I thought tonight would be a good time for a Celtic Radio update! We are getting close to the end of the year and we wanted to give everyone that is interested a recap of our operations in this year of 2013 and also appeal for your moral and financial support.
To say that the last 3 months have been very busy is an understatement. In fact, the whole year has really seen a transformation of Celtic Radio.
All of the major hardware components that run all of our broadcast and websites have been upgraded. We have purchased and installed 2 new computer servers; one for our website and one for our database server. Just recently we replaced out dead workstation with a brand new HP computer which is already helping us be more productive and creative. We underwent a major reconfiguration of our network that resulted in a tremendous performance boost and we invested in backup hardware to prevent a catastrophic crash (which proved itself when our workstation died).
Over the past months we launched 3 new websites.
Here is some big news, in the first month My Celtic Friends has signed up:
MyCelticFriends.com - 200 New MembersThis is wonderful news and we are thrilled that the new site is being greeted with such enthusiasm. Our social media account integration (the ability to signup with an existing social media account like facebook or twitter) is driving alot of these new sign-ups and we will definitely be duplicating this easy sign-up process with Celtic Radio in 2014.
BroadcastsOn the broadcast front we are consolidating our efforts on three broadcast channels. Highlander Radio, Celt-Rock-Radio and Celtic Moon are run completely independently on our new network. While you might listen to these channels on Live365, Shoutcast, Real Audio, LoudCity, etc. they are all originating from our Boston Studios. Focusing on only three channels is allowing us to produce better listener content and quality while also providing a stable listening environoment.
Radio Shows and PersonalitiesWe have agreements with a number of syndicated shows to rebroadcast such as FolkScene, Simply Scottish, Irish & Celtic Music Podcast, Pub Songs, Renaissance Faire and Featured Story News (got to love those British Accents). We also continue to run previously played archives of our favorites No Celtic Boundaries and Cleveland Celtic Podcast (hi Wendy Lee!).
This year we are fortunate to contract with three new radio personalities and 1 musician reviewer. Anna is a Folk Musician from America who has been producing some of our new promos, Jim is a former BBC man from Scotland that has been helping us get the word out about our new features and Megan is just an all around nice girl from Ireland that has a thirst for Celtic Rock music. Andre is from Norway and is a Folk musician who does our reviews. He has played with some pretty big groups including Blackmore's Night.
Highlander Radio on the Go!One of those brand new features is our Celtic Radio Mobile service that is free and available to anyone with a smart phone. We have recently received some terrific feedback on individuals that have been unable to listen without this service (http://mobile.celticradio.net).
Let's stay legal!On the regulatory side of things, we have consolidated all of our internet radio streams under LoudCity.com and Live365.com. These two companies monitor our streams and insure that royalty payments are made on our behalf. They also provide us with a blanket license to stream - which makes us legal and allows us to sleep at night!
Whats new for 2014Looking forward in 2014 we hope to focus on our content and contests. We will continue to make improvements to the Celtic Radio website which will include a major overhaul of the sign-up process to make it easier for new members and logging on. We will also be working on our online game called Medieval Kingdom and you might see us offer a few new cool T-Shirts and products in our online store.
We need your help - $$$$! So as you can imagine, this type of operation requires thousands of dollars of years to just keep running. And that is just for the basics not to include the cost of new computer components and hardware. This year has been particularly expensive as we are about to go into the red, so we hope that sometime during the next few months you can help support our broadcast and website financially through our Celtic Radio Founder's Club; through Donations; our Online Store and our January yearly fund raising event.
I know that many of you keep your Celtic Radio Founder's club active and we appreciate that so much. I can tell you that without your support, this site would go belly-up pretty fast. Yes, we all have regular full-time jobs and our work on Celtic Radio is simply to help spread Celtic Music to the masses!
Thank You!Thank you all for your support of Celtic Radio now 12 years running. It has personally been very rewarding to hear what an impact this music makes on peoples lives and is a tribute to all of the musicians that produce this wonderful music.
Yearly Celtic Radio Update, Ramblings of Celtic Radio
