning we had live music featured via the co-hosting feature just about every week and it was a ton of fun. If someone were to ask me what I miss most about our blogtv broadcast my answer would be that I miss being able to do that. I really miss being able to feature live music on the show.

Over time we became a totally music oriented broadcast, and at the time I was using the screen name "riskybusiness04" since it was the name that I usually used online. In November of 2012 I decided that I needed to use a screen name that was more oriented to the show, and created a new profile on blogtv with the Indie Spotlight Live screen name.

While on the same website, those keeping count will count this as move #2.

On March 14, 2013 I found out that blogtv.com was selling itself to younow.com. I took a look at younow's terms of service, didn't like them and decided that I needed to find a new home for the show. We did our last show on blogtv before they shut down on 3/24/13 and I spent the last night that blog was online on 3/27 at the Unsigned Musicians show with Deb, who cut her show short so that we could check out a new musician on his own channel on blogtv. It seemed a fitting way to go out on blogtv.

Over the course of finding a new home for the show, we found one, but it didn't have a chat room. Please keep in mind that this site was very different then than it is now, but yes, this is when we found awdio.com. We premiered our show on there at the end of March of 2013.

If you are still keeping count, this will be move #3.

Our broadcast on awdio at that time wasn't without issues, the first one being that at that time it was still important for me to have a chatroom open so I could interact with people so in order to do that I set one up on a chatroom site with links to where you could listen to the show, and links on the showpage on awdio where you could find the chat. Doing the show this way at that time didn't work well because we had two situations, the first one being people who found the show, but couldn't get into the live chat, and we had people that found the chat, but couldn't listen to the live show. Because I was doing the show in such a format which was "click here to listen, and hang out with us in the live chat here" it was important at that time that my broadcast provider was reliable. Sadly awdio at that time wasn't reliable, I found myself twice in a three month period apologizing in my separate chat as to why we weren't broadcasting live. 

I began researching alternatives, and as far as the live streaming sites that were online at the time it was slim pickings because the terms of service on those sites in regards to licensing but I was able to find code for a live embedded video/audio stream as well as code that could be embedded for a chat, the trick was bringing it all together.

For those who are keeping count, this will be move #4.

I found out that I could embed both a chatroom code, as well as the code for my embedded player on a page that I could build on webs.com so we moved to the site that I built on there in the middle of June of 2013. 

Shortly after I moved the show to our own site I decided that I was really over the apartment that I was living at and decided to move out of there. At the same time (and rather unexpectedly) I was offered a promotion at the job I had at the time. I knew that my work/life balance was about to change, and I was also talking to the folks at ivlog.tv about my concerns about their terms of service, they had answered them in a way that I was satisfied with so in October 2013 I put the show on hiatus  and decided to wait for ivlog to launch. In that time I moved out of the apartment from hell, and started my new position at my job. Talk about a crazy month my head still spins when I think about that period of time in my life. 

Indie Spotlight stayed offline until January of 2014. I resumed the show on the site I created since ivlog at that time wasn't online and I really missed doing the broadcast. I was really frustrated at that time that ivlog wasn't launched and by all accounts it should have been. I posted a blog post (more of a rant really) about it, and if cr3am ever see's this blog post, let me offer my apologies right now, I was frustrated at my broadcasting situation at that time. I'll talk more about how Indie Spotlight did on Ivlog a little bit later in this post.

I was working an insane schedule (and yes most of it self imposed) during this period of time, and the show's were broadcast as long as I had time to do them, I have to be honest they really weren't all that great since I was using old playlists from our previous blogtv show. Between that, and how things were going in my personal life, the infamous work/life balance, and how things were really going at work vs. my expectations  I decided to step down from the promotion that I had previously taken in June of 2014 and resumed the show on our webs.com site.

iVlog.com was up and running by then so I decided that we needed to be a part of a broadcasting community again and moved Indie Spotlight to there.

Yes, this would be move #5.

I found iVlog to be very well put together, the video played nicely with no skips and the sound quality was superb. The problem that I had on iVlog was some of our regulars couldn't load the page, and over the course of the two months I did the show on there I found that there wasn't an audience on iVlog that really, as one chatter who came and went put it, "hung out at radio shows". Our viewer stats showed that we had even less viewership than we did when we were on our own site. To this day I still feel that iVlog is a great site and sometimes I wonder if we should have stuck with it, however my overall feeling is still "right DJ, wrong bar". The folks who run iVlog are outstanding people and I really wish the show had done better on there. Sometime in August of 2014 I resumed broadcasting on our own site. (move #6)

Sometime in the middle of October of that year the audio/video player I was using to stream the show to our site crashed. As usual when these things happen it was right before a show. I had seen posts on Facebook about a broadcast site called Justcast, and took a quick look at their Terms of Service. Finding their TOS very favorable I played around with the site, decided I really liked it and felt very welcome on there since many of the shows that were broadcast on there were music oriented, decided  to close down our page on webs.com and as I said at the time, make one last move and call it home for good no matter how it went at least as far as this particular show was concerned.

This was supposed to be move lucky number seven (7). I had anticipated this being the final broadcast home for Indie Spotlight, if it didn't go well I was really thinking about hanging up my headset and refocusing my energy on some of my other internet projects.

As far as an audience on a new website could go, Indie Spotlight has been a success on justcast (later justcastlive). The show has been featured often on the front page and the support from the folks at justcastlive has been incredible.

Now we move from the history lesson to the present day.......

On 9/28/15 I was about to do the show, I had Xsplit open (which I've been using to broadcast and if you are doing video streaming I highly recommend it), the playlist drawn up, and I even had a Weenie of the Week segment planned. Right before the show was supposed to start I grabbed an ice cold beverage, sat down and............

Yep, you guessed it, the Jack curse struck again, justcastlive crashed, right before a show. I posted to the justcastlive Facebook group inquiring about the status of the site and got confirmation from one of the owners that yes, the site was down and to please stand by so I did. I got on skype with Deb since we hadn't talked in a while, and sat on the playlist I had created since at that time it looked like it was a temporary hiccup and justcastlive would be back online soon.

While standing by I felt that it was important to keep the broadcast online, so after exploring several options I noticed that awdio.com had been improved so I decided that while I was waiting for justcastlive to come back online I would do a show or two on there. (while it was supposed to be temporary I think some might count this as move #8)

Justcastlive has been offline for almost a month now, and some of the posts I see on Facebook really don't give me much encouragement that the site will be back anytime soon, in fact I get the feeling that they are going to be down for a while.

