Getting digitized?

As I’ve clearly stated in the past: I’m a vinyl junkie. An analogue dinosaur. In the field of dance music we have often been the very first genre to embrace new technology. Indeed, more than any other musical variety, dance music and audio technology are intertwined. I have watched all this change and although it interests me a lot, when it comes to performance I am an absolute Luddite. Turning up at clubs to watch my dancefloor heroes play on CD decks makes me want to send the sparkling lights and fancy buttons hurling to the ground. Like a nineteenth century cotton mill, the pioneer CDJs 1000, lying in bits would bring a smile of satisfaction to my face. I’m told they’re sexy. I just feel that CD DJing is cheating – not so much the technology aspect, as in principal it is the same technique as vinyl DJing, but that the audience is cheated. I watch with horror as my favourite record shops close down as everyone turns to the cheaper alternative… Anyway – I have stuck to my guns regarding CDs and remain a vinylist.

However, it’s not just CDs that have changed the face of DJing. One of my favourite DJs is Sasha. I remember reading several years ago how he was embracing Ableton for production. I remember picking up a (vinyl) copy of Involver in 2004 and being blown away by the ‘new’ sound. The thick bass, the really electronic feel, floor-friendly loops, perfectly cut vocals… It is an ambition to produce music and I’ve always liked the sound of Ableton. I dabbled with Cubase a few years ago but Ableton seems to be the software daddy. Shock horror – I realised that Ableton could be used for DJing. I was at a gig at the Q bar, Cardiff, and the DJ had a laptop and a complex looking MIDI controller. He was playing an Ableton Live DJ set… I trainspotted for a bit, to check how it all works… DJs are anoraks at heart and get a high watching others at work. It is the quickest way to improve your style, by studying others in action. I started to interrupt the guy by bombarding him with questions. It all looked posh and he seemed a bit snobbish, with all his fancy equipment… He was very vague and seemed to be avoiding my answers. I didn’t appear to be spending much time at all cueing… OK – fair enough… Some DJs don’t need to cue much. I’ve seen Norman Jay cue a record, when someone dropped a glass from the balcony onto the decks at Ministry of Sound, in literally under 2 seconds, without a glitch in the music. Jeff Mills is notorious for spinning about 5 records every minute throughout the duration of a DJ set, bunging the vinyl over his shoulder as he slams in dub plate after dub plate of the most experimental techno. Thing is – as I soon learnt. You DON’T beat match with Ableton. It is all automatic. How can this be DJing? I felt properly cheated. It’s like losing your lifesavings in Las Vegas then realising you have been playing with a marked deck.

It put me off Ableton. I’m a DJ, not a jukebox. However, I continued reading and reading about the program and it seems that virtually all of my production heroes are ranting religiously about its power. I knew that at some stage I would be on board. I’d have to be, if I want to actually make some decent tunes, realise the dream…

I picked up a book and got studying. Ableton 6 landed on my lap and I churned out a couple of tunes. Very basic, very nasty really, but an attempt nonetheless. It is a powerful program, for sure, it just gets very confusing. I let it fester on my PC for a while and decided to wait for a bit of inspiration. The social side of DJing is important. Swapping label notes in a grotty record shop, booth banter, interacting with off-their-face clubbers. I think that the growth of social networks has helped the whole dancefloor community. I have a DJ category for friends on facebook and there are over 200 people in there. I was a self-taught vinyl DJ but always absorbed advice from my peers which proved fundamental. I decided to invest in a bit of MIDI equipment for potential use with Ableton and through a mutual friend, managed to find the local Ableton guru. I needed to get sweaty in the studio with someone, and get shown how it all operates. A few tips wouldn’t go amiss. As boring as DJing may appear to non-musos, it really is an exciting subject and digesting books and technical manuals just isn’t the done thing.

So, I loaded up on tinnies and made my way out to visit Dave Wired, techno legend extraordinaire. When I was a teenager, I used to get off my box at the Muts Nuts @ The White Lion, Chepstow, where Dave usually hammered out the last set of Techno every Saturday night. The White Lion music agenda was very underground and for a sleepy Welsh village to host one of the cutting edge forums for Goa trance, minimal techno and esoteric electronic, was quite a blessing. Dave’s style influenced me in the first place so it was important that he would be my teacher.

