Highlander radio

Well, it seems that Highlander Radio and the website are beginning to accomplish some of the goals of bringing musicians and listeners together. I have in the past week heard from two musicians. One was able to get a new booking agent because of the exposure on our front news page and one just got hired for a festival because the organizer heard his music on Highlander Radio.

On another note, we have heard directly from Charlie Zahm and he will be providing us with some new CD's for the broadcast. Not sure if anyone has seen Charlie Zahm in concert, but he is a great performer as well as musician!

That's great news Paul!

Great news! Now that you are hob nobing with the players, don't let it go to your head.

Actually, I am so amazed that I have made a difference for some people - hopefully a good difference.

Really what excites me and goes to my head the most is developing the site and putting my web skills to good use. To be honest with you I get my biggest satisification from the emails I get from the listeners....I recall two in particular that touched me the most.....

One from someone who was having a very difficult time after 9/11/01 and who found that our music helped them get through that period in time....

Another from a 70 year old who thought surely this type of music had died out and he was so thankful that someone was still playing good music.....

I pulled this old post out and would like to ask. How to you feel
about where Celtic Radio is now?

This is a site to be proud of, real class. I am very happy to be a member.

This could be a good thread to pull out. It had gone long dormant before I ever signed up, so I had never seen it. Since 2002, Highlander Radio has grown from a community of a few, to a thriving International community of thousands of listeners, artists, and other spirits all drawn together by a common interest in Celtic music, history, and culture. This in itself is something I am proud to be a part of. Add to this the fact that while growing to such a large group, CelticRadio.net has remained one of the safest places on the Internet, providing a valuable connection and learning point for artists and listeners.

We have had our ups and downs. Twice now, since I have been on the site, we have nearly been forced to shut down. Several times I have seen a complete turnover of regular posters on the forums, each time giving the site a new flavor and feel. We have weathered all of these storms and the site continues to bring otherwise unheard Celtic music to the masses. I consider this to be a very successful site, and one poised to continue growing and providing great Celtic music for many years to come!

None of this would be here without the diligent efforts of King Paul. Three cheers for MacFive!!!

Wow! This goes way back. Whats amazing is how fast time goes by. It just seems like yesterday I made this post.

I am definitely feeling like within the past year that alot of what we wanted to accomplish has happened. And its not that there are more listeners or more members - but that the functionalty and services work well.

The confusing part was when we went with the name "Celtic Radio" for our website. Maybe it is clearer now that "Celtic Radio" includes the channels Highlander Radio, Celtic Moon and Celt-Rock-Radio. That cause alot of confusion at the time when we were commonly referred to as Highlander Radio.

Alot of behind the scenes work on scripts, servers and processes has occurred over the past 2-3 years. We now have a stable environment for our systems, backups and connectivity to work.

Other than providing content, music, answering emails and such the site is pretty much built. Sure we are going to continue to tweak here and there and perhaps in the future I can forsee a better system for delivering the music. Right now there are 2 major projects that will be coming into focus.

1. We are beginning work on a new estore that will eventually be the basis for online music purchasing. There are lofty plans for this service which would include a music directory of radio stations. Calling an estore might be a little misleading. You'll just have to wait though, it could eventually be bigger than Celtic Radio.

2. Online Game. It has always been our intention to develop an online game that will include interaction with the community forum. Will start out as a RPG / Turn based game and eventually be converted to a 3D world.

So, we are feeling pretty good about Celtic Radio and want to continue the site and music as long as people want us to stick around! We really want to keep our "non-commercial" feel and look too. Values and Trust are important to us and that will always be.

What an excellent and encouraging post! I have thoroughly enjoyed it here and the only frustrating thing I've found is not havinf enough time to visit as much as I'd like.
Thanks so much for the hard work you guys put into the site.

Now I feel old..lol..So much has been acomplished over the years.

Slainte to all

sure wish i could afford the studio time and production cost...

Oh, and I almost forgot 2 very important Goals for the future.


1) Celtic Radio Music Award becomes a real award (non-virtual) with a Glass type award that will be presented to the musician and can be displayed in them musicians studio or home. Looking at 2008 for this possibly.

2) Celtic Radio Scholarship. I've thought about this for a while. At some point we want to sponsor and contribute towards a yearly Celtic Radio Scholarship to provide funding for aspiring artists who need lessons, instruments or to go to a summer musical camp. Again, the community would be involved in reviewing and determining the receiptants much like our Celtic Radio Music Award.

Ok, give me a few more days and I will think of some more items to add to the list!

Thank-you Paul for all that you have created and for all that you do everyday.

Hi All,

I have just tuned back into Highlander Radio after an unbelievable summer of travel with my son's baseball team. I was sad to discover that one of my absolute favorite features has been removed. There is no longer a "Bagpipe Hour" and that makes me sad. I absolutely loved listening to the pipes and it worked out great for me out here on the west coast (7:00am - 8:00am, MWF). I am going to miss it. Any plans on restoring it?

Dave

See this thread for details:

http://www.celticradio.net/php/forums/inde...showtopic=10942

this is a great site which I fell in love with as soon as I found it. I believe I was using a search engine and pulled it up. How it has grown in all aspects. Paul is as great now as he was back then, only older

for Paul and Killian