So, this leads me to the future of the show. I know that I've said before that I wasn't going to ask you folks to "change your bookmarks and find us here" again. Especially since by my own count this would be the 9th time that I've had to ask this, however with justcastlive being down for such an extended period I really have been left with no other choice so please post in the comments section below what you might think since this isn't so much a post about the future but a question and then I'll offer my thoughts.

Looking at the big picture we have two options, and I'll offer the pro's and con's of each.

     Option A) Continue to use Awdio.com. Please keep in mind that even if justcastlive comes back online sooner than I might be thinking it might or if we go with option (B) I will still most likely still simulcast to our page on awdio. The main reason is that people can listen to the archived show if they miss the live broadcast. One question I am often asked is if there are podcasts of previous shows that can be listened to if people miss the live show. Awdio provides this option. However awdio is purely an audio streaming site, and while they seem rock solid reliable now the last time we used them there were issues. But since we aren't advertising Indie Spotlight as a live show right now so much as an archived show that you can listen to later I don't see this as the issue it used to be, if the site crashes I can simply do the show on another night since I'm not trying to gather a live audience. Awdio not having a live chat is a double edged sword, I do, and yet I don't miss it. I really enjoy the interaction with a live audience during a broadcast but I don't miss "troll patrol" and there is something to be said for having time to casually check Facebook, Twitter and even start reading a book since all I'm doing during the live broadcast is clicking the mouse.

     Option B) Here is where I tip my hand and mention the video streaming site that I've been looking at, and even if I decided that I'm done waiting for justcastlive to fix their site and switch the show over once again our page on awdio will still play a part since we can simulcast the show so we should still have the archived shows for people who miss the live broadcast. The site is called camup.tv, and I've even started building our page over there. I could easily do the show in the same format that we had on justcastlive since the Terms of Service are pretty much the same, and there is an integrated chat. The problem I see with camup is there doesn't seem to be very many people on there. We will truly be starting over once again.

Now, my thoughts...

I have to be straight up honest with you folks, I don't know if I have it in me to reboot and try to rebuild an audience for the show one more time, we were really starting to build a following on justcastlive but with the site being down for such an extended period I have a feeling that even if we stick with awdio, and resume on justcastlive when they come back online will be the same thing anyway. It would be different if justcastlive was only down a week or two, but we're sitting at the one month mark and as I said before it doesn't look as though they anticipate being back online anytime soon so I need to make a decision as far as where I take the show, yet again.

So now, I turn it over to you folks, thoughts? Leave it in the comments section and again I would like to thank you all for the continued support.

October Update, or Something Like That

3 weeks.

Justcastlive has been down for 3 weeks as of tomorrow. As of right now as I type this they don't have an ETA as to when the site is going to be back up. They have a new coder working on it however and have promised that when they come back online justcastlive will work even better than ever before.

I haven't really decided what I'm doing with the show long term. Last weeks' show, as well as the upcoming broadcast for this week, will be broadcast on our awdio.com page.

Now let's talk about the future of Indie Spotlight....

Those who read my last blog post will know that I have been undecided about the future of the broadcast. To be honest about it, I'm still not 100% sure about the direction in which I would like to go as far as the live show. Justcastlive crashing so abruptly has kinda backed me into a corner, Indie Spotlight is not just an internet show broadcast on justcastlive, it's a brand that I've spent the last 6 and a half years building. Even after all this time I'm still passionate about sharing music that quite frankly might not be heard if I didn't play it. I really thought that we had finally found a home, our viewership was increasing every week, and it really looked like that this show was finally starting to come back to the number of loyal viewership that we had in our glory days on blogtv.

As much as I hate to say it, but our hosting site being offline for an extended period of time could easily have changed that.

I really have to level with you folks, last week I really enjoyed just doing the broadcast on awdio without having to follow a chatroom, surprises on the guest cams, making sure that I was picking the right camera angle, deciding on whether or not to play a video, and getting a feel for the live crowd listening to the show. To be honest about it, while I enjoy the interaction in a live chat, especially when I get questions about the musicians being played and dropping links to their music I felt that the show did just fine without it.

These are my thoughts going forward, and as I said before I'm not going to drop another "change your bookmarks and follow us here" post. As I mentioned in my previous post, while what we are doing, which is play music that might otherwise die because people don't have other avenues to find great music outside of shows like Indie Spotlight, is to me, very important, it's not so important to other people to scour the internet and seek me out. Viewer/listener statistics don't lie, while we were starting to get close on justcastlive we still don't have near the stats that we put up on blogtv, or even dare I say on blogtalkradio. When you go bouncing around the internet, no matter how much people enjoy your show, the interaction in the chatroom, and the experience of your broadcast in general they won't keep following you from place to place no matter how epic you might be.

Please keep in mind, this is not my final decision as far as the live broadcast, this is just where I think we might be right now.

There is another site that I can start doing the show in the similar format that we had on justcastlive right now, in fact I've already started building a profile on there, It's a smaller site than justcastlive as far as viewership but as this point what would it matter since I suspect with this extended downtime justcastlive will also have diminished viewership. I'm not naming it yet since I'm really unsure what I want to do. I promised you guys and gals that when we went all in with justcastlive that it was it, the last time I was going to ask you folks to reset your bookmarks and find us at this new latest and greatest site and I really meant it.

What I'm thinking (again, not set in stone especially since the last time I used awdio they had reliability issues as well) is to continue to do the show on awdio, and depending on when justcastlive comes back online, resume the show on there while simulcasting to awdio for people who either just want to listen to the show without being involved in a chat, or miss the live show and would like to listen to it at a later date.

This way, I'm keeping my promise to you guys, that you can check out the live show if you would like, at the same time offering an archived show for the folks that don't have time, or are even in the wrong time zone for the live broadcast.

In the meantime, check out the show on awdio.com, and if you miss the live broadcast, well unless I really screw it up, listen to the archive.

As always, thank you all for your continued support. I have no idea how I earned it, until I realize that you folks understand that it's not about me, it's about the musicians.

On their behalf as well as mine, thank you.