DJ Wired’s style can be described, if I had to tag it, as ‘nosebleed techno’ which is pretty far removed from my 130 bpm progressive house or ‘handbag’ as my mates in the pub refer to it. 180bpm beats; four top the floor with some occasional breaks. It is fast stuff and not for the feint-hearted. I don’t play this music, or indeed listen to it much, but I do appreciate it. Dave stopped DJing two years ago. Hung up the headphones. He gigs all over the world – from Europe to South America. It’s all a LIVE Ableton set these days. Not DJing, but playing his own productions. Live manipulation of his own tracks in a set that smashes hell out of global festival audiences in the tens of thousands. To hear him talk, as a sceptic of the digital revolution, I was initially unimpressed. I still cannot get my head around the idea of a DJ not using vinyl. After a few beers, we headed into the studio. This is where I truly began to realise the power of Ableton. As I said, I’ve had a dabble. But – Dave loaded up a live set which was MASSIVE. He started it rolling and I was entranced as I witnessed what could only be described as a high voltage electric storm on his laptop screen. Beats, bass and the odd vocal, all dynamically shifting. It’s hard to keep track with your eyes what’s happening. The bass bins do the talking though. The music comes slamming out and sounds shit hot. Everything is done on the fly. You prepare each individual sound in the studio, load up a host of audio clips and mash them all up. Mixing, although everything is beat synched, takes on a whole new phenomenon. You can start the next track my clipping out, say, for example the hi-hats of the track playing, add in the hats from the next track, and start looping some vocal from your sample library. Ableton has a massive host of plugins and effects which makes the most expensive Allen&Heath mixer look primitive. Autopan the kicks of one track mirroring the one you’re mixing in, flange up the mids and whack in a few breaks to liven it up. Glitch a few beats, reverse them on the fly and some of the most amazingly complex mixes can be made. To be fair – there is no time for cueing up beats. As a DJ I often cite myself as an original artist for blending two tracks together, ‘in the mix’ to create something new. Very often though, I hardly even change the EQs. Seeming tracks together in an Ableton becomes a whole new mixing experience. It provides an endless challenge and the possibilities are infinite.

I am happy in a way as I try to learn this new technology. It will consume my entire life. I can see why Ableton can be classified as a religion and I am still a new convert. The sacrament may be sample editors and MIDI manuals but I think that the future of dance music really does lie with Ableton. I won’t be hanging up my headphones just yet, but the appeal of becoming a producer means that the digital lure is starting to bite. In a world of hypocrites I am just following nature’s path. If you are interested in electronic music then Ableton is the new drug of choice.

Is the DJ an artist?

DJing is a relatively new phenomenon. Sure, DJs have existed on the radio for some time, playing song selections on the radio, or providing the soundtrack to weddings and fortieth birthday parties. However, mixing as an art form emerged in the late seventies, early eighties, when DJs such as Frankie Knuckles in America, started doing live edits to underground disco music, seaming tracks together to enhance the flow of the music and boost their party-hard audiences. This was initially done using tape machines. A pair of scissors and some cellotape and your wannabee jock could splice together songs. It was a rudimentary art form but it worked. Modern DJing was born out of this tape splicing when someone realised that the highend Technics 1200 turntable which had been around since the early seventies, had a pitch control unit which enabled DJs to manipulate songs further, and begin to actually beat match and mix them together. DJing was alive and disco and early house music provided the new soundtrack of a generation. Hip Hop jumped quickly on board and the workability of the Technics turntable meant a whole new form of skilled DJs cutting and scratching tracks. Bodypopping and breakdancing was all to the beat of the Technics turntable. I need not continue with the evolution of dance music. Suffice it to say, it has run hand in hand with innovation and technology.

DJing became a career option. The problem is, as is very often the case with emerging sciences, how do you categorise a DJ? Are they musicians, artists, skilled, unskilled? Are they on the same level of employment in a nightclub as a barman or cloakroom attendant? Surely they are not creative as they just use other people’s artistic skills… Are they artists in their own right? Is a DJ on a par with a violinist or a concert pianist?

