World Record Store Day in the UK and on the radio

       World Record Store Day

vinyl collectors will be in heaven!

Originally an American initiative, World Record Store Day has since been taken up by the UK record retailing industry, or what's left of it. The event gets more successful every year and the 16th April looks to be bigger and better than ever. Many record labels make very limited edition pressings available for this one day only and 2016 is no exception. A full listing of the special releases can be found on the RSD16 page. 

These invariably become collectors' items and change hands for extraordinary amounts. This year many of the prime cuts have been made available some days early by some sharks on EBay, even before their official release! 

Many radio stations are taking part this year, BBC Radio 6 nationally on DAB, and Bauer 's MW network in the north,  from 4 to 6pm will be 

• Viking2 
• TFM2
• Hallam2
• Aire2
• Key2
• City2 

The show will be hosted by avid vinyl collector Stephanie Hirst, who can also be heard on several BBC local stations (e.g. BBC York and BBC Manchester) regularly with more 'all vinyl' programmes. 

The music on Stephanie's vinyl shows are always played in from original vinyl discs, drawn from her own record library at home. She has been an avid collector for many years spending thousands of pounds on old singles. 

The BBC has entered into the spirit of World Record Store Day in quite a big way this year, with items in many of the corporations other programmes. Even Women's Hour on BBC Radio 4 did a feature,  with vinyl addict Mary Anne Hobbs telling Jenni Murray all about how she got rid of her huge vinyl collection by having a party and inviting her guests to simply help themselves to whatever they wanted!  A very kind hearted girl is Mary Anne!

Mary Anne kept only 200 items, real solid favourites that she just could not bear to be parted with.  I know how she feels,  I could not even whittle my own favourite list down to 200! My own 'favourites' list is around 400 (you can see a print out of the Paul Rusling Favourites by clicking the words).

Following Mary Anne's programme (she does breakfasts on Saturdays, from 7 to 10)  Radio 6 had scheduled a Lauren Levine  with a special 'RSD Party' broadcast which has some very special guests who she is keeping close to her chest. 

Your Local Record Shop

Many record shop[s have their own events - in Hull the SoundSystems shop in Bowlalley Lane had the FRONTEERS playing their tunes and signing their 45s in the afternoon.  Steve Mathie's Spin-it in the Trinity Market and Darran Crowther's Disc Discovery on Spring Bank are ALWAYS worth a visit.  Check out  YOUR own nearest independent store with a handy little checker available on THIS WEB PAGE .

The SL1200 turntable reborn

After almost going into extinction ten years ago, record shops are really making a comeback this year, as is vinyl generally.  Turntables too are making an appearance once again as the focal point of many HiFi installations and this week a new turntable, a remodelling of the legendary SL1200, as sold out, despite a $4,000 price tag.  

The orginal SL1200s stopped production about five years ago and have been commanding hefty price tags; I've been itching to take mine to bits for years but it has just never faltered! The new SL1200 GAE models have their own BlueTooth transmitter on board so you can hook up wireless speakers or any other kit around the home. This eradicates the one item that does add some crackle in any turntable installation - those old phono plugs, which are not really conducive to great audio fidelity!

Other Turntables 

The Daily Mirror too has jumped on the vinyl bandwagon for RSD 2016 and has several special HiFi offers available. One is a Zennox music scentre, reduced from £500 down to £299.99, with a 6 in 1 music system reduced to £140.99, and a recordable music centre  allowing connection to a laptop compter for recoding for just £129.99.  Details are on this special RSD16 page.

Other manufacturers have been putting new turntables onto the market too. SONY have a much cheaper option in their PS-HX500 HRA turntable, which is due out any week and will cost around £400.  This model  not only allows users to digitize their records, but offers output as DSD (DSF) files, which SONY claim matches audio CDs. 

It has a  “Hi-Res Audio Recorder” app for PC or Mac so you can edit the raw files, deleting unwanted parts of the recording, such as the pop as the needle drops, or the ubiquitous 'cue burn' that many DJs collections are afflicted by. It seems odd that SONY, who worked so hard to launch the CD, which put paid to vinyl as the major format, should be trying to get back into the vinyl market. They even sold their huge European record pressing plant Record Industry in Harlem, Holland a few years ago, a move they are now regretting.

