News of My New Project!

I know what some people are going to say. "Oh, more blindy radio! This station's been up and down more times than the Dow Jones Index! Yawn yawn yawn!" And that's the polite version. In a kind of way I sympathise with some of the comments and concerns levelled at internet radio stations run by and for people in the blind community. When I tell you that I'm bringing Team-FM back on air, if you're one of the people who's just annoyed by the whole net radio concept, I'd be grateful if you didn't immediately splutter, yawn, press alt F4 and get on with your day. Smile.

You may or may not know that I gave up broadcasting earlier this year. I didn't go off in a huff as can so often happen. I made the decision to hang up my microphone because my health was so poor at the time, and I felt that whatever small talent I had for doing a good show had gone. It was an effort, not fun anymore and listening to the result later was really embarrassing. I really thought that was that, finito, done. Then, a few weeks back I was listening to Jammin' Jerry doing his wonderful eighties show on Phoenix Fire FM. He was playing some belting tunes and I thought, I don't miss the weekly grind, having to do a show when I'm feeling like hell, knowing I'm not doing a good job and struggling through it somehow, but I do miss sharing the best music ever recorded with people. I really miss having great music to listen to while I'm working that changes every hour without me having to change it. Hell, I really miss Team-FM.

When we had that station a few years back, the concept for the Team-Machine was mine and I hand picked all that music and kept it updated and sounding fresh. I also wrote most of the web content. I can still do all that. It's no coincidence that a lot of mainstream internet radio is music only. Personally when I listen to radio I don't want a lot of chatter when I'm working, I want music, and I certainly don't want a load of annoying commercials.

So, to cut a long story sideways, I'm bringing Team-FM back on air as a music only radio station for now. This is my personal project. Brian is happy and settled where he is working and, while he has given me his full support plus invaluable help and advice, I don't want to compromise his position in any way. It goes without saying that I have no axe to grind with anyone or any radio station, there's plenty of air for heaven's sake, and choice is free.

I was talking about the concerns of people annoyed by internet radio run by and for people in the blind community. As I see it, good radio is good radio and to marginalise ourselves is dangerous, heaven knows the sighted world does that to us enough. So, Team-FM is not a quote blindy radio station unquote. The fact that I happen to be running it and I'm blind is a mere coincidence. All very well for me to say, you might think, but that's how I look at it. I will be using the same mainstream ways to promote it as every other radio station does.

Lastly I want to talk about Twitter. I totally sympathise with the many people who are infuriated by internet radio speak cluttering up their time lines. I know there is another side to this, having been part of the wonderful sense of community there can be when you're a part of the conversation and fun. But when you're on the outside looking in and you're trying to wade through this clutter it can drive you mad. The use of hash tags is a step in the right direction, but there are some Twitter clients where the use of philters isn't possible, and there is a school of thought which asks why should I have to do something to prevent myself being annoyed?

I want to make a positive step to address this very real concern. I will not be promoting Team-FM on my personal Twitter account. The station has its own Twitter and Facebook which will, of course, have all the latest station news. The question of broadcasters' tweets doesn't arise at the moment but no one knows what the future holds and if it ever does I am formulating plans to keep anoyance to non-interested people to an absolute minimum.

So, where do we go from here? Well, at the moment I'm working to get everything ready. Then one day you'll wake up and it'll be there. I don't believe in fuss and fanfares. I'll post news here, or you can follow @team_fm_radio if you're interested. If you're not, and you've just been reading to see what I'm babbling on about, thanks so very much for taking the trouble.

Have a great day everyone. ?