When you are in the company of musicians and mention that you are a DJ, scorn is usually poured upon you. You aren’t fit to lace their boots – they are skilled, you are just an operator…. I beg to differ. DJs may use other people’s music for their art (though self-produced DJ tracks are becoming more common during a mixset). Using other people’s creative material is not a new phenomenon in the field of music. Take for example a concert pianist or violinist. Surely they often play symphonies by Beethoven or Mozart compositions. They didn’t necessarily create the material. They add part of their own character to a rendition of an already written piece of music, but they are not being completely original. A DJ may play a record but by manipulating the pitch, by choosing when to cut it with another record, the DJ changes the song and adds part of his personality to the show. It takes skill to pluck a Cello’s strings, or stick to a complex rhythm pattern on a set of drums, but DJing has its own set of skills. Scratching, beat matching, cutting and chopping, pitch blending all form part of a successful DJ’s repertoire. To me the most skilful part of being a DJ isn’t the ’manual skills’ as I refer to them but the ‘mental skills’. A good DJ is not averse to a bit of brainwork and to me set programming is fundamental. A skilled DJ programs his set, his tune selection, with the utmost precision. Each track should follow musically into the next, the music program should be interesting, challenging, entertaining, seamless. It should take the listener on an auditory journey. The difference between a good and bad DJ set very often lies in the set programming. The set of technical skills varies very little between performance DJs. The wheat is separated from the chaff by the occult skills of planning and sequencing tracks.

Consider another form of art. Photography is a relatively new phenomenon in the field of visual art. It involves a new technology. However, photographers are similar to painters. It involves a different set of technical skills to use a camera successfully. But in using his tools a photographer chooses a maybe otherwise dull scene to shoot, capturing the art he sees in that image in the camera lense. He presents the image in a way to portray his feelings, his emotions, his perception of the world. Nowadays, photography is widely accepted as a professional art form and indeed a prosperous career.

I think that DJing is certainly more acceptable these days. Musicians recognise the need for good DJ talent to perhaps compliment their work. DJs such as Paul Oakenfold were touring with U2 and the Happy Mondays back in the early Nineties. We are seeing today independent DJ artists like Mark Ronson or Sasha emerge in their own right as pop stars / music performers.
DJing is the photography of the music world. It is an art form. Often misunderstood it is part of a DJ’s role to define what it is to be a DJ, to be an artist, to be a musician. We should revel in our new science. Our artistic legacy inspires tomorrow’s musicians. New technologies make DJing one of the most evolving forms of music. It has never been a more exciting time to be a DJ. We are tomorrow’s musical artists.

Radio Rebelde

In February 1958, Che Guevara, a leading revolutionary in Cuba, set up Radio Rebelde, to help the cause of the July 26th movement. Led by Fidel Castro, this movement had been encamped in the hills of east Cuba, the Sierra Maestra, fighting a guerrilla war against the Cuban army forces of General Fulgencio Batista, the Cuban Dictator. This war had been waged since December 1956.

A small band of exiled Cubans had returned to the island under the leadership of Fidel Castro. They sailed from Mexico aboard the Granma. A young Argentinian doctor called Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, formed an integral part of this movement. ‘Che’ would eventually lead his own column in the march out of the Sierra Maestra to the Llano in the final offensive on government forces to seize control of the Cuban cities. In the new Cuban Revolutionary Government, Che would have leading roles. His literate mind and eloquence would make him the most famous revolutionary in the world. In his later job for the Cuban government he would address the United Nations as well as form a key member of the Communist ruling elite. He was to hold the position of Minister of Agriculture and he would also be the key Cuban contact in their relations with the Soviet Union, participating in particular heavily during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

This ‘face of the revolution’ was an idealistic thinker. He was an intellectual. A thinking man’s fighter. Che had been inspired to join the July 26th movement as a result of his motorcycle travels through Latin America where he witnessed the social struggle of the poor and felt directly the effects of US imperialism. In Guatemala, Che witnessed the CIA overthrow of the régime of Jacobo Arbenz. Che had realised the importance of the CIA’s clandestine radio operation in Guatemala. They had set up a station, La Voz de la Liberación, which broadcast propaganda. In Cuba, Batista had been utilising propaganda, manipulating the course of the war, falsely reporting casualties of the Rebels, and lying to the people in general. Censorship had been introduced and correct information was difficult to determine. Several journalists had visited the Rebel bases in the Sierra Maestra but this would not suffice for the anticipated revolution. At Che’s command post, Pata de la Mesa, some radio equipment arrived and the first broadcasts of Radio Rebelde were transmitted.

