First of all, let me state up front that Kelly is my best wife – ever. There is no second place. She totally rocks. This week she granted me 77 hours of bird-less bliss. (Thank you Darling. The kindness of boarding your four sometimes lovable, but often totally annoying critters has not gone unnoticed. It has been wonderful, and I am very grateful. Four stars. Of course I miss you. 🙂

So, what did I do with all of this glorious free time? I delved into the world of Internet radio! See, an ex-coworker, (and actual friend) Bill, came by with questions about the technology and the market. Unfortunately, I have learned that I’m totally out of touch with the mainstream. I wasn’t much help describing the audience for Internet Radio. I mean, all I know is that I tune in Radio Paradise pretty much every day. Don’t you? Doesn’t everyone? (I also contribute to RP, and you will too after you listen for a few days.)

Anyway, I’ve always preferred to be the guy “behind-the-scenes”. (I guess that makes me an “E” – an “enabler”. That’s probably why I love System Administration and networking in general.) So, when the idea of running our own Internet radio station came up, I did what I think I do best – I began researching what it would take to actually do this. What software is available? How is bandwidth allocated? How much does it cost? What about the web site? How many listeners can be supported for nothing? Are there Open Source solutions? Will this run on one of my Linux servers? What kind of resources are we talkin’ about, anyway? More importantly, Is there payola in Internet radio, and can we get some?

Which brings me to Bill Tobin. I have known Bill since somewhere around 1989, when I started at Conam Nuclear. I could say a lot about Bill, the nuclear industry and having 6 months a year off, but I’ll save all that for a later post. The one thing I’ll say for sure is that Bill has the best taste in music of anyone I know – and the most eclectic music collection. That’s why his will be the best Internet music station ever. Simple as that.

Stay tuned…

(By the way, I found answers to all most of the questions about Internet radio and some surprises too, which I hope to detail in subsequent posts right here.)

Oh – on a totally unrelated note, we had the garage cleaned this weekend. This is the first time in eleven years that I have seen the garage free of automobiles.