That Record Industry record factory is now the largest vinyl pressing plant in the world, and is struggling to keep up with demand for its records from all over the world and ships out around 30,000 albums a day, giving it an annual turnover of $5.4 million, and growing. Demand is so heavy that the minimum time they can get releases out is currently 3 months! 

Audio Technics have also jumped on the 'wireless' bandwagon with their  LP60-BT which  has a pre-amp built in and a wired output for the traditionalists. Its now available for approx £135.

Record Store Day New Releases

For fuller details of the many new releases available on RSD (and perhaps for a short time afterwards) see THIS PAGE which lists the special releases, including Alannis, Albert King and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band (always very collectable!), Allen Toussaint, The Animals, Ashford & Simpson, the Associates and of course, that doyen of DJs, Alan Partridge! That was just a few from those beginning with A - check out the pages and pages of rare recordings on the Record Store Day page. 

Music and Radio Magazines

Music and Radio Magazines

I've loved magazines from being about ten years old - well, not quite magazines in those days. it was music papers. A friend at school (Ian Colebourne - where is her now?)  had an elder brother who was chucking out his stash of Record Mirror and Mersey Beat issues. These were weekly tabloid size on newsprint, I think I got some Fabulous 208 mags from him too which had lots of pictures of music stars,mainly Cliff and Elvis. 

I began taking Disc and Music Echo myself and then  Record Mirror, especially as they covered the radio stations, and especially those on the ships which Melody Maker and the NME ignored. The Melody Maker had been running since 1926 but folded into the NME in 2000, which itself has recently collapsed to just 20,000 copies a week. The electronic version has not taken off and has less than 2,000 subscribers. 

I continued subscribing to these and more throughout the 1970s - they provided much needed information when I was DJing and for many years kept huge archives of back copies of Mix Mag, Blues & Soul, and those papers. 

Its only pretty recently that I've been persuaded to move most of them on, although I still have about 20 years of Record Collector. It was one of my favourites for many years, as was Radio & Records (an American weekly, now sadly gone). I still have many years of Private Eye, essential reading once a fortnight. 

A while ago we were asked to recommend a library of books and of periodicals  for a radio station to make sure their presentation team were up to date.  I spent a couple of days trawling through whats available, and thought this might be a useful exercise to repeat now, so here is a pretty comprehensive listing of the magazines you can find at your newsagent today.  A far better way though is to subscribe which has five great advantages.  

1. It makes sure you don't miss a single copy.  That's can be very important if you are very busy! You get extra free gifts too - exclusive music CDs, and so on
2. You often get each issue s a few days before it appears in the shops,
3. Your copy turns up nicely sealed in a plastic wrapper,  not dog-eared and well thumbed like some of those at the newsagents!
4. Its often much cheaper as a subscriber - you can get up to a half or so off the cover cover price.

Happy reading -  but don't forgot to come back here for my Blog every now and then!

Paul

Acoustic  Monthly guitar, incl tutorials.

Alternative Press   Live rock music  

Audio Media (for engineers)

Bass Guitar Mag a monthly 

Bass Player Leading UK bassist's Monthly. 

Big Cheese  Fashion & music for teen boys

Billboard (American)

Blues

Blues & Soul  Long running fortnightly

Clash (UK independent)

Classic Pop

Classic Rock

Country Music People.  UK monthly

DJ Monthly  Clubbing DJ monthly (UK)

Downbeat  Jazz and Blues monthly 

Fader   Leading Culture bi-monthly

Fireworks   bi-monthly, melodic rock 

Froots (folk  & roots + world music)

Future Music

Guitarist  Very popular monthly mag

Heat Magazine   Lifestyle and pop / RnB
Hip Hop Magazine US fortnightly urban

i-D   Style & Culture

Jazz Journal    Monthly, since 1948

Jazz Times US monthly, jazz with soul

Jazzwise  modern and stylish jazz

K-Mag   (Drum & Bass monthly)

Kerrang! (World biggest rock music monthly)

Live UK  (concerts, equipment & tours

Living Blues Afro-US with US radio charts

Maverick bi-monthly quality country mag

Metal Hammer Hardcore & loud rock mag

MixMag (dance music and DJs lifestyle)