Radio Rebelde was run on a short wave transmission. Its content consisted of latest combat news, music and spoken literature. It broadcast nightly and began with the Cuban national anthem and the 26th of July hymn. The station had a slogan "¡Aquí Radio Rebelde!" “(Here Radio Rebelde!”).There were a few teething problems and initially the broadcasts were not very powerful. However, the persistence of the idea meant that by the time of Batista’s fleeing of the country on January 1st 1959, which signified the end of the revolution, Radio Rebelde had achieved stability and had been having an impact. Capt. Luis Orlando Rodríguez was in charge of the intial broadcasts before a specialist, Carlos Franqui , arrived from Miami, United States, to become the movement's overall director of information.

On New Years Eve 1958 and on the morning of the first day of the New Year, Fidel Castro broadcast across Radio Rebelde, rejecting any prospect of the military staging a coup to oust Batista. He reported that Che’s forces had taken Santa Clara and called on the rebel forces to push onto Havana and Santiago. He called for a further general strike. The last words of revolutionary Radio Rebelde were "¡Revolución Sí, Golpe Militar No!" (Revolution Yes, Military coup No!). Hours later the government forces unconditionally surrendered and the revolution had, against all odds, succeeded.

The concept of realtime propaganda has changed the face of war and became an essential tool of modern warfare. Propaganda has always been an important factor, but without Radio Rebelde, the struggle of the July 26th movement would undoubtedly have been protracted.

Radio Rebelde is still running in Cuba today, broadcasting on FM to 98% of the island. Perhaps in this day and age, they would be using an internet broadcast. As yet, at Krykey, we are unaware of a revolutionary radio station on our network. But who knows about the future? Perhaps a twenty-first century Che will seize advantage of the broadcasting potential of internet radio, and reach out to the people to overthrow tyranny and evil?…

Oppressive governments of the world: BEWARE!

Wintertime Blues

Wintertime winds blow cold the season
Fallen in love, I'm hopin' to be
Wind is so cold, is that the reason?
Keeping you warm, your hands touching me

Come with me dance, my dear
Winter's so cold this year
You are so warm
My wintertime love to be

Winter time winds blue and freezin'
Comin' from northern storms in the sea
Love has been lost, is that the reason?
Trying desperately to be free

Come with me dance, my dear
Winter's so cold this year
And you are so warm
My wintertime love to be

La, la, la, la

Come with me dance, my dear
Winter's so cold this year
You are so warm
My wintertime love to be

[The Doors: Wintertime Love (from Waiting for the Sun album)]

Well - the long cold winter is finally over (unless you happen to be reading this in the southern hemisphere!). Vestal virgins are dancing around the sacred fire in preparations for an exciting summer of music festivals. In the UK at this time of year bands are extremely busy hounding festival promoters in order to fill up their summer calendars. The winter hibernation is over and the whole music industry comes to life. The Miami Winter Music conference has just finished and DJs and dance acts are groggily filling planes across the world, returning with their tales of mayhem, and the tracks which will be lacing the summer dancefloors from the Punta Del Este to the streets of San Antonio.

The creative spirit comes alive in spring, as flowers blossom and trees flood the countryside with green luminescence from their returning leaves. Like squirrels just run out of nuts, here at KryKey we are plaguing the landscape in search of new food to feast on as we bask in the sun's rays. At festivals across the globe there is a mad rush by emerging bands and artists to fill the bill in new stages. They need to showcase their music and gain new fans. We have decided to support these emerging artists and have opened the floor of four prime KryKey radio stations for this purpose. London Web Radio, Desert One, Oz Radio and DJ, are all seeking out music from artists to fill the airwaves. We believe that exposing new talent to the masses is a critical aspect of the music industry. Our growing radio network now has a significant impact on the music industry (there are now over 230 global KryKey radio stations) and we aim to use our new power responsibly. We realise that it isn't perhaps convenient for each individual band to set up their own PRS, so we aim to gather together those individuals and showcase their sounds on the KryKey network.

As we scour the social networks for interested parties, we have already struck gold with some excellent artists already submitting material. BenSem, Red Tempa, Lowkey aka Dolce, Viva la Resistance and Rowdee Methodz have all submitted some real quality music to us which is currently being blasted out across the KryKey universe.

