Live Broadcasts – Friday Night Live!
The First Live Broadcast
The first official live broadcast of Hawkwynd Radio was some time in March of 2020. I had been studying the liquidsoap developer’s documentation, to learn more about the abilities of the software, and how to get it doing exactly what I wanted. The documentation for Liquidsoap is excellent, however it lacks some definition and could use more detail in several areas. That’s just my .02.
I learned that liquidsoap has capabilities to do things such as scheduling playlists, allow for a remote connection to interrupt the stream, and when it disconnected, to resume where it left off. This peaked my interest! I could break in to the stream, mid-song, and Jarvis (my pet name for it) would immediate switch the source to the stream I was sending from another machine on the network.
The documentation for liquidsoap explained it clearly, and I connected to it with Greystone, using MIXXX software, and after a few trials, we were ready to broadcast on command!
Friday Night Live! is born!
After talking to JDub about a scheduled show, we agreed that a Friday night would be cool, and start it at 9pm CST, and do a 3 hour stint of live broadcasting. The first show (documented prep sheet) was 11/27/20.
Now, it’s important to remember I had no clue how a radio station program was created, didn’t research the “How to host a radio show” on Google, nothing. I just made it up as I went along.
That’s the fun of a hobby – you learn shit and enjoy doing it. I was anxious at first when the mic came on and I had to say something. I don’t remember how I sounded, but I was broadcasting. It was like a maiden flight for a pilot. I kept hearing in my mind “Please don’t crash and burn…”
We had 1 listener most nights – JDub. In the early days we didn’t care about listeners and John gave constructive criticism and helped me mold the “feel” of the show format. Our first month or two of Friday Nights was a blurr, flying by the seat of my pants, without a program or any structure in the show whatsoever. I was like “I’m broadcasting on my radio station and I’ll do what the hell I want.”
We continued to grow the KEEP, searching out new sub-genres in the realm of Rock and Roll. Listened to a lot of horrible music, some, we flat-out said “NO WAY!”, deleting it immediately, and others we decided to add to the KEEP.
Each show got a little smoother, kinks were beginning to iron out and it was not too long before I began to write stuff down on a legal pad for the show, calling it my “Show Prep” sheet. The early prep sheets were basically used to write down the listeners and locations, for “Shout Outs”
Shout-Outs
I learned quickly that the listeners would get rather excited about hearing their name on their radio. (or steaming client). Today’s broadcasts feature Shout Outs! at the bottom of each hour. I still receive stories from listeners who share their delight, when someone they are with hears his/her name for the first time. Children especially cheer with joy hearing their name on the air. It’s a fun thing, and we’ve kept doing ever since.
The Birth Of The Show Theme
In the early days, there was no real rhyme or reason to the show, it basically consisted of browsing the KEEP and choosing random songs. As broadcasts go they were rough. Real rough. But, we didn’t care because “We were broadcasting and we didn’t care about anything else!” True.
Over time, John and I discussed doing a whole show with a dedicated theme. Then, building a playlist to support that theme. Easy enough, right. Right. The theme selection became another project in itself. I found a really helpful website though, and still refer to it to this day. https://www.playlistresearch.com/ is a basic list of songs based on a wide variety of themes, and I cherry-pick songs from it to help flesh out the theme for the show.
Some days, I would be driving or doing something and a song would come on that would trigger an idea for a show theme. Other days it would be hours before the show and I would brainstorm for a theme. If I was unable to come up with a theme in time, I would simply name it “Free Form Friday” and just wing it like we used to in the old days. Requests would come in and basically the show would grow a life (theme) of it’s own. Some of the best shows were spawned this way, surprisingly.
Recording The Shows
The first officially recorded Friday Night Live show was Episode #109 on April 9th, 2021. Since then, I have recorded nearly every show, and of this writing the Episode is at 170, for August 5, 2022.
I store the show files in FLAC format, and sometimes will load up the files and replay the show on air, typically on Saturday mornings. I like to listen to the show and critique myself while listening to find ways to make adjustments, improvements or learn from mistakes. Each file is roughly 750MB in size.
MIXXX software provides a really nice way to record the show, saving the files in 1hr increments, along with a .cue file that lists the songs that were played.
I wrote a dirtly little PHP script to read the .cue files, and parse them to display the played songs with the timestamp. I post the weekly show list in the Hawkwynd Radio Telegram group for members to review the show’s songs after each show.
Friday Night Live Playlist for E170 08-05-22
— Hour 1 —
1. 0:4 Van Halen – I’m the One
2. 4:20 The Cult – Love
3. 9:48 KISS – Love Gun
4. 13:13 Soundgarden – Outshined
5. 17:9 Ghost – Rats
6. 21:52 Dirty Honey – Rolling 7’s
7. 27:20 The Pretty Reckless – Death By Rock And Roll
8. 31:16 Krokus – The House Of The Rising Sun
9. 31:26 Alice In Chains – Rooster
10. 37:36 Krokus – The House Of The Rising Sun
11. 42:2 Scorpions – Bad Boys Running Wild
12. 45:50 Van Halen – D.O.A.
13. 50:7 ZZ Top – Francine
14. 53:34 Lynyrd Skynyrd – I Know a Little
15. 57:9 Molly Hatchet – Gator Country
— Hour 2 —
1. 0:0 Molly Hatchet – Gator Country
2. 3:15 Chickenfoot – My Kinda Girl
3. 7:51 Five Finger Death Punch – Far from Home
4. 11:25 Sevendust – Black
5. 15:42 Black Sabbath – Turn Up The Night
6. 19:25 Black Sabbath – The Mob Rules
7. 22:40 The Cult – Fire Woman
8. 29:31 KISS – Hotter Than Hell
9. 33:7 Krokus – Hoodoo Woman
10. 36:42 Soundgarden – Rusty Cage
11. 40:31 Alice in Chains – Them Bones
12. 44:11 Rush – Medley: YYZ / Temples Of Syrinx / Tom Sawyer (Live – Grace Under Pressure Tour)
13. 54:25 Creedence Clearwater Revival – Sweet Hitch?Hiker
14. 57:19 Stone Temple Pilots – Vasoline
— Hour 3 —
1. 0:0 ZZ Top – Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers
2. 3:14 Molly Hatchet – Flirtin’ With Disaster
3. 9:51 Dirty Honey – Down The Road
4. 14:28 Meat Loaf – Paradise By The Dashboard Light
5. 22:40 War – Low Rider
6. 25:45 Kool & The Gang – Jungle Boogie
7. 28:50 Stevie Wonder – Superstition
8. 34:1 Earth, Wind & Fire – Shining Star
9. 36:55 Mr. Blotto – One Puff
10. 41:53 Grateful Dead – Shakedown Street
11. 46:40 The Rolling Stones – Angie
12. 50:57 REO Speedwagon – Can’t Fight This Feeling
13. 55:54 Eagles – Seven Bridges Road (live)
14. 58:56 Eric Clapton – Change The World
— Hour 4 —
1. 0:0 Eric Clapton – Change The World
2. 2:54 Elvis Presley – Reconsider Baby
3. 6:28 Assembly of Dust – Speculator
4. 17:54 Genesis – Here Comes the Supernatural Anaesthetist
5. 20:48 Led Zeppelin – Ten Years Gone
Total Songs: 48
I do this listings part for 2 reasons: 1. I can’t remember shit, and I like to look back at older shows to see what themes worked and what songs didn’t. 2. I’m a freak of nature and it’s all part of this hobby.