Going on Shuffle

Back when I worked on air, we would go "On Shuffle" for a week-end here and there. Mind you, there was no "shuffle" button in the studio. However we were to allow an algorithm to work in certain areas  of the hour where we, nor the program director himself would know what would come up for the next song. so long as we hit the TOH. What's weird is, it worked really well.

We at EH have no such luxury. What we do have is the freedom to sail the steel breeze without regulation to the program. Radio is programmed to serve the public and in case of emergency, God forbid, to serve the Federal government in times of crisis. Direct contact with the people. The internet... well.. not so much. Out here we are free.

So for the next few days, or until I get tired of it... Event Horizon is going on shuffle. Literally, an un-programmed broadcast of all available music in the EH music vault. Even the stuff I haven't gotten rid of yet, but taken out of daily rotation. Longer tracks, seriously quicker bits, some of them completely ridiculous. Who knows? Might work.

Chiller Theater will not air this week-ned, nor will Sunday Night Sci-Fi.

A big thanks again for our listeners and fans. For a commercial free. not-for-profit internet microcast, we still get a lot of attention. Be sure to support our artists on Amazon or at the Free Music Archive. they are the reason we do this. An adventure in sound and music for the common man.

We'll see you on the flip side.

Amazed and Gratified.

Event Horizon is coming up on its third year and I can not thank our listeners enough. With such a specific format in music and sound, I wondered if this genre would work for internet radio. It took some tweaking and rearranging and it's certainly paid off. The response has been, well... amazing.

We pride ourselves in being the only format of its kind on the web, which is quite a thing considering internet radio allows for an incredible amount of diversity. The medium seemed perfect for what we were looking to do, as if it was made for it. And we have been proven correct. A few out there have a great format, similar to many of the tracks you hear on Event Horizon, however it is gratifying to know we tend to push the envelope... and sometimes blow the lid off all of it.

Long may it continue.

OverNight

Extended cuts. Deeper sounds.

SHOUTcast in Windows Media Player

For years it frustrated me that folks could not tune in to a SHOUTcast station because the only media player they had was the one that came with Windows. We all knew Windows Media Player would not play .PLS files. We did have PLS in Windows, a plug in that essentially told WMP to play a SHOUTcast stream.

Nowadays SHOUTcast is heard from the site and with folks using a transcoder, people with WMP could get the stream on an .AXS file. This feature is up on the Event Horizon page. Most folks use VLC or Winamp anyway, but what of those who still use WMP? After all it is handy, it works well. It's everywhere Windows is. There is a way and without a plug-in.

SHOUTcast has notified us that soon they will no longer support SHOUTcast version 1, moving to the latest developments for the far superior version 2. But there are still alot of folks who still stream in SC v.1 and some great material is still being streamed on straight .PLS servers. I have little doubt the negation of SC v1 support will lead to people running "underground" stations all over the web. For this and general knowledge, I have discovered how Windows Media Player, all versions since XP can play a SHOUTcast/ .PLS stream.

It might be old knowledge, but for this old timer, it was quite a discovery. All you need to do is paste the SC server web address in to "Open URL" in WMP. The catch is not to inclide "listen.pls"... just the addy itself, e.g. http://xxx.xxx.xxx: port and that's all. WMP will play SCv1 and 2 this way. What's even better, is that you can save the station in WMP as a playlist, access the file by selecting the new playlist and right clicking to "open file location". This file will not only open a .PLS stream on demand, it will accept song titles as well, which adding the server address negates. And that's it.

Windows users rejoice! ;)

Welcome to the Galaxy, Tylean!

Since its inception, Event Horizon Radio has searched and successfully located the best and most unique music available to bring a one of a kind broadcast to the world.

TyLean is an artist we are proud to premier on the mighty EH. Not too many artists and/ or publishers offer their music for the stream and few, if any are considered. Great work, all of them, however not all music fits the format. Tylean is exactly what we look for. Her creativity and command of sound and tone sold us immediately. Her vocals are superb and we do very few vocals.

Too many artists in the genres we air seem to go ape with vocals in an experimental or ambient environment, as if they try too hard to be weird. Others grasp the beauty and structure of the other-worldly and excursions in innerspace through their vocal presence... even a structure to chaos. TyLean is a rare breed.

Visit her site - http://www.tylean.com and catch Tylean's music on Event Horizon Internet Radio.

Technical hitch from the digital to the natural

Last week-end Event Horizon was down and out. As the last blog told of the difficulties oin the upgrade, this time ice storms blanketed central and western Oklahoma, leaving thousands without power for days. We had power, however internet was, let's say, dubious the whole week-end.

Things on the SHOUTcast end are rather smooth. There have been many internal workings on the Radionamy side and I must say, they are improving greatly. Some of the issues were getting so out of hand, I thought I might have to retrograde the stream to SC v1. So here's the SHOUTcast team. 

We still have a large backlog of material that has yet to be integrated in to rotation and more is sent to us every week. We're rather excited at many of the prospects out there, adding color and depth to the galaxy of artists you will only find on Event Horizon Radio.

Stay tuned and turn on!