Modern Drummer  Monthly 

MOJO (rock, Alternative and World Music) 

Mondo DR   for sound & light engineers

Music & Copyright  

Music Tech Magazine

Music Week UK Recording industry

NME rock and pop week paper

PowerPlay  Heavy rock and Metal monthly

Prog

Record Collector bible of vinyl fans

Rhythm Magazine   summers magazine
ROCK
Rolling Stone Iconic pop culture mag

Songlines  World music bi-monthly

Sound On Sound equipment focussed monthly

The Source Monthly hip-hop / urban

The Wire   

Time Out    Listing magazine for London 

Top of the Pops  Teen fashion and charts.

Total Guitar monthly, covers amp's too.

UNCUT  new & classic rock music 

VIBE   Hip Hop Magazine

We Love Pop Teenyboppers monthly

Wire  Monthly underground music mag

XXL  Quarterly American hip-hop mag

ZERO TOLERANCE experimental metal

Soul music on UK Radio

Soul's big hole in the radio market?

The shock news this week that Ministry of Sound has abruptly closed its radio outlet took some time to sink in.  As an old soul boy myself  I find myself tuned to more and more soul outlet, and the MoS channel, although poorly presented and with a music format that was literally "all over the road" was a key port of call as my fingers wandered top and down "the dial". (strange how we say that, even though like so many I pick my stations out on a keyboard!)

I was first turned on to soul music by Johnnie Walker playing the latest hot American sounds on Swinging Radio England in 1966.  t was here I first got into Wilson Picket, and others from the Atlantic and stay labels as well as the very latest tracks from Motown, usually months before they were released by the UK Motown office at EMI in London. When I began DJing, I also played a lot of UK releases that never even got radio play - stuff like the Karate Boogaloo by Jerry O and heaps of stuff on the Action, Soul City,  Direction and President labels. Getting hold of American pressings came later, when I heard stuff on AFN from its giant station in Frankfurt that played the latest US  releases.  

We've never had a radio station solely for soul in the UK that was available on regular radios and covered the whole nation. Some DJs have a love for soul and play as much as they can - Tony Blackburn is a great example, Dave Gregory too and of course Robbie Vincent, all of them heard all too rarely on the radio. But there isn't a radio station that you would call pure soul that has become mainline, big time and a huge success.

I know some of the DAB channels have some soul, some of the time, and I'm always grateful for it and pleased to help promote it. But DAB reception is so poor in many areas, especially in parts of the North. In Wales, Cornwall and Scotland its almost inaudible outside the major population areas.   parts ofThis is the reason 'land pirate' stations have thrived - there is a huge market of listeners who want to hear the music of their choice on the radio.   

The explosion on online radio means that at last almost anyone can open their own radio station. Listeners voice with their feet (OK, their ears!) and we have seen several stations come and go. Perhaps one of the longest surviving is SOLAR which began as a tower rock pirate in London. They are now heard on two of the small scale DAB trial stations (in London and Norwich) as well as online. They feature some well known DJs from the soul scene, such as Tony Monson and Les Adams; great names and very competent and they really know their soul.  The station however does veer towards jazz, lounge and all kinds of laid back stuff that don't appeal to me.

If you want  something a bit more uptime, there is Glitterball Radio, Northern Soul-100mph, and Station X which I do dip in and out of quite often, but I notice from the listener count that their audience often is a big fact zero. Clearly they are not reaching the hundreds of thousands listeners that we should fans KNOW are searching for some up tempo soul to speed their day along.  

So why aren't these stations more successful and achieving 'big time' status?  The reasons are very simple - they are lacking in one of the FOUR GOLDEN RULES OF SUCCESSFUL RADIO, essential elements you need to make a radio station succeed:

1. PROGRAMME a  format that's in demand
2  Make it  easy for listeners to FIND the station 
3.  PROMOTE -  tell people you're there!
4. Keep listeners listening, by engaging with them

once you have a solid station, with regular listeners
5. Market the station to sponsors - advertisers, etc

There are many other skills needed but those four above  which can be simplified as:
Programme  Engineer  Promote  Communicate

Thee are the vital ingredients.  If any one of these elements is missing, the station cannot succeed.and then
  SELL the air time   which means market!

