AudioStreamIssues

If this is the case, BE PATIENT, but call extension 2929 and ask a DJ nicely and politely to please remedy the Holiday Music. If you get a message (Non-scheduled show, Automated Music playing, the DJ is in Lancers checking volume, or is in the bathroom) instead of a Live DJ, just hang-up OR actually leave the DJ a message. Whenever extension 2929 Is called - whether you leave a message or stay on the line or neither - the GM and Student Engineer are each paged, texted, emailed, AND called - almost all simultaneously - even while you talk with a DJ! This will cause both the GM and Student Engineer to respond, tune into the station (if they already aren't - which is rare), and listen for anything out of place. They will also RSVP to any left messages ASAP.

UNLESS the audio is SKIPPING, PROFANE or otherwise FLETCHING, simply DO NOT CALL ANYONE ELSE TO REMEDY MERELY YOUR PERSONAL MUSIC PREFERENCES for all time. Do Not. We have a published schedule for anyone to pick up from the station door. We will stick to that schedule, as long as we have DJs fulfilling their show time obligations, and if they aren't, then we will play music appropriate for the time of day, AGE and ETHNIC demographic - AW? Yes, how do you think other radio stations figure it out? MOST of the research information we use to reasonably help program the hours come directly from CLC's Office of Research, Planning & Institutional Effectiveness. WE ARE MUSIC PROFILING. For our On-line programming (when it differs from our Lancers offering * ), we use RRadio Network's Radio Listener Surveys as well as our own surveys.

ALL of the staff's office hours are posted, they all have logical emails @clcradio.org (such as PD for Program Director, or GM for General Manager, or dprowse@clcradio.org - first initial/last-named@ ,etc. ) and they each have a phone extension. The Station has its own general extension also tied to the GM/Engineer Contact system mentioned above. We must direct you to take advantage of that system.

Someone recently (2007) this fine holiday season called someone outside of the station for anyone to "fix" something (that wasn't broken), and they still heard that holiday music, didn't they? You bet they did. So, be patient - THREE (3) WEEK old Holiday Music with lyrics referring only to "..frightful weather" - and not specifically a "Holiday" - when there is a Holiday-like Blizzard, will NOT kill you. By the way; if it SNOWS again (Yep, April 3rd, 2007 !), we ARE going to play a Holiday song every 20 minutes until the snow stops; however, we will endeavor to pick songs that lyrically mention only snow and that do not mention some specific holiday (there are over 200 such songs!). And, yes, we do agree that Holiday music playing in March is generally wrong (except for the "Green Day"), and you didn't hear any Christmas music in February OR March at all.

"Hey, how come I hear such a W I D E variety of songs in an hour or a half hour of time. Why can't there be a consistent theme every hour or even two or just all damned day?" Or, why does the music suck or why does you music suck?

Well, you don't and there is! We are NOT commercial radio ! (OK, maybe we are playing a variety occasionally, but is that any worse, different, or better than JACK FM or "the 9" (92.7) or WXLC ? Nope.) 95% of what you hear during automation times (when there is no Live DJ) is at least 2 hours long - if not, longer - of the same music genre before you hear a definite change of genre. Occasionally, the other 5% of the time you will hear "it" differently - for instance, Classical music in the early morning at the top of an hour on clcradio.org between 6am to 9am and in Lancers (however not before 8am in Lancers, as that system is shut off between 10PM one day until 8am the next) but, somewhere midway through any hour you might hear a light pop variety of music and just a song or two - not the Classical or present genre expected. This glitch is due to many factors - all out of any one person's control. The reason we use light pop as an emergency filler is because it is middle-of-the road and shouldn't reasonably jar anyone's sensibilities. We are trying to "sound" professional, perhaps a little commercial-like, just without too many actual "commercials" and certainly while NOT playing the same damned TEN (10) songs an hour or TWENTY (20) every 2 hours, such as in the Hell-case of B-96 or KISS-0ff-FM or anyone like them. We can play the new MIMS single a LOT more than his first single - just because we're hot and he's not! The point being here, that not very many students of Rap think much of MIMS at all. They're thinking more MURS-like.

At CLC Radio, the Chief Engineer is continually improving the technical status of CLC Radio's audio quality in everyway humanly possible. Just know that an occasional glitch can happen, it does happen, and will happen occasionally - when one uses computer automation. And CLC Radio uses automation. With Live DJ talent, another solution is always at hand, their hand. In this sense, the more LIVE DJs we procure to the station, the better!