If you are a band / DJ / artist, and would like your sounds exposed to a massive global audience, please email the relevant station address with your material in mp3 form, with a short 30s promo advertising your material (also in mp3 format). Here are the addresses:

londonwebradio@krykey.com (UK & Europe)
desertone@krykey.com (USA)
ozradio@krykey.com (OZ)
dj@krykey.com (Global)

If your area isn't included please just choose the radio station you feel most appropriate for your music and audience.

With your music supported by KryKey, we hope that you have a successful summer and manage to fully shake those wintertime blues as you head off to the best festivals and summer parties. Who knows? Maybe you can return to us with tales of your jaunts or maybe even record some live sets? One thing is for sure, we share your excitement for a bright future and hope that KryKey will be laying down the sounds of a great summer.

This is Serbia Calling

In a previous blog, I discussed the impact of Radio Caroline, how it altered the status quo for British radio. Here, I wish to present to you a book which had a deep impact on me and inspired me to become involved with internet radio broadcasting. The book is 'This is Serbia Calling' by Matthew Collin. It is a factual account of the history of independent Belgrade radio station B92 during the Balkans conflict.

During the nineties, Europe was engulfed by its worst conflict since the Second World War. The breakup of the former-Yugoslavia turned into an horrifically bloody ethnic conflict. Religion separated the ethnic groups of Yugoslavia and the dark aspects of humanity presented themselves to the inhabitants as Serbian and Bosnian orthodox christians fought with Croatian and Bosnian Roman Catholics and Bosnian / Kosovan Muslims. The religious divide went back to the times of the Ottoman Empire and had always been a simmering bowl of contention but during the communist years of Yugoslavia and the protection of the Soviet Union, somehow the population had remained glued together. Political upheavals led to a rise in nationalism during the early nineties and the fragile bonds broke, releasing the full fury of suppressed anger amongst the ethnic populations as they fought for power in the region. To read more about the conflict I highly recommend Tim Judah's book 'The Serbs' which provides a detailed factual analysis of the ensuing war. 'This is Serbia Calling' is a case study of the remarkable work of independent radio station B92. It was run by youth and developed into an active resistance movement as the war progressed. During times of conflict the power of media becomes elevated. The history of warfare has been dotted by technological media movements. Propaganda is an essential part of warfare and masters of propaganda are usually in the boss seat during a conflict. Ideological dissemination is vital to all sides of the conflict. What B92 did was to use their radio station to express the youth's anger with the horrific happenings in their nation. It was a station which transcended the ethnic divides that were ruining Yugoslavia. A discontented youth movement emerged that would shake the very foundations of the empire that Slobodan Milosevic was attempting to create in Belgrade. The voice of the revolution was born and B92 was at the critical cultural edge.

The DJs sought to keep the population in touch with international culture, a voice of reason while the country around them was collapsing into chaos. In Serbia ultra-nationalist 'Turbo-folk' music was encouraged by the authorities. This rather bad form of Europop mixed ethnic sounds with nationalist ranting. Musically 'unique' is a term that may describe the sound but it certainly wouldn't receive any worldwide success. The book title is a bit of a misnomer as Rather than rock n'roll, B92 focussed on electronic music. They saw it as their revolutionary sound and it certainly was more popular than the turbofolk atrocities that was being spoonfed. Bands like the Prodigy and the techno Undergound Resistance system toured Yugoslavia during the conflict. youth could identify with the radical electronic sounds and it helped gloss over the internecine strife. There are stories of post-battle raves going off where soldiers from all sides joined in arms, firing shots into the air. Music has that sort of power.

Politics became rapidly involved as B92's popularity soared. The authorities made several attempts to close them down, some successful. Certainly, in a place such as Britain, tight regualtions would have forbidden the very existence of such an independent broadcast in the very first instance. B92 constantly operated in the shadows of legality. After a significant riot in Belgrade, they were initially switched completely off, then reluctantly allowed to just broadcast music with no speaking from the DJs. To encapsulate the feeling in the capital, DJs hammered the sounds of Public Enemy's 'Fight the Power' and The Clash. Throughout the conflict a cat and mouse pursuit between the station and the authorities was constant and somehow the wily station producers and DJs managed to keep their voice alive. At one stage the station owners had a bust up and split into two divisions, but the main B92 branch maintained its reactionary status. There was also a lot of technical difficulty in keeping the broadcast live. B92 demonstrates how a vital movement can be very adaptive in difficult conditions. These people were not profiteering like so many during the conflict. They weren't arms traders, smugglers or pilferers, they were an organisation with a clear ideology. Essentially an internal peace division, a voice of reason in a deepeningly madder by the minute world. Broadcasts at one stage were transferred to Bosnia and beamed back into Belgrade. A series of unmanned relaying stations serviced the dissemination of the airwaves. As technology progressed the internet became more important to the station and with the rebroadcasting facility it provided, listenership became more dispersed. By the end of the conflict, the station was heavily dependent on internet for its broadcasts.