(I don't think of it as selling the listeners, I regard this as renting out all those pairs of ears!)

Now YOU can now have your own radio station

Listening is now moving towards online, and with more mobile WiFi capacity becoming available and very cheaply ANYONE can have their own radio station. No licence is required.  All you need is the KNOWLEDGE  to do it, and we have the solution for that. its all in this eBook

You could start by checking out a book I just published as an eBook which tells you exactly what you need and where to find all that you need. 

Internet Radio 2016 comes complete with links to all the suppliers - equipment, music, staff training, etc. It's your starter for a successful radio station and it will cost you only £6.89, so why not grab a copy now?  I think you'll be pleased that you did!

Never forget those  Golden Rules of Successful Radio.

And I look forward to hearing YOUR radio station !

Paul

Need help launching a radio station?  Contact Worldwide Broadcast Consultants 

Internet Radio in 2016, how to launch your own radio station

Internet Radio in 2016

How to launch your own Internet Radio station

I've worked as a broadcast consultant for many radio stations since the early 1980s and recently have had a lot of calls from people wanting help in setting up radio stations online; internet radio, or web radio, as they are known. It's now possible for almost anyone to run their own radio station 'online' and have it heard all around the world. No licence is necessary (in most countries) and it can now be very cheap to set up a radio station to run pretty much automatically. 

Indeed, some of the service providers let you upload your programme items, say music, announcements, commercials, etc and the transmission computers (called a server) will mix the whole lot together in a continuous stream - a full round the clock service provided under the guise of your radio station's name. You don't even need your radio station's studio to be switched on, you just pop in and out of the stream whoever you want to broadcast live.

CLICK HERE

for more details on the Book

Almost 100,000 stations have now gone online and with some developments just around the corner, such as the huge increase in data capacity,  this will rise quickly. We could well see around a million radio stations available to listen to within the next five years.

We are not able to advise every one who wants to broadcast, and so have published a book telling exactly how anyone can set up their own radio station. The Internet Radio book explains the system, how to arrange transmission, what equipment is required and how and where to obtain it. The book also has a lot of essential tips on how to run a radio station to make it successful. How to fund your station, not just the initial finance, but ongoing revenues. What are advertisers and sponsors looking for and how they might provide the money needed to sustain your stationed make it a successful business. 

The Internet Radio 2016 book has over 77,000 words, that's 353 pages long and it's available on line now to download instantly to your electronic reader. You can see it on Smartphones, tablets such as the iPad, laptops and desk top computers - as well as Kindles of course.

It costs just £6.89 and that's for more information than you will hear on a two day seminar.  You can read the book's 38 chapters about radio as often as you wish, and use the links in its pages to contact suppliers and agencies. The book tells how you can make  some great savings and help your radio station to sound even better.

Written in February 2016, the book is bang up to date and includes details of the new CRB copyright rates for American stations and the closedown of Live365. Radio stations needing distribution can get online immediately with a transmission provider, or server company, called Listen2MyRadio, which has a great offers on right now - just tell them Paul Rusling sent you. Click the socks in the picture above for details!   

Have look at the World of Radio web page for all the details and decide if the book could help YOU or perhaps one of your friends realise that long held dream:

 - your very own radio station 

The eBook is called 

Internet Radio 2016: How to launch and operate your own station

Internet Radio 2016 is published by World of Radio. There is also a web site of the same name that also contains lots of relevant information.

The World of Radio web site describes what the specialised pieces of equipment, such as encoders, and processors, are for. It describes why you need them and how they achieve their purpose.  As well as the 'server side' equipment, programme sources are included, such as the radio station playout and automations software, legal sources of downloadable music, hardware such as mixing console and microphones too.

The book also describes the difference methods of digital formatting for broadcast and the various transmission services companies, who is doing the best deals for small broadcasters. This is a constantly changing field and the website is updated on a daily basis.

Click HERE for details of the DAB+ Radio 

Radio is Stressful. FACT !

Radio 8th most stressful job!

