X-No-Archive: Yes
Becuase of greedy bastards at the RIAA in America and at least one
congressional committee chair that appears to be in their back pocket,
Alpha
Crucis Radio will probably go off the air on 16th July, Australia time.
This is becuase Live 365, our streaming provider, will
almost certainly have to shut down on July 15th U.S.
time (Australia is one day ahead of the U.S.).
I could run the station from my server in France, but
the bandwidth costs that I would incur, during the
broadcast of figure skating events, would be
astronomical, exceed even the worst-cast royalty
scenarious of the RIAA. This is becuase I have had
over 500 listeners during figure skating broadcasts.
This is why when I have run the backup server,
why I have had to limit the number of listeners,
to keep form being hit with astronomical
bandwidth bills. The plan I have allowes for
300GB of data transfer per month from
my servers. Any more than that is billed at
about $US 0.50 per gigabyute. That does
not sound like much, but it can add up
quickly, if I am broadcasting a large and
popular skating event.
I have already begun the process of shutting down.
I have shut down my bulletin board I run on my
site, and layed off the board admins that were
running the board. Some of them, such as MrSpit,
have been here since the beginning
This business has been very good for me, for these
12 years I have been running it. It paid for college.
While other college students were flipping burgers
for a living, I was running my own online radio
station and travelling the world.
The station was originally started in 1995, to oppose
the Communications Decency Act, but quickly
grew in scope. We started broadcasting figure
skating in late 1995. I saw HISTORY made in
1996 when Michelle Kwan became the first
American lady to win the world title, since Elaine
Zayack, back in 1981. In 1998 I saw Tara
become the first American to win the ladies
Olympic title in 22 YEARS (Dorothy Hamill
had been the previous champ, back in 1976).
The moment I will most remember though, was
back in 2002, when Sarah Hughes became
Australia's first ladies gold medallist, since
Tenley Albright, back in 1956. Australia had
won a total of four winter games gold medals
that year, the most for Team Australia, in its
history.
I hope that enough consponsors in the Congress
can be found to bypass the Small Business Committee
and force a vote. In the House, if a bill gets 260
consponsors, it automatically forces a floor vote.
If I come back, I come back, if I dont, I dont.
But these 12 years of being on the air have been
the best time of my life.
|