B92 is the incredible story of resistance radio. Whether you plan to broadcast from a conflict zone or from sleepy suburbia, the book tells a message. There is hope in even the most dire of times and there is a critical need for good radio broadcasts. Internet radio broadcast capability today gives anyone with the most simplest of equipment the facility to create their own independent voice. KryKey is a platform which will allow you to set up your own radio station. Maybe by reading 'This is Serbia Calling' it will give you the inspiration to make your Personal Radio Station a success.

KryKey Website translation blurbs

I've been using linguistic skills and writing up blurbs for the international KryKey websites. Here are some (in addition to Chinese already posted): French, Spanish, Italian, German. Translating is an area where I aim to do a lot more future work... If you might be interested is using my services please get in touch.

Bienvenue à vous! Nous nous appelons KryKey et nous sommes un nouveau service internet où vous pouvez créer ou écouter à votre propre station de Radio. En ce moment il existe à KryKey les stations de radio partout dans le monde: aux États-Unis, en Australie, en Grande Bretagne, en Russe, et en Chine. Naturellement, nous voudrions prendre le service de KryKey à la belle France; aux emissions et aux auditeurs, tous les deux. La radio sur l’internet est un service qui se développe rapidement. Nous sommes contents et fiers d’introduire le KryKey à la France et les pays francophones. http://www.krykey.com

¡Bienvenido a KryKey! Somos un Nuevo servicio de web donde se puede crear o escuchar su propria emisora de radio. Ahora, en Krykey, hay emisoras por todas partes del mundo: los Estados Unidos, Australia, Inglaterra, Rusia y China. Sobre todo, queremos dar el servicio KryKey al mundo hablante español, por ambos los oyentes y locutores. La radio sobre el internet progresa de prisa. Estamos contentos y orgullosos de presentar KryKey al mundo español. http://www.krykey.com

Benvenuto a KryKey! Siamo un nuovo servizio dell’internet dove Lei può creare o ascoltare la sua propria stazione radio. Adesso, a KryKey, sono programme dappertutto il mundo: I Uniti d’America, l’Australia, il Regno Unito, la Russia e la Cina. Soprattutto, vogliamo offrire il servizio KryKeyal mundo Italiano, ai entrambi ascoltatori e trasmissione. La radio all’internet sviluppare rapidamente. Siamo soddisfatti e fieri de presentare KryKey alla Italia. http://www.krykey.com

Wilkommen zu KryKey!Wir sind ein neu Dienst im Internet wo Sie können Ihr eigenes Radio schaffen und hören. Jetzt es gibt zu Krykey Sendung in die ganze Welt: die Vereinigte Staaten von Amerika, Australien, das Vereinigtes Königreich, Russland und China. Vor allem, wollen wir dem KryKey Dienst zu die Hörer und zur Rundfunkund Fernsehpersönlichkeit ins Deutschland bringen. Das radio im Internet entwickelt schnell. Wir sind glücklich und stolz. Wir stellen KryKey ins Deutschland vor. http://www.krykey.com

Radio Caroline - Pirate Radio

Radio Caroline – Pirate Radio



The sixties saw a massive boom in popular music. It was the golden age of Rock n’Roll. The youth of the world had a voice, and despised as it often was by the authorities, rock and roll redefined global culture. The birth of Pop music created a huge broadcast requirement. Vinyl making factories boomed as billboard artists fought for market share. Consumer society had a new outlet and the music industry seized control. In order to generate sales and introduce new music to the masses, a strong, effective medium was needed. Radio came into its own and Rock and Roll stations sprung up across America, beaming the controversial culture to the enthralled audience. In the UK there was no pop music radio station. Yet Britain was a country at the cutting edge of the revolution with the Beatles riding on a global crest of a wave. America had an easier time with its expansive commercial radio networks, though seizing the airwaves for pop music was not without its own battles there. In Britain the radio network was in government hands and tightly regulated. Radio Caroline looked for the loophole and found it in setting up an offshore broadcast, thus avoiding terrestrial regulations.