Quick Update

Played around on our old page on awdio.com last night. If justcastlive doesn't come back online soon I'm considering this for our broadcasting alternative. Feel free to listen to the archived shows, there are two, the show I did last night and one of our previous broadcasts from when we did shows on there before so if you need your Indie Spotlight fix follow the link!

awdio.com/indiespotlightlive

Show Update and Justcastlive is still offline

I've been looking at other places and ways we can do the show, at least until justcastlive comes back online. I said when we switched to using justcastlive about this time last year that it was the last time that I was going to move the show and I meant it, and still do. I have to be honest, I can't keep asking you guys to "change your bookmarks and follow me to our new home" every 6 months to a year.

I just can't, that's bullshit. While I feel what we do, which is broadcast independent musicians that might not get airplay, is important, it's not so impressive that people will follow me to the ends of the internet or even go to a bunch of trouble to find my broadcast.

So, what do I do? I am looking at alternatives, both temporary and permanent. Right now I'm still all in with justcastlive, but not knowing how long they are going to be offline I wouldn't be a responsible host if I didn't look at the big picture and I need to be on a strong reliable site which until last week justcastlive has been. I really don't want to move the show again, I like and trust these guys and I have no doubt that they are working hard behind the scenes to bring the site back.

Not to mention how supportive they have been of show, we are the featured broadcast on there almost every week.

Now, with all of that being said (kinda rambling here I know) these are some of the alternatives that I am looking at;

YouTube;

I found last night that because the "Indie Spotlight" page on youtube is in good account standing that I can enable streaming. I did a one hour test show, loading a previous broadcast into XSplit and let it roll. Some of the things I liked were...
   a) You get live feedback from youtube on your stream, and they suggest what settings need to be changed, whether it's adjusting them up, or down.
   b) You can archive the show so people can replay them on demand later if they want.To me this solves the problem of people who want to hear past shows looking for a podcast, well, here is my youtube channel, watch them here.
   c) YouTube is a known brand
   d) Yes, they do have a chat that can be turned off, and you can embed the live show on another site, such as my previous site on webs.com.

The things that turn me off were;
   a) I can't embed statcounter so I don't know where my live hits are coming from.
   b) When I finished the test show the account was hit with 6 copyright claims, which is to be expected because this is youtube. We all know this is automated, and none of the claims affected the standing of the account because it was from all indie labels who just wanted to make sure that nobody except them and the musicians were getting paid for their work, and this enabled advertisements for where you can find and download links for the musicians. I'd rather have this amount of control myself since I often post links in chat as to where you can get the music, but at the same time I have to say that I do like that the system on youtube works and to be honest as long as it's ad's for the right musician and they get album sales and promotion, well that's why we do the show anyway. This one is a mixed bag.
  c) I might find myself with a renegade musician, and get hit with a copyright claim that isn't monetized for youtube that might decide to be an asshole that will not only kill my youtube account, but my show as well. Again, as a responsible broadcaster I have to consider this scenario. Right now my current format is all Creative Commons but when you go on youtube you really put yourself out there with your broadcast and my fear is that I might learn the hard way about how Creative Commons licensing works with someone who didn't understand what Creative Commons really means and find myself being the guinea pig in court sorting this out. No thanks, I don't make any money on broadcasting, I'm not in this to make money, it's to put the musicians out there and let them be known. I work a regular job, and am doing really well to pay my own bills. I don't need a lawyer bill on top of all that. When you go on youtube, you are broadcasting in a very public and traceable way and I really don't like that. I'm super careful with the videos that I put on there which is why I haven't done much with our youtube account lately.

Ok, next.....

Looking at awdio.com. Long time listeners and readers of this blog might remember that we've been there before. The biggest issue that I had with Awdio was the reliability. We did shows on there for 2 months and there was more than one occasion that I wasn't able to do the show because the site was down. Looking at it now, they have made a bunch of changes. While not my favorite option, it does remain an option because shows do archive there so people who miss the live show can listen to it later and their terms of service prohibit downloads. This is important to me for the simple fact that they expressly prohibit downloading shows. I like this because I'm in the business of promoting musicians, and not offering a platform where you can steal their music.


Here's the deal. I'm hoping that when I wake up tomorrow justcastlive is back online and I won't have to worry about all of this. Let's keep our fingers crossed that they get their current issues fixed but it has been almost 2 weeks...

So, the bottom line is I'd really rather not have to have yet another restart to the show, I have to be honest about it, if justcastlive doesn't come back online soon, I think that this time, I really won't be asking you folks to reset your bookmarks for another location yet again.

As much as I hate to say it, we've been broadcasting for 6 1/2 years, a damn good run by any standard. I just might take it for what it is, and say the hell with it and hang up my headset for good at least as far as live broadcasts go.

At this point I'm considering other options which are strictly podcast which would enable me to do the show, and let people listen to the podcasts and not worry about the live chat, as well as other surprises that happen at a live streaming broadcast. Just do the show and upload it somewhere, or do it live on awdio and just link the page on there where people can listen live, or stream the archive.

I'm not asking you guys to reset your bookmarks one more time unless it is something that is tangible and good for the show and the musicians. Moving away from the live broadcast format might be a better answer as far as both and just recording a podcast instead.

Stay tuned.

End of September Update

Hey everyone! I haven't posted an update blog in a while, and tonight I'm in one of those moods where I feel inclined to put my thoughts down in print so why not...lol

First it seems that they have some MAJOR issues happening on justcastlive. Monday night I was about to begin my broadcast like normal when I noticed the site wasn't loading and XSplit wasn't connecting to the server. A quick post to the justcastlive Facebook group confirmed that the site was down but that they were working on it. As I type this the site is still down, a message on the Facebook group would seem to indicate that the problem is with their hosting provider, that they are looking for a new one and that the site should be back up soon. I can't help but notice that they don't have an ETA posted on when the site will be back up which does concern me. To be honest about it, I don't see how a site that seemed to be working just fine could all of a sudden roll over and die, but at the same time I'm not the one trying to fix it, nor do I know everything going on behind the scenes.

I just know the site is down. I'm sure they are trying to get everything fixed, I'm just glad I didn't have a guest scheduled, and just as glad that Deb from Unleashed didn't have anything planned either.

And just to be clear I'm not passing blame either, there seems to be enough of that going around between the previous and current owners of justcast from what I see posted on Facebook anyway.