Broadcaster” is the eighth most stressful job you can have, according to a new study by CareerCast.com. They looked at 11 different kinds of job demands that evoke stress, both physical and mental. 

Stress is determined by various factors, but the most important 11 of them are: obligation to travel, deadlines, working in the public eye, competitiveness, physical demands, environmental conditions, hazards encountered, the life of oneself or others at risk, meeting and interacting with customers and/or the public, and the potential for job growth.

Among the other carriers checked were Active Military Personnel, Firefighter, Airline Pilot, Policeman,  PR Director, Events Coordinator, Taxi Driver, Journalist and senior corporate executive.

The least stressful jobs included hair stylist, medical lab technicians and records officers, dietician and Librarian. 

Favourite TV Advert, and favourite music.

Favourite TV adverts  

I took part in a radio discussion recently and was asked my favourite radio and TV commercials.   I thought that I might share this with you, as they are probably very unique and not ones that many would share with me!

Most haunting tune ever for me would be the Skol International beer commercial aired on Radio Veronica in 1968 and 69 (it may be what started me drinking - that was 1968!). I think not was also used on TV in several countries, maybe even the UK too.  

It was sung by the amazing Patricia Paay, who also coincidentally recorded several jingles for my favourite radio station then, Radio Veronica.  She later had great success in the Netherlands as a singer and made many hits, as well as becoming a well known TV presenter and pundit. 

I also confess to loving the TV jingle that most people find "cringing" for Johnsons 'Shake and Vac'. It starred an little known actress called Jenny Logan doing a manic dance around a suburban lounge with her vacuum cleaner. I'm still not sure if I find it erotic or the song is just a very clever earworm.  

For pure comedy the TV ad that really cracks me up is SMASH - the one where the aliens are sat around a space ship console laughing at the primitive way we cook our potatoes: "Then they smash them all to bits." Sheer Brilliance! 

Favourite Music 

For many years I kept a note of which my favourite music tracks were - its around 400. Tunes that just have a certain magic for me and which i could never be without. If I'm feeling a bit low I just pop on a few of these and they really are like medicine. Who needs drugs? 

Music can really make you feel so good. Many are landmark tracks from kye moments in my life, although strangely there are few from my first radio broadcasts (on Radio Caroline in 1973) although there are many that bring back memories of Radio Veronica, the leading Dutch station in the 60s and 70s.  

My favourites cover many genres, the whole spectrum of music almost and while there are a lot from 1966, a quick run down revelas I am still bvery much "into the music"  right through the 80s and 90s, even into this century. My children will be so surprised to see that!  

One of the most dominat rooms in our home for many years has been the Record library, the singles alone numbering tens of thousands.  One of the reasons we only moved house very rarely! 
Click here for a listing of Paul Rusling's favourite music tracks (mostly singles!) 

Nostalgia from Holland on 192.tv

Nostalgia from Holland on 192.tv

email: info@192tv.tv            www.192tv.nl

Last month the 192TV channel opened its new studios in Nijkerk in the Netherlands. Although run by a bunch of radio aficionados, (OK then - Anoraks!) this is not of such narrow appeal as you might expect. It is in fact a very widely watched channel.  The 192TV channel now has 2 MILLION subscribers in Holland alone where its available on a number of outlets. 

They are the same people who bring one of Internet Radio's most entertaining radio channels, 192.nl. Former Radio Veronica audio and programming guru, Ad Bouman and Rob Stellings, Rene Kroon from TMF, The Music Factory, and former record label executive Bert van Breda. 

Largely due to its programme content including chunks of old shows from Beat TV,  the BBC, KRO, NOS and many more. It is in fact like an all gold radio channel, but with rarely seen footage from days gone by.  I must confess I often wallow in the nostalgic programme material it offers. 

192TV takes the viewer back in time 24/7 with clips and TV shows of all kinds of artists from the  sixties and seventies, interspersed with original jingles from that time.  They also run stuff from the 80s, 90s and the noughts too  The most popular strips though seem to be the ones featuring the Beatles and they recently ran some exhibitions in the studio related to the band, and their visits to the Netherlands.   The Beatles Top 30 was also a popular programme event (Ive been trying to see it again, a pity that 192TV does not have a 'Watch it Again" feature.