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The Boop

Construction

So!

When we started this project I tried to imagine what it would sound like over the air and I decided that we needed some kind of divider thing between the readings.

On a music station they have commercials, announcements, weather, and other things which come between songs, usually someone talking, something that is not music.

Music stations have a talking interlude so the immediate thought with a talking station  is to have some sort of musical interlude.  But, if we use real music then the copyright police knock on our door asking for performance money and who knows what else.

The result is something musical but not music.  Something short.  And something that will signal the end.  Something cheerful and happy.

Here it is:  The Boop

I guess it is actually a double-boop.

It reminds me a bit of “when Tinkerbell rings her bell, turn the page” on the little read-along books I had when I was a child.

I think it might be interesting to have listeners submit other Boops and have a library of random Boops to go between selections.  But, this one Boop should get us started.

 

Press coverage

Construction

I spent some time yesterday sending out press releases to the local newspapers, chamber of commerce, anyone and everyone.

We got a call today from a state-wide newspaper and I talked to a nice man there for quite awhile.  I hope I said something sensible!  He said it was for the Friday edition.  I will let you know if it develops into a story.

And yesterday we got a blog write-up on radioworld.com which was very positive.

Literacy Rate – Lowndes County, Mississippi

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Literacy Rate – Lowndes County, Mississippi

I found some online statistics about literacy in Lowndes County, MS.

In 1992 the percentage of the population lacking “basic prose literary skills” was estimated at 21%. In 2003 that number had improved to 16%. I don’t know if it is fair to extrapolate another 10 years, but if it were, 2013 would be at 11%.

Do you think 11% of the population in our area should be kept away from The Tale of Two Cities because they cannot read?

(And the situation in the next county south of us is: 2003 – 28% lacking “basic prose literary skills”)

I think classic literature has timeless value. Sure, a lot of more modern works also are valuable and I would broadcast those if I had the ability to do so. But the old stuff is good and it is freely available.

The leap to be made is whether hearing The Tale of Two Cities on the radio would actually improve the literacy situation. Isn’t that an interesting question? I think we should try it and find out.

The only way to make that happen is that either a) it has to have commercial viability for some station to switch from the current radio fare or b) someone like you will offer to help set up, fund and run a non-profit to do it.

Here is an opportunity, for the price of a used car we can try it out and see what happens. I hope you will join us.

New video coming

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I actually put on a white shirt and my one and only necktie in order to record a new video today for our IndieGoGo funding page. I am uploading it to youtube now. That takes quite awhile.

This one is pretty straight, nothing too humorous. And I attempted to put in a more pointed appeal for help. Maybe that will get some contributions coming in.

I was doing some reading about crowdfunding this week. And they had a number of good points, one of which was to keep updating the project page and sending out tweets and generally keep the thing churning a bit. We set ours up as 45 day project so we are 1/3rd of the way through. The article said that there was usually a burst at the beginning then
a bit of a slump and a burst at the end. I’m hoping we have a _big_ burst at the end.

We aren’t going to get too emotionally wrapped up in it. It reminds me of having something for sale up on Ebay: it is easy to sit there hitting refresh all day to see if anyone is bidding. We don’t want to do that.

So I’m loading more content, fiddling around with this PA/telephone interface box, and working on other aspects of the project. There are lots of things to do without fretting about the funding campaign.