Two years!

Wow! It's been two years since I last posted. I'll make up for that soon.

A new home!

We're getting a new and permanent home in November! Mr. East Hill Radio (me!) has signed the papers on a new and yet-to-be-constructed home. Construction is scheduled to start in July, barring any difficulties. The station will have its own space with enough space for on-air, a production room and an engineering bench! Watch this space for more news and pictures!

Wow! It's been a while

I just logged into the blog and realized it's been a long, long time since I posted. To use a very old cliche, a lot of water has passed under the bridge since the last post.

East Hill Radio has moved. We are now on the northern edge of The Ridge and in temporary quarters while we look for a permanent home. If you want more explanation, please send an email to infomgr@easthillradio.com, and I will explain.

Right now, we (I) am running the station on an SSTran AM3000 transmitter. It has more bottom end than the TH-II. The TH-II is really meant for voice and is marginal with music. I would like better coverage than I currently have and am thinking of putting the Rangemaster in the attic. It's not the best solution, but an ok one. We have a (ahem) aggressive HOA in this area, and they barely tolerate one breathing out of rhythm, let alone putting up an antenna. So, we (I) will have to live with the coverage I get.

East Hill Radio was going to issue an editorial opinion on Homeowners' Associations (one of the very few it would issue). But, discretion being the better part of valor, we refrained. If you want the official EHR opinion on HOAs, email us.

The station is running with OTSDJ, and we want to upgrade to OTSAV. OTS, for an inexpensive automation system, is remarkable. The only "dead air" we get is on some songs that were copied from LPs, and OTS doesn't know quite where the end is. Otherwise, the sound is constant, music to jingle to music, and so on.

Because we're in a temporary location, pieces of the station are scattered all around. We have been hoping to repeat our live broadcast, but need some more equipment to make that happen.

Right now, we are simulcasting with 4KHJ in Mt. Vernon, Washington. The station is operating on 101.9 and is carrying our signal full time until their fulltime launch in July. We have been honored to provide our music to 4KHJ.

Programming: We want to make weekends special on East Hill Radio. So, we're planning several different ideas for weekends. We want to air a weekend block party, which is music blocks of your favorite solid gold and classic rock hits. We are also planning "two-fer" and "three-fer" weekends, too, where we run back to back hits from a given artist. Other ideas include all '60s weekends or all '70s weekends, classic rock weekends. We're open to your ideas, so email us at infomgr@easthillradio.com and we will certainly consider any solid ideas.

I guess that's enough said for now. If you listen, and like what you hear, let us know. If there's something you want to hear, let us know that, too. If you have suggestions for the station, please send them along. Our general manager (me), is a pretty open minded kind of guy, and will entertain any reasonable suggestion. And keep it tuned to AM 1650 or listen on the web!

Studio Update

The new studio is almost complete! I installed a new console last week. It's a "DJ" mixer as opposed to a professional audio console, but it works and sounds great. One of the CD players, the automation (of course!), and the jingle playback are all hooked up, as well. I have one more CD that needs cables and the on-air position is more-or-less complete. I will post pictures very soon.

The production position is next. It needs a proper desk and the equipment installed. I have a noise problem to solve; the production computer has a very loud fan. It may be time for a new and quieter computer!

Siting the transmitter is my last problem to solve. The station is still operating on a backup transmitter, with limited coverage. I am continuing to look for a suitable tranmitter site.

Station Moved!

The station is in its new location! I moved it over the weekend and was only off the air for about eight hours. Streaming was down longer due to some logistical issues but was back up by Sunday afternoon.

There's still a lot to do with the new studio, but I'm happy with the location. There's a lot more room to get things done!

Station Update

No, I am not the world's greatest blogger. I see it's been six months since I posted anything about the station. Between my two jobs and a busy summer, there hasn't been much time devoted to station upgrades. I have been adding new music when I can. The playlist is approaching 2000 songs!

One major change has been to move the station primary stream to Audiorealm and list on Loudcity. Our listenership on Live365 had been very low. We're still on Streamer. Our Live365 stream is now jazz, and is doing quite well. If you like jazz, check out http://www.live365.com/stations/frankh19. The jazz broadcast is a five-hour loop as it is stored on Live365's server.

I have made some changes to the station broadcast day. I have added music sweeps to the midday broadcast. Each music block is three in a row! The overnight broadcast is long blocks of music and no commercials! I have some other ideas, but they're just thoughts right now.

I have been working on plans to find a new home for the station. Right now, I don't want to say much about my plans since a lot of my previous plans have not come to be.

That's about it for now. And, "Thank you for listening!"

This and that around the station.

The station has been running for about a month and a half on the new format. We're picking up some listeners on the Internet, which is good. SAM is working well and I've got it sounding as good as I am able.

We've added new (to us) music to the playlist: Steely Dan's Greatest Hits. There have been a few other adds, too. It's time to go music shopping again (or break down and buy the Gold Disk collection from Jones/TM). All the music on the station has come from purchased CD's, purchased downloads, or the station LP collection. Without record service, buying music can get expensive, even when buying "right-priced" CD's. Right now, the station has over 1800 songs on the playlist which works out to five days of continuous music with no repeats. Time for an afternoon at Silver Platters.

Station rebuilding has been slow due to working a "real job" (actually, two of them). We did get the Yamaha board back on the air and have the Gemini CD player here to install. The entire station rebuild has to be rethought since the "studio" is sharing the den with work activities. The goal is to be able to go live to the air and the Internet.

We're still looking for a site (or two) for our main transmitter. If someone from Snoqualmie sees this note and knows of a good site, please email the station GM at frankh@easthillradio.com.

Until next time.....