You know those movies where they set up a premise in the first few seconds of the film via flashback? They come on, the actors do their thing, a little piece of the story’s history is revealed, and then we fade to black. The next thing you see are white letters on the black screen telling you how much time has passed.
That’s the image coming to mind today: Five Years Later . . .
It’s been half a decade since Radio Dead Air began. I still have trouble putting my head around that. I still remember the nights this began, the little plastic microphone, the dial-up connection, fiddling with the settings to get it to work that much better. I stole my roommate’s CD’s to rip for music to play. I invited people over to be on the show. I never thought it would become what it has.
Yet, here we are. We’ve gone from dial-up to cable to DSL. Three computers have played host to the show. It’s gone from IC to half IC to OOC. Ryan’s come and gone, and I never imagined he would leave the impact he did. Roommates have rotated out, but for five years I’ve been in the same apartment, and every Monday night has been RDA. We produced a CD, and along the way “Quit the Cam” entered into immortality. My life was changed forever.
I’ve done on-site shows, had folks from all over the country travel to my little apartment, gone to interview local musicians, spent time talking with celebrities, had an article published on AICN. I never imagined my little radio show would turn into this. Now I’m in the process of setting up a full-fledged studio with pro-grade mics, boom stands, mixing boards, soundproofing, as much as my budget will allow. We have our own web site . . . hell, we’re about to have t-shirts. There’s consideration of podcasting, and maybe finding a distributer. I’m preparing for a second run to DragonCon, this time with my own staff. And wonder of wonders, for the first time ever, somebody wants to interview me.
And then there’s you, constant listener. For all this time, you keep coming back Monday after Monday, to hear the weird, incoherent oddity that I throw out on the internet. Wouldn’t be much more beyond talking to myself without you folks. For five years, you’ve kept up with me. As long as you keep listening, I’ll keep playing.
So what’s going to happen in the next five years? Dunno. Webcasting hasn’t changed so much in all that time, but things are altering. There’s TV shows being produced on the web now. I know that for as long as I can, I’ll keep running RDA. I’ll be here every Monday, in some form or another, just so long as the audience is there.
With that in mind, tonight’s the Fifth Anniversery Show. And, as I was so often reminded, the fifth anniversery is tradionally “wood.” So yes, my friends . . . RDA has achieved wood. And if you feel so inclinced, you can share the gift of wood with me. Why, there could be wood as far as the eye can see!
Heh. I dunno which of us is worse . . . me for saying it, or you for listening . . .