So needless to say I had to bag last week's broadcast, and the next upcoming one doesn't look good either for this reason, and another which I'll explain below.

Three years ago (well almost anyway) I was blogging about being under the gun from Hurricane Sandy. This time it's Hurricane Joaquin which according to hurricanetrack.com could easily be a historic storm. This one is unusual in the fact that we are only a couple day's out and they still can't accurately predict this storms path. Some of the weather models have it turning back out to sea, while others show my area getting a direct hit. This, and all the rain that is predicted for my local area make for a bad combination because the soil will be saturated from all the rain we are supposed to get over the next couple of day's prior to Joaquin's anticipated arrival. So I expect downed power lines and reading an old fashioned paperbook by candle light early next week instead of my usual show planning but I could be wrong.

I'll keep everyone up to date on our Official Indie Spotlight Facebook page! Maybe if justcastlive come's back online we can have an old fashioned hurricane party before the power goes out :)

Indie Spotlight Update Video

Update On the Unsigned Musicians Show

Longtime readers and followers of the live broadcast will remember when blogtv shut down that I promised everyone that I would keep everyone up to date on what was going on with my broadcast, as well as my friend Deb from the Unsigned Musicians show.

So, here is the update on UM;

Deb's new show is called Unleashed. The reason for the name change is so that she could branch out and do other types of special interest shows on the same channel, while at the same time still be within her direct licensing agreement with her musicians and play music as well.

The topic this week on Unleashed will be "Dogs Shot By Police"

Jeffrey Justice will be joining Deb this evening to discuss this tragic epidemic, what to do if it happens to your dog and if there are any possible ways to prevent it.

You are a law abiding citizen so you don't even need to worry about this, right? That question can be answered with three words, "Oops, wrong house!"

Please join us tonight, September 16, 2015 at 7:00 Mountain Time / 9:00 Eastern Time

http://www.justcastlive.tv/users/unleashed

Pete Berwick's Latest Album Now Available!

Pete sent me "The Legend of Tyler Doohan" a little over a week ago, it's lived in the CD player of my car since, yes it's that good and an 8 speaker Pioneer system doesn't lie.

It's been a pretty long drought since Pete released his last album, I always wondered if Give It Time was going to be his last studio recording which if it was would have been a shame.

I had the privilege of hearing Pete play live a couple of years ago when he was in D.C. and he played some of the songs that would later appear on his latest album. When I heard these songs live I kept thinking "Pete, if you ever go back into the studio please do this one" every time I heard a new song.

Don't worry, he did, in fact in his latest offering I think I heard them all.

First of all, getting a new Pete Berwick recording is like opening a fresh, ice cold brew. You know it's going to be good. Pete once told me that when he puts out a new CD there is a rhythm to it, every record has a beginning, a middle and an end.

First a little background. I'll save you the time of a Google search and drop a link about Tyler Doohan. This kid was a hero, in the words of Pete he really was too damn young to die a man. Pete was so inspired by this story (let's face it we all were) that he wrote a song about him. This is how the Legend of Tyler Doohan begins and to listen to the entire album it really is about tales of victory and defeat.

Long time follower's of Pete will notice one departure from Pete's previous albums, well at least I do anyway. Let's face it, Churchill was right, life is blood, gut's, toil and sweat, and more or less that has been a theme of Pete's previous recordings. His latest offering offers all the above, and an added attraction, victory. While not leaving behind his brutal honesty about life, Pete's latest offering is more optimistic than we've heard before, which is not a bad thing, it's nice to hear that we might win the battle after all.

After all, you really can't kill a man born to hang, I strongly recommend that you grab this album.

- Jack Simpson, host of Indie Spotlight Live

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Show notes;

Please like us on Facebook for the latest updates, I post on there much more often than I do on here anymore.

Broadcast Tips and How to Build Your Audience

I just hung out at the justcastlive meeting with the new owners and one of the things that came up during the show was how do you get more viewers to your show.

I guess I was a little more honest than I needed to be when I posted in the chat you gotta earn it but it's true.

So with that being said I would like to take a few minutes and offer some tips on how to build your online audience.

First off, I've been hosting an internet broadcast in some form or another since January 2008. I've had shows where we had over 50 people in chat, and I've also hosted many shows where I had no traffic. I have to be straight up it does suck when you put a ton of work into a broadcast and nobody shows up to listen to it. While helpful (I hope!) none of the tips I'm going to offer are going to be a magic bullet to bring an audience in but if you put zero effort into building your audience it's a good bet that zero is what you are going to get.

If you want to bring people to your online broadcast, you've got to let people know you're there, and build enough of an audience that will also let other people know about it.

Networking is key, so be shameless about promoting your broadcast, you really don't have any reason to be shy about it.

With that being said, here are some helpful tips to build your audience and viewership;

1) Social media is key, I can not stress this enough. Make a Facebook group and maybe even a Facebook page for your show. Get on Twitter, Instagram, wherever you can find people with similar interests that might like to check out your show. Whether it's music, beany babies, race cars or the Illuminati find groups and people who share interests similar to your online broadcast's content and promote your show.

2) This was brought up in the justcastlive broadcast and is a good point, I forget who mentioned it but want to give the proper credit because this is what I do..

Even if there is nobody at the show, act like you are doing a show with people watching. 

I'll add my own twist to this, have a beginning, a middle, and an end. If you don't have anybody come to the show consider it practice.

3) Just because you hit the start button and start a broadcast doesn't mean that viewers or listeners will magically appear. I still stand by my statement you gotta earn it.

4) Be consistent. Start your show at the same date and time every time you broadcast. If you own a date and time regular viewers will get into the habit of remembering when your show is on and popping into the broadcast to hang out.

5) Quality is key. I often post about how I'm still tweaking my settings. This is important because people will not have a whole lot of patience at a show with choppy video and garbled audio no matter what your content might be. Don't assume that just because you ramp up your settings to the max that it's going to work out. It depends on your machine, you're internet connection, and how you are broadcasting your show if you are using an encoder or your broadcasting sites broadcast tool. I will say that sometimes less is more, drop down to a lower setting and ramp up and see how it works.

6) Be interesting. I'll say it, unless you are a hot chick built like a brick shithouse people aren't going to hang around long at a broadcast where the host just stares at the cam and talks back at the chat.