Ronan O'Rahilly and Oliver Smedley set up radio Caroline, named after President Kennedy’s daughter, and began broadcasting in international waters 5km off Felixstowe on 28th March 1964. It was not the first maritime radio broadcast. The Americans had conducted maritime radio stations since the 1930s. Also, in the North Sea, the Dutch and the Swedes had set up maritime radio during the 1950s. However, Radio Caroline was the first English language broadcast in the area and was specifically a pop music broadcast channel. Quickly dubbed ‘pirate radio’, Radio Caroline battled with the technologies and began to rapidly acquire a huge listenership. Logistically, running maritime broadcasts was a costly affair, in terms of finance, equipment, staff and dealing with constantly changing regulations. To generate income, Radio Caroline relied on advertising revenue and also subbed itself out to evangelical and religious broadcasts. As a business it was more a cutting edge technology, a disruptive technology, a people’s technology, rather than a money-making venture. As a cultural enterprise it was very successful. It gave birth to the careers of such legendary DJs as Tony Blackburn, Johnnie Walker, Dave Lee Travis and Tony Prince.

From day one, Radio Caroline had battles to fight, just to keep its very existence. Firstly, broadcasting from a ship was not technically easy. Broadcasting equipment was very expensive, required a lot of power and had to fit into a tightly governed network. Complaints were that the Radio Caroline signal interfered with other frequencies, thus being dangerous to maritime activity. There were staff issues at the station with DJs in the early days literally being at each others’ throats. The government fought hard with tighter regulations, driving Radio Caroline further offshore and even to broadcast in Dutch or Spanish waters. Throughout its history, various regulation breaches have been cited by the authorities and Radio Caroline has been shut down with equipment seized. One of the more obvious difficulties that arises from broadcasting from aboard a ship is that maritime conditions, especially further out in the international waters of the North Sea, are very hazardous in themselves. When the budget means that your ships are old and rickety, it only takes a storm and the very lives of the Radio Caroline staff are in jeopardy. Many times throughout its history has seen broadcasters rescued by the RNLI and problems with ships has seen them run aground and even sink. Just to keep a broadcast signal alive is a near mission impossible.

The authorities had to counter this disruptive technology and seize back some control. Radio Caroline soon faced competition. BBC radio caved into the listeners and set up Radio 1, a new terrestrial pop music service. This was competition for listeners for sure, but Radio Caroline had created its niche in the market and was well liked. Programming gave it a character of its own with anthems being a regular feature and specialist shows, for example the progressive rock trend it keenly supported, kept it ahead of the less adventurous government-sponsored alternative. When taken off the air for whatever reason, Radio Caroline always bounced back.
Nowadays, the station no longer conducts its maritime broadcast, but is based terrestrially. It broadcasts via satellite, DAB and internet. It is widely available across the world and is still as popular as ever. Radio Caroline is an interesting tale and is an important groundbreaking radio service that has pushed the boundaries and set the agenda for all broadcasts that have followed. We now move into an age where a definitive radio revolution, the internet radio revolution, promises to expand the Radio Caroline dream even further out to sea. KryKey is part of this new wave of internet radio and offers a radical solution to broadcasters who want to set up their own PRS (Personalised Radio Station) from the comfort of their own home and reach the ears of listeners across the globe. Unlike Radio Caroline, there are no expensive broadcast costs, regulations aren’t as strict and more importantly by broadcasting you won’t run the risk of seasickness and sinking! Transmissions will increase as the web radio phenomenon booms. KryKey is the new disruptive software for radio, the Radio Caroline of the electronic seas of the twenty-first century. We hope that in forty years time, our story will be as rich a read as the Radio Caroline adventure.

KryKey - What is it?

What is KryKey?

In a world of music that the ipod has turned upside down, the market of computer music products is full to the brim and highly competitive. MP3 sales is now the standard marker for a music artist’s success. Music in the digital age is pegged to tech developments. KryKey is a disruptive technology that has the potential to set the new standard for music listeners and makers alike.
Web radio is the ‘in-thing’ in the tech sector. The recent annual tech show in Las Vegas was full to the brim of internet radio products. A study has predicted the ‘web radio’ sector to draw in $900 million revenue this year. There is an expected compