RadioPower, Signing Off
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RadioPower.org will cease its streaming radio operation on January 5, 2007.
This will mark our fifth anniversary, and passing. We have been struggling to
pay our bills for a while but it meant something to me to reach this milestone
before we make as graceful an exit as possible. Now, alas, we've run out of
resources to operate on, so the time has come.
I'd like to begin with an apology for our declining level of service. For the last
year it has been increasingly difficult to maintain our diverse level of content
and infrastructure as it aged into disrepair. Our main feed server for our LAN
is a 1999 model Apple G3 400 Yosemite server which has survived a direct
lightning strike that killed 3 newer computers on our network, and has now
run 24/7 for the past 8 years! So I'd like to begin by thanking Apple who has
powered our studio projects since 1999. There is no greater ally of modern
creativity and artistry than Apple computer. On top of this it was iTunes that
put RadioPower Progressive Talk, Analog Voyager, American Blues, and
Punk 45 Radio on the map, contributing immensely to our popularity. Our
4 stations were among the first on iTunes Radio.
When I woke up this morning I realized something; As I lay in bed, feeling
depressed and not wanting to get out of bed, remembering how years ago
(before founding RadioPower) the alarm clock would go off in the morning
and I would pound the snooze button, uninspired to rise and face another
boring day of mindless work. This all came to an end on January 5, 2002
when I hatched this idea of our listener supported, internet radio network.
From that day on, I sprang from bed at dawn every day, eager to have my
morning coffee and dive into the business of the day. In fact, it's been as
many years since I evicted the alarm clock from my lair. Waking instead to
the internal clock of my ambitions. These were some of the best years of
my creative life. Every day brought some new challenge and reward. The
network was growing at a rate of 20% per month! and seemed as though
it would never end. Then came, Air America.
RadioPower was more than just another network, it was born of my vision that
someday people could communicate without any assistance or influence from
governments or corporations. We managed to operate for 5 years from listener
donations, reaching on average between 2.5 and 3 million listeners per month
with our music and talk radio streams. Many of our listeners experienced music
and points of view that they had never experienced before. I know this because
many of our extended family have taken the time to send us an email and thank
us for the experience. This of course in turn supported the artist's exposure and
contributed to making more people aware of their talents. As an artist this is my
personal satisfaction, to know that we did in fact help spread new and different
voices, views, ideas, and genuine expressions.
Perhaps we were slightly ahead of our time.
It still troubles me that government and corporations are taking over the means
and methods that we use to communicate with each other, intellectuals, artists,
and every day human beings. I have done all I can for five years to present for
your consideration another method for us to get together and share this music
and have a meaningful conversation or debate. But alas, the grip of corporate
and government control is descending upon us, and on the entire internet, as
the thieves in glass towers make sure that no one can make ends meet if they
attempt to make it outside the corporate mold. What is the difference between
the struggle to keep radiopower going, and your local merchant's struggle to
survive the all devouring beast; Heil-Mart?
Sadly, this project ends for me today. But for some of you it is only beginning.
My parting wish is that someday there will be a thousand RadioPowers. That
government and corporations be removed entirely from the unwelcome spot
they now occupy. If you think I am wrong, the next time you are driving down
main drag USA, take a moment to notice the barrage of signs, the lack of any
variety, the corporate message, and only the corporate message blasted into
your homes every day, and the government that makes it all possible. There
is something very wrong here and it is devouring our entire culture. Nothing
is allowed except the corporate approved message, the corporate approved
culture and a government enforced society.
I'd like to bid farewell with a quote from; Why Socialism? by Albert Einstein.
Published in 1949 by the Monthly Review, New York.
"Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands, partly because technology development and the increasing division of labor encourage the formation of larger units of production and distribution at the expense of the smaller ones. The results of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital, the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked, even by a democratically organized political society. This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed and otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature. The consequence of this is theNow, with a heavy heart, we bid farewell.
representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population. Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control directly or indirectly the main
sources of information (press, radio, education). Thus it is extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and intelligent use of his rights."
To our friends and to our critics, thank you for your participation. I gave this everything we had, and you gave me even more. For a complete history of
RadioPower and my other projects, I hope to someday write a book about this, that, and other adventures in disobedience.
Revolution can happen; if you rebel.
Sincerely,
Shelby LaPre
RadioPower.org