7) Don't feed the trolls. Deb from Unsigned Musicians/Unleashed found that running a "no crap chat" has a benefit which is good people looking for a nice place to hang out online appreciate a fun chat, not a drama filled one.

8) Learn from your mistakes and grow from them. Everyone has growing pains.

9) Interact with your audience, talk to the chat, it lets people know that the host is happy they are there and draws them in.

10) Check out other shows. Hang out, get known, put your name out there. Even if you just hang out a another show on the same site you broadcast on for just a couple of minutes, it's a good way to make friends who might want to check out your broadcast in return.

Please feel free to add your own tips in the comments section down below!

Indie Spotlight July Update

The show is still going strong on Monday nights starting at 9 pm (EDT) on justcastlive. Apparently there are changes happening on justcast, I just hope that none of these affect the TOS and therefore the show. Hopefully things stay the same as far as that is concerned but anyway.....

It used to be that "New Music Monday" was kind of a big deal on the show but to be honest about it every Monday has been a new music Monday. We've added a ton of new music to the show and for those that haven't checked us out in a while I hope will do so. I know I had gotten stuck in a rut for a while with the music, in the time between the blogtv shutdown and the justcastlive revival I really hadn't added much in the way of new music.

That was then, this is now, new music Monday really isn't a big deal anymore because every Monday is a new music Monday so I hope that some of you folks that haven't checked out the show in a while will pop in, hang out, and enjoy the music.

I am still having issues with the video playback on justcastlive. I have to remind myself that it took a while to get it set straight when we were on blogtv and it will take time here as well. My biggest thing is the video settings. We're still having issues with dropped frames and users who connect on a wireless connection notice issues with the audio. However people who are wired in report no issues so I'm not sure if it's me or an issue with their connection. I think the jury is still out on this one but I'm still tweaking the settings on my end to try to ensure the best broadcast experience for everyone.

Musicfest15?  Still on the back burner, I'll be honest I'm not sure if it's gonna happen this year. I really want to get the bugs worked out of the broadcast first.

My other internet projects? Interesting question and I'm glad you asked!

I'm thinking of filming a documentary. Yes me. Tentatively called "Driving Jefferson Davis" and yes it's a take on Driving Miss Daisy. With all the tension regarding the Confederate flag it has come up in the news reports in my local area that there are people who think that the name of US Route 1 that runs through my home state of Virginia that is currently named Jefferson Davis Highway should be changed. For those who might not know Jefferson Davis was the president of the Confederacy during the Civil War. I think it would be a good idea to take a drive, stop at random places and see what people have to say about that. It could be interesting, it could be boring I really don't know. Right now I'm on a limited budget as far as getting a decent camcorder goes so we'll see if I can first find the way to have the equipment to pull this off, and the time. I'd really like to do this, just have to find a way to pull it off and produce at the very least, a watchable video.

As far as my other show ideas, I really just don't have time for them right now, in fact I feel like I'm doing pretty good keeping Indie Spotlight on the air. I really want to do the documentary though, I think it would be fun to put together so stay tuned.

In the meantime, Indie Spotlight Live is still going strong, Monday nights starting at 9 pm eastern U.S. and I hope you'll drop in and check us out! We are often the featured broadcast on justcastlive.tv when we are on.

http://www.justcastlive.tv/users/indie-spotlight-live

JD Steagall, Gone But Not Forgotten, Ever.

To me it's kind of a freaky thing to have been broadcasting for so long as to even be mentioning this...

5 years ago we said goodbye to a very good friend to the show, JD Steagall. During this week's broadcast we will be stepping away from our usual format and paying our respects. We will feature clips from when we had JD on the show as well as the music he performed with Buster Chopz and JD and the Cherokee Boys.

JD was an absolute riot, you honestly never knew what the man was going to say next. He was always a great guy to interview and have on the show, and a brilliant musician as well.

One of the reasons that this upcoming broadcast is so important to me is that we get to introduce all the new people that have started to hang out with us on justcastlive to JD, and let folks get to know just a little more about him.

Please join us this coming Monday night, the show will start at 9 pm (EDT) and the tribute to JD will begin around 10 pm or so.

JD Steagall Tribute This Monday

Wow, talk about a flashback.

This is our blogtalkradio interview with JD Steagall from way back in 2009. Skip over the first hour we had gotten the time zones messed up and he was kinda late calling in. You can just move the bar in the player at the top of the page.

As it has been 5 years since his passing I will be doing a tribute during this week's broadcast on justcastlive. JD may be gone but certainly not forgotten.

In the meantime, enjoy the flashback! (poor audio quality included at no extra charge)

Blogtalkradio, I don't miss you.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/riskybusiness04/2009/04/13/indie-music-spotlight-this-weeks-feature-artist-jd

Promo Video For justcastlive.tv

Promo Video For justcastlive.tv

June Update

Usually I post the monthly update a little later in the month but now is a good a time as any....

Since I've was going to dedicate the now postponed MusicFest to JD Steagall who passed away 5 years ago I am now going back to my original plan which is to dedicate one of my June shows to him and his music. I hope you folks will join us, I'm really planning on this one to be an awesome show.

I am starting to work on bringing back live music to the broadcast, let's see how that goes.

Other than that, nothing new to report for the month of June, other than please like our Facebook page and stay tuned!

Happy June Everyone! Please Like Our Facebook Page!

Over the last several months I've been transitioning away from blogging, instead posting regular updates on our Facebook page.

While I will continue to post items that are more appropriate for a blog here please like our Facebook page for current updates to the broadcast as well as other show related items.

https://www.facebook.com/indiespotlightonjustcastlive

May Recap and Upcoming Plans for June

I've been having issues during the broadcast with dropped frames and the music skipping, other than that the live broadcasts have been pretty uneventful. It's taking some time but we're starting to develop a following on justcastlive.

Our music playlist has expanded quite a bit over the last couple of months, longtime viewers and listeners that haven't been at the show in a while will find that the music selection is decidedly different than what they might have gotten used to. I know I would love to see some old friends drop in whenever they can.

Now, on to June....

I've cancelled MusicFest for now. I would love to reschedule for a later date but to be honest I have to get the broadcast back up to where I'd like it. I need to get the settings right first before I can even consider an event.