The DJs are the SOLE arbiter of the music they play. You can bribe them (possibly illegal), but do not cause them any stress during their air-shift just because of the music they play (there are actually CLC policy consequences for such actions).

The DJ On-Air (or Off, if you prefer) Music Request Phone Number for the studio is 847-543-2929. The staff can take about 40% of the blame for the music that DJs play (we explain later). It is in a DJs best interest (to gain audience) to play what THEY believe - or know from our SUGGESTION BOX and ONLINE SURVEY - students, YOUNG OR OLDER, really want to hear (faculty, staff, and administration must understandably wait in line for the privilege of songs desired, especially during the hours of 9:30am - 1:30pm and then again from about 5:30pm to 7:pm Monday through Friday, but not so much Friday after 2:30pm at all - music appropriate to adults is at hand, even with Live DJ shows scheduled).

In fact, 15 students were asked recently (end of March 2007), "What is you favorite radio station or what station plays your favorite style or genre of music?": The answers were NOT what an Administrator would expect. The answers were as various as the number of college radio stations and how they are perceived. One student said, " I don't listen to radio - I either download to my [iPod-like device] or I stream internet stations, even yours [CLC Radio]!". Another said, "B-96 and WNUA". Another said, "JACK FM, WIIL ROCK, and WXRT". Huh? How's that for DIVERSITY?

Our programming Hour (called "The Station Clock" by many - we have another cute name for it) is generally based on 4 to 6 songs FITTING the DJs SHOW THEME and the rest of the hour NEW SONGS PICKED from what MAJOR LABELS are pushing (provided through the Music Director of the Station) as NEW ARTISTS and NEW SONGS from ESTABLISHED ARTISTS. So usually this ends up being a MIX of 1/3 NEW SONGS BY ESTABLISHED ARTISTS, 1/3 songs the DJ brings or finds to play, and 1/3 songs no one has heard on commercial radio by artists that probably have not been heard on commercial radio, but are BEING PUSHED BY MAJOR LABELS using the INDEPENDENT label PROMOTERS as shills, to find that next BIG SOUND (Read: Profitable Sound), hardly merely the "next big band" - the latter being very rare. The last "Big Band" that broke was probably Cold Play as it sure isn't MIMS today. The only thing that is somewhat tearing this whole Station Clock Thing down may in fact be the INTERWEB - which everybody has heard about!

For the DJ: PLAY or READ LIVE a CLC EVENT announcement for EACH AND EVERY SONG PLAYED. This can be done in GENRE-APPROPRIATE moods; for instance, when doing a Jazz Show at a time of day where Jazz makes more sense than METAL or SCREAMO, the Jazz DJ would announce a CLC event or two, then talk about the song they are about to play, then silence, then the song plays, then silence, then a litany of the soloists, their instrument, the arranger, the composer, the band leader, the songs title, the album title, the Label, and where the band can be heard live (usually in Chicago or Lake County, but since we are on the Interweb, their next gig could be in Amsterdam) ALWAYS announce the Song Artists, Title, Album the song may be from or website the song was captured from, Band Name, record Label and a Band web site or MySpace or Virb.com (sort of a new hybrid of Google vs MySpace looks) account where listeners can gather more info. DJS are required to do this diligently and religiously. A Top-40 style DJ (although for CLC Radio more like a MIDDLE-50, if you are following along in your Billboard "Bible") would make an announcement WHILE starting a song, mention the weather, a contest, promote the next DJ, and stop talking JUST before the vocals of the currently playing song start, let the song play, as it starts to fade or immediately after a hard ending, the DJ starts another song, another announcement, etc. hardly stopping to "take a breath". In other words, much more High Energy compared to the Laid Back jazz style of announcing.

Both the above examples are culled from many, and all show professionalism, but professionalism with a heart. The heart of what College Radio SHOULD be and SHOULD strive to STAY with - you can not improve upon on a Standard - that's why it's called a Standard. We can, however, and do teach or show DJs how to arrive at skill levels and to improve their SKILLS - Skills can be improved, refined, honed, etc.

TIMES (Monday through Friday, Saturday and Sunday have a more special non-music, interview or music analyses feel):

9:00am to 1:00pm or 2:00pm (manually controlled) Music Styles that fit Urban & Suburban: Rock (all forms) & R&B & Rap

1:00pm or 2:00pm to 5:00pm YOUNG AOR or POP (what you might hear on a Local Commercial Waukegan Station, BUT the NEWEST songs)

LIVE REMOTE EVENTS preempt any of the above, but their "interruption" are well announced in advance.