That, and to be honest about it, I've been having issues with my lower back, I really don't think I can sit in this chair for 12+ hours and conduct the broadcast. Right now I'm pretty good with doing the weekly broadcast but even doing the show I have to get up and move around.

So, at this point, here is where we are. The weekly broadcast will obviously continue, and as I fix the broadcast settings I'm going to try to bring live music back to the show via Skype. Once we get that straightened out maybe I'll move forward with planning an event but as it stands right now it's on the back burner until I get the broadcast 5x5.

MusicFest 2015....

Will actually be on June 13th.

Sorry for any confusion.

MusicFest 2015 is Happening

Be sure and mark June 20th on your calenders for this years MusicFest!

This is the first time in several years that we've held one, the most recent one was in June of 2011.

Because of some of the drama on blogtv as well as other considerations we decided to sit out 2012.

Blogtv shut down in 2013 and up until this year we really haven't had a stable or suitable place to have a musicfest up until this year so yes it is happening!

Starting at 12 noon on Saturday June 20th and running all day, and I hope you'll join us.

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Show notes;

Broadcasting every Monday night starting at 9 (eastern) with many new musicians added to the playlist come check us out!

Many New Artists Added to Playlist!

For those who haven't been at the show recently, we've recently added many new musicians to the playlist, come by and check us out every Monday night starting at 9 pm (eastern) Hope to see ya at the live broadcast!



http://www.justcastlive.tv/users/indie-spotlight-live

Back On Schedule This Coming Week

Getting back on track and will broadcast at our usual time this coming Monday night starting at 9 pm (eastern U.S.) and hope to see you folks there!

I had to work a stretch to get that 3 day weekend but I made it!

Broadcast For Week Ending 4/11/15.....

Have to work this coming Monday, so I'm not sure if I'll do the show later than usual, or at all.

I'll let you guys know just wanted to give you a heads up.

2 Years Later...

Today is the second anniversary of the infamous shutdown of blogtv.com. For those of you who might not know blogtv is the website that we used for years for our live stream broadcast.

I was reading some posts on Facebook this morning and it got me thinking about how our online broadcast community kinda scattered around over the past 2 years since then.

Blogtv had it's flaws for sure, we even had a term for it when someone was having problems, we called it "getting the blog treatment" lol.

In any event I have to say that while sometimes I miss the "good ole days" it's more about missing the community. Since blogtv sold out many of us were scattered to the winds and ended up on one site or another and it was the end of an era as far as our community there, no matter how much we might or might not miss it it's a time in all our lives that will never come again.

The only real thing that I think blogtv had going for it that other streaming sites didn't at the time (and as far as I know still don't) is the co-hosting feature. Would love to see justcastlive find a way to implement that.

I saw a lot of posts especially on Facebook about people missing blogtv. Personally I don't think they miss blog at all, but I'm more than willing to bet that they miss the blogtv community. As I mentioned we all ended up on different streaming sites and not all of us on the same one. I don't think that many people transitioned to YouNow and from what I've heard from those that did regretted it, or didn't stay with it.

Those that landed on Vaughn stay there mostly out of habit and a lack of desire of telling their viewers where to find them if they moved to another site. Can't say I blame them.

iVlog, still wish we had done better on there, still think it's a great site, still want to broadcast some of the other internet projects that I have in mind on there but Indie Spotlight just didn't do well on there, I still call it right DJ, wrong bar.

I still think that if you are a music oriented show, and not just because Spotlight has done well on there, but because of the music lovers that will turn out at a show, justcastlive is the place to be and we need more music and musicians on there. People are thirsty for it, especially after 2 years of trying to find the next place to hear great music. One of the reasons I'm putting MusicFest together is because I want to help showcase justcastlive as a great place to broadcast and bring music lovers together.

As for me, well the past is to be remembered fondly, celebrated accordingly, but never dwelt upon. If even by some brilliant design blogtv came back online and said we were just kidding I would kinda nod my head and stick with justcastlive.

All the crap that has blindsided me in my personal life the last 4 years has taught me one thing;

Yesterday is gone, tomorrow is not promised, all we have is today and that is why it is called the present.

I choose to live in the moment and look forward to the future. While I do wax nostalgic on the blogtv community I do not miss blogtv, to be honest about it the site was a buggy, quirky pain in the ass.
I've gone all in with justcastlive, and am happy to be a part of the community there and I look forward to seeing it grow and growing with it myself.

March Update

Just realized that I haven't posted the "official" monthly update although I have posted updates in some of the other blogs I've posted this month.

1) I've decided that since we seem to do better on Monday nights on justcastlive that is our official broadcast night going forward. I might do other shows on other nights but Monday at 9 pm (eastern) is our "set in stone" date and time going forward.

2) MusicFest '15 is happening, planning on a weekend sometime in June, details to come.

3) 24/7 streaming? I've given up on this idea for now. I'm still archiving the shows as I do them so if I decide that maybe I would like to give it another shot later I'll have plenty of material to leave on loop so it doesn't get boring.

4) The other internet broadcast projects that I've been considering are still on the drawing board. I still want to bring at least one or two of them to life but I'm not ready to do that until I've done the prep work and are ready to go. These are on the back burner while I put MusicFest '15 together.

Thank you for reading my state of the show address for the month of March :)

MusicFest Update

Promo Video For justcastlive.tv

Show Schedule Going Forward

For anyone that missed my previous post going forward we are sticking with Monday nights starting at 9 pm (eastern)

Should circumstances change and I'm unable to start the show at the usual time then I will either start late or take that week off.

Thanks again for all the continued support!

Blurred Lines.....

I haven't posted a blog about the industry in a while for one simple reason, there hasn't been anything new to report or talk about.

There has been something that I've been seeing on Facebook as well as hearing about in the news. Basically music being stolen,

Blurred Lines, this from Slate;

In a move unsurprising, perhaps, to anyone following the painful details of this unfortunate copyright trial, a jury today found Pharrell and Robin Thicke’s 2013 hit “Blurred Lines” far too similar to the Marvin Gaye 1977 classic “Got to Give It Up.”

As the AP reports, the musicians have been ordered to pay Gaye’s estate $7.3 million, which puts a pretty large dent in the earnings they’ve collected from the tune—testified to be at around $5 million for each. 