10:00pm to 12:00am WORLD POP to FILM SCORE MUSIC to LOUNGE MUSIC of the 60's and 70's (together, surprisingly complimentary)

12:00am to 2:00am our "AFTER HOURS" , combing through a different genre and marrying each day of the week with its own genre

2:00am to 6:00am New Music -- starting with World Pop and moving through each MAJOR genre until Blues - other hits on our stream counter indicate non-Central Time Zones listener-ship!

"Why, at the top of the hour, do I hear an announcement, then it fades out in the middle of the announcement?"

Short answer: We are aware and we will be fixing it. At least the programmers of the software we use say it is fixable! These programmers live and work in New Zealand, where it is 14 hours ahead of us.

Slightly long answer: Most likely the person speaking in the announcement wasn't watching the clock - to keep each single announcement at or under 2 minutes - OR the announcements longer than 2 minutes ended up being put in the wrong folder by an actual person - and probably the person speaking that announcement! (We train all our DJs to speak as well as edit the announcements as much as possible)

"How come sounds and songs listed don't always sync up in the various players' text scrolling/crawls offered?"

Well, kids, Moms & Dads, there are various players to choose from. Each stream is governed by "servers" out of our direct control, due each having a different set of scripts that support/don't support song title streaming at any given time or time frame.

For example: Live365 uses what they call their Nano Servers (so-named because they are LIGHTING fast) that will allow a proprietary stream coming from the originating streaming computer (clcradio's main DJ computer in our case) containing such important text; text that is actually required by the DMCA. Reports of the text file is later randomly required by BMI, one of the 3 major Music Publishing Clearing Houses and specifically the one designated to collect royalties, which CLC pays on accounts every year. The Nano Servers are only set up to allow updates from every 60 seconds (the bare minimum) to every five minutes or so (so far it has been set to their minimum and is completely controlled "server-side", therefore we cannot control it), so if you hear a 30 second sponsorship or CLC announcement play, and then hear a song, you might not see the sponsorship listed until 30 seconds after the next song has played 60 seconds or more. However, it will show in the "Song played" area of the Live365 player in the order of stream play, along with exactly when it played for how long it played in reality - not just its listed timing which itself comes from the MP3 "tag" that must accompany each song. (The latter is required of our automation software as well as the SIN-TV text song title scroller thingy).

Probably our most accurate player is our own ASX player (the type that just launches in most browsers automatically upon visiting our site, but only if your browser is set up to allow popups for our site). This ASX player maintains a fairly close relationship as to what is playing. Not only that, but the quality is higher for our player than what Live365 is willing to give us for free! (This is why we usually reserve some sports broadcasts for the Live365 player, only when there is a competing Live Music concert we cover, always in higher quality streams !).

All complaints or constructive criticisms must first come to the DJ line, 837-542-2929, then to our Program Director, 847-543-2391. If you get no satisfaction there, you can then call Dan Prowse (GM and Chief Engineer of CLC Radio) in his office at 847-543-2637 - you not likely to have to do the latter, as our Program Directors are always open to suggestions!

DO NOT CALL AND COMPLAIN ANYWHERE ELSE UNTIL YOU HAVE AT LEAST MADE AN EFFORT TO FIRST CONTACT THESE PEOPLE ABOVE. It is not fair to you, us, our managers/supervisors, nor especially the employees and managers of Lancers and the Office of Student Life and Student Activities. These employees and managers have very little time to deal with what CLC Radio produces as, for example, Lancers' and the committee that helps think of ways to improve Lancers' food (the Food Service Committee), for example. The Food Service Committee's main concern is maintaining excellent quality food you are likely to eat there everyday or whether to purchase and have installed acoustical control on the floor, walls or ceiling, and better or different lighting, furniture, color schema, booth design, live band stage flooring, etc.***

Make your complaints or send your compliments and kudos of CLC Radio to CLC Radio staff on the SAME DAY you notice an issue or a miracle - not weeks later in casual conversation with others. We receive about 6 to 10 complaints a YEAR regarding music choices vs. dozens of compliments - something that needs no fixing and will fall on deaf ears all the way to the "top" (if you now what I mean, nudge-nudge), and maybe 3 to 6 complaints or less per year of volume control (either too low or a bit too loud - usually "...too low when Lancers is crowded"). These numbers are based upon actual audience participation and eyewitness accounts. Soon, all complaints will be logged and signed by both parties; if the complaints are to be considered at all credible. "Stacks of complaints" older than 10 days will not ever be considered, so you might as well turn those post-it notes over and re-use them. All our shows - automated or live - are archived to 14 days officially - per DMCA regulation, and 60 days unofficially, for DJ use ONLY. Just in case your curious, the FCC only requires a 10 day archive to be kept - obviously, we're better than that!

You can also send us emails regarding any issues or accolades you may have with or of our music choices, but you must keep this in mind: complaints about our website have absolutely no connection with our music programming, and do not confuse the two, please. There are good places within our site to make suggestions or complain about our site!

The shiznickle	The shazbat	The shankova	The futurama
MAIN Hi-Band	Viastreaming	Good	As of: October 23rd, Monday 12:00 - 1:00 AM. EST Time. In an effort to provide an even higher level of redundancy within our network infrastructure, we have upgraded our secondary core routers at our datacenter. We also configuring a full iBGP mesh over our private dark-fiber based Internet backbone. These upgrades/modifications further ensure that our network remains online and available at all times - even if multiple issues arise at our facility.
MAIN Lo-Band & Sports	Live365 (Their Server Health) (Their Server Status)	Good
SECONDARY	AudioRealm	Not Good as of 6-10-2006 *
BACKUP	SpatialNet	Good (also read below) *
SPECIAL SHOW ARCHIVES	Hipcast**	Good
ROAD SHOW LIVE	audioblogger	Off Air
ARCHIVES 2	SpatialNet WMA/WMV On-Demand	Good
SPECIAL DUALCAST (Generally Same programming as Live365 but higher quality bandwidth)	SpatialNet	Off Air

IMPORTANT: When using Winamp and the NSV6 decoder, you can hear us in 5.1 surround (but only the songs or shows recorded that way, sorry, no simulations, yet)

Howard Stern Ban - how it affects you
.:. Posted on 24 February 2006

Recently SHOUTcast.com started banning stations playing Howard Stern content. When SHOUTcast bans, they ban the whole machine.
This already affected the SC5 and SC6 servers. (The ban has been restored)

We are actively working with the NullSoft team to see if we can arrange a less disruptive method of handling the problem.

Until then we ask people that do play Howard Stern content to either
a) Set your SHOUTcast server so that your station DOES NOT list on Shoutcast.com
b) Remove all Howard Stern content from your rotation until we have a better resolution to the problem.

If your station does cause a ban, we will be forced to suspend your account so it does not negatively affect other servers on the same hosting machine.

It is likely that one or more machines will get banned before the issue is finally resolved. We thus ask your patience in the matter and please know that we are actively working on the problem.

Also, in the event that a machine gets permanently banned we will need to change the IP address of the machine. We ask that everybody thus use the DNS name (i.e. SC5.spacialnet.com) instead of the IP address when linking to the servers to avoid any downtime when we switch IP addresses.

Also note that AudioRealm is not the only network affected - all stream hosting providers are dealing with the problem. However, since we have a direct communication line to the Nullsoft team I believe AudioRealm is in the best position to deal with this problem. We will also try and work on a solution that will not only work for us, but all other stream hosting providers.

If you have any further questions or concerns, please contact support at http://www.spacialaudio.com/support/support.html

Thank you!
The SpacialAudio Team

FutureAudio___________

In a very short while, clcradio.org will also be heard on "shortshift" ! What is shortshift? Well, it is a new company based in Michigan that will be purchasing and operating a new shortwave radio station. This new SW station will be signing out lab time and air time specifically to Community Colleges from all over the US and Canada. The facility is a completely remote-operated station. Everything about the station is operated remotely by students or faculty from all over. CLC Radio shows will air in a 4 hour block on this station starting soon, on Tuesdays from 4pm to 8pm. 1 lucky show will be live for a 2 hour block each week, the other 2 hours will be filled with the student DJ-voted "Best Of" shows to fill the remaining time.

The SW station frequency announcement and ownership finalization will be announced forthcoming, pending FCC approval.

--------------------------

The Original Web-controlled Shortwave Radio

*** Just PRAY that they do NOT decide to have the same lighting that is in the Lair - not good for food.

AND SO DOES OURS....

CLC Radio Audio Stream Issues: Details (or, just the basics here)

FutureAudio: see way below