Very interesting, also not the first time it's happened recently, from CNN;

 Tom Petty stands his ground: Young British pop sensation Sam Smith's 2014 tune "Stay With Me" has a riff in the chorus similar to that of the 1989 Tom Petty hit "I Won't Back Down." Reports say the two settled out of court, and the official credits now list Petty as a co-writer of the Smith song. Petty says there are no hard feelings.

Pete Berwick has even had a song stolen that became a hit, I have no reason to not believe him;

 "THERE SHE GOES AGAIN" by Pete Berwick--1981: On the heels of the Grammy's BEST SONG OF THE YEAR, "Stay With Me," a song ripped off from Tom Petty, I was taken down memory lane, and the time I was leaving my record label's office in Nashville around 1992 and almost drove into a ditch when I heard "There She Goes " by a band called THE BOO RADLEYS on my car radio. There was no doubt in my mind it was my song, one I had written in 1981 and had recorded and performed with my punk band THE GENERICS, and I aborted litigation based on lack of funds and the fact that in my naive and non-business ways of my younger days I had failed to properly copyright the song. Several college radio stations had been playing it on regular rotation, and I had sent many copies to various record labels and publishing companies throughout California and England. "There She Goes" was recorded by two other bands besides The Boo Radleys, and some guy in a band called THE LA'S named Lee Mavers claimed to have written it. The song was a smash hit, and continues to be played today

So this is how low the mainstream music industry has sunk, they can't even come up with original music anymore so now they have to steal, oh I'm sorry I mean "borrow" from other songs? I'm sure this is not a new thing but at the same time one of the many facets of the industry that the general public doesn't even know is going on.

All I can say is that thank God the indies are out there and can still write original music. When will the mainstream figure out that this is what people want?

Guess that's a blurred line..............

MusicFest 2015

In one of my previous blog's I mentioned that since we are coming up on the 5th year since the passing of JD Steagal (Buster Chopz and JD and the Cherokee Boys) that I was planning on doing an tribute show to him.

JD used to refer independent musicians to me all the time, it was rare that when I logged into Myspace (remember them? you know, the site that we all hung out at before Facebook became big?) that there wasn't an email from him suggesting musicians to check out.

So while I was driving around earlier this evening listening to some of the music he did with Buster Chopz it occurred to me that since I was toying with the idea of doing a musicfest event this year, why not do it in June around the anniversary of JD's passing, and dedicate it to him?

I couldn't think of a better way to pay tribute, and as long as the music is good I'm sure he'll be looking down on us giving his seal of approval.

So, I will make the official announcement next week after I finalize the date but you can say you saw it here first.  We will have a MusicFest this year and it will be dedicated to our dear departed friend, JD Steagal.

Broken Before I Even Started

A followup to yesterday's post.....

It'll boot to WinME but with no sound capability. Keep in mind this was in the era before Windows went online and found it's own updates you need to have the disk. Which I may or may not have, if it still exists it's buried in the boxes of stuff from the move a year and a half ago.

This project (24-7 Streaming) officially went on the back burner as of today anyway. For some reason the player that I was previously using (and was going to use for the round the clock streaming) has been taken offline, claiming that I was in violation of their Terms of Use/Copyright infringement. I have no idea what that is even about, we never violated their TOU nor did we ever violate any copyrights.

Am I going to fight this out? Nope, I'm just thankful that we found a new home before they shut me down!

So, in a nutshell, while I would love to have the 'round the clock streaming of past shows for the folks that couldn't make it to the live one, at this point I don't see it happening. I'm sure there are other ways to do it and time permitting I'll explore other options but I think at this point my energy would be better spent on the broadcast itself.

Yes, I'm Breaking Computers Again...

24/7 server update;

I haven't had much luck with the Linux machine so I'm now in the process of something even more insane.

There is an old HP machine similar to the one that I've been running the Linux experiment on albeit older (remember Windows ME? Yep, that old)(stop puking and just read this lol). I took that machine apart to see if there were any usable parts that I might transplant into the Linux machine to maybe make it work faster, and though that make it so it would run the OBS software more effectively so that I can finally make the streaming server happen.

Um, there really wasn't anything there.

Except the hard drive. This is where the insane part comes in.

Yes, Windows ME was a piece of crap, but it is now my hope that it's a piece of crap that I might (keyword, might) be able to use to perhaps load Flash Media Player (which has no Linux application) and use that to stream the past shows on our old website.

I've installed the WinME hard drive into the Linux machine, while keeping the hard drive that was currently in it using the built in jumper cables. Don't worry it still boots to Linux and I am now going to see if I can even get the WinME to boot.

Crossing fingers, to be honest about it I don't think it's going to work, but it is something that I haven't tried yet and outside of just using this machine as a show monitor (which will save my laptop) it really has no practical purpose.

Nothing beats a failure but a try.

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Show updates;

In case anyone missed it, we are officially in the justcastlive era! Since my work schedule keeps flopping around I've decided that for the continuity of the show as well as my own sanity our official broadcast date will be on Monday nights going forward. The only change would be the time, 9 weeks out of 10, it will be 9 pm (eastern U.S.) with the oddball week that I might need to push it to 10 pm due to work obligations.

Official Broadcast Announcement!

Just announced it at the end of the show, but for those of you who might have missed it, I'm officially declaring Monday nights as the official broadcast night for the show.  While I'm still concerned that my work schedule will change it seems that we've done very well on Monday's since we started on justcastlive so I've decided to stick with it.

While we still might try the odd broadcast on another night (follow our FB page at www.facebook.com/indiespotlightonjustcastlive and this blog ) I think that we'll stick with Monday night.  The only sticking point will be the start time which will be 9 pm most week's with an occasional start at 10.  Thanks again for all the continued support!

This Week's Broadcast Schedule

Tonight (Sunday) is a maybe, depends on if I feel like it.

Tomorrow (Monday 3-9) is for sure, starting at 9 pm (eastern)

What's In A Name?

Random thought that popped into my head during one of our shows.

I was greeted "Hi Indy".

A bit of history here, my longtime user name on the internet was riskybusiness04, I had long gotten used to being "risky" in chatrooms as well as anywhere else I was online. Somewhere around the later part of 2012 I decided that my internet user name needed to more closely match what I was actually doing online so I adopted "Indie Spotlight" as a user name on where we were broadcasting at the time, changed my name on this very blog and moved on.

The name change at the time most likely wasn't the best idea, it killed our stats on blogtv for no other reason than people had gotten used to finding me under my old name and didn't know the new one.

Then, blogtv shut down and it didn't matter anyway.

I won't get long winded here but we all know the great diaspora that ensued between blogtv's shutdown and our premier on justcastlive.

Now that we are once again part of a live broadcasting community we have new people at the show. I didn't have a whole lot of time with the new screename on blogtv to get used to it, so that while I've been "Indy" for a while it still feels kinda weird to be someone else.

I'm sure that I'll get used to it.

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Show updates;

Still going strong on justcastlive. Since my current work schedule dictates when the show is broadcast please follow our Facebook page to stay current on when the next show will air.

Facebook page is here

Justcastlive has been hugely supportive of the show, we are featured frequently there. They've been great. Coincidentally, if there are any of my fellow former blogtv broadcasters that are looking for a broadcast home I highly recommend them and I'm glad I found them.

Future updates for other planned shows will be posted soon.

Broadcast for the Week Ending 3/7/15

This coming week's broadcast will be Monday starting at 9 pm (eastern)

Thanks again for all the continued support!

Broadcasts for Week Ending 2/28

While I'm thinking about it I just realized that I haven't posted next week's show schedule.

We will broadcast two nights next week, both nights starting at 9 pm (eastern).

Tomorrow night (Sunday) and Monday evening as well. Don't be a stranger!


http://www.justcastlive.tv/users/indie-spotlight-live

February Update

Hope 2015 is going well for everyone, just a couple of quick things;

I'm helping with an event that will be taking place this coming weekend (Feb 19, 20, and 21st) on justcastlive. It is being called a "Fun Raiser", mostly to highlight the fun things that you can do and broadcast. While the event is ongoing we will be bringing attention to the sad story of a little girl.

From Justcastlive's Mia page;

It was discovered that Mia was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Just like their daughter Dannielle had. Little Mia’s life consists of medication and hospital visits for tests. A recent MRI has shown her disease has progressed and that she may only have another 3 years left. The family is devastated,  Mia is the second child of theirs to have this disease.  

Mia has one wish.  To go on a holiday.

People who wish to donate there will be a link on the broadcast page. I'll post links on Facebook, Twitter and here when the time gets closer.

Second item, around the middle of June we will commemorate the 5th anniversary of the passing of our good friend JD Steagal from Buster Chopz and JD and the Cherokee Boys.  More details to come.

Other than that, not much else to report, the show is drawing a following on Justcastlive and we're doing really well over there. Date and showtimes still to be determined weekly depending on my work schedule until further notice.

Broadcast For Week Ending 2/21/15.....

Will be Monday Feb 16th starting at 9 pm (eastern).  Hope to see everyone there!

The Broadcast for Week Ending 2/14....

Will be Monday night this week, starting at 9 pm (eastern).

Hope to see everyone there!

This Week's Broadcast

As I mentioned during the show the broadcast day could easily change week to week going forward. This week's show will be on Sunday starting at 9 pm (eastern) with a possible second show on Monday at the same time.

Stay turned!

Special Monday Night Show Tonight!

We'll be broadcasting live on justcastlive.tv starting at 9 pm eastern tonight!

http://www.justcastlive.tv/users/indie-spotlight-live

Tonight

Tonight's broadcast has been preempted to tomorrow, same time which will be 9 pm (eastern) and I hope to see everyone there!

About Last Night

Started the broadcast at the usual time, not a whole lot of traffic this week, hardly anyone stopping by not even the regulars.

That and after a rough day (what else is new) at my regular job I just wasn't feeling up to an entire show so I cut it short and relaxed.

Will try to do another show sometime this week when I feel more like broadcasting. Was really phoning it in last night leaving the playlist up as a slideshow so I wouldn't even have to break in. Would be a great option if I ever get the 24/7 broadcast up and running, not so much for what was supposed to have been a live show.

Need to commit to a different night, Sunday's just aren't doing it for either me or the show.

24/7 Streaming Server Update

There really isn't an update, while I've been playing around with this thing I haven't found a way to make it work.

I've been mulling over a plan B. This computer came into life as an HP. It boots to Linux just fine although slow and it does work. I have a previous generation HP laying around that has a fried power supply that should still have some good working parts so what I might do is install this computers hard drive (which was Windows ME, yuck) and any RAM that might fit, and see what happens. It could work or it could be a waste of time but in any case extra RAM can't hurt.

We'll see I guess, stay tuned.

New Show Coming Soon

Just as a heads up to my regular blog readers, while I will mention other internet shows and projects that I'll be working on, this page will remain primarily for Indie Spotlight. The other shows will have their own places (I'm thinking FB pages).

 Ok now that I've gotten the disclaimer out of the way, here is my latest show idea. It's going to be called "The Crazy Cat Guy". The main premise of the show will be things that cat owners (or servants) should be aware of, issues of the day, ect. Think of my old NewsTalk format but with a focus on responsible pet ownership.

I'm thinking that I might use iVlog for this project, date and time to be determined.

Stay tuned.

Then... They Broke it.

Justcastlive (formerly justcast.org) is transitioning to their new URL this weekend, and as you might have guessed, managed to break the site.

I know the guys are working feverishly to get it back online, hopefully it'll be fixed by tomorrow night :)

Quick Update

Since I haven't been made aware of any more last minute meetings at my regular job this week will be our official first show of 2015! Please join us this Sunday night starting at 9 pm (eastern U.S.) (yes moving back to our original time at least for this week) for all original music by independent and unsigned musicians as well as fun times in our live interactive chat!

Also note that justcast.org is now www.justcastlive.tv , I've been told that the original url should redirect but in case it doesn't note the link below and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone there!

http://www.justcastlive.tv/users/indie-spotlight-live

http://www.justcastlive.tv/users/indie-spotlight-live

Happy First Post of 2015!

Good morning blogger readers! Due to an early meeting this morning I decided yesterday to extend my hiatus to another week. To be honest about it looking at the statcounter reports this morning I wasn't missed so maybe not a bad thing.

I posted to our FB group about a week ago a poll, basically asking what night would be better for the broadcast. Right now we have one vote, for Friday.

So....

Since I didn't get to do last night's broadcast I'm thinking I might play around over the next couple of days and just see when we draw more people in and see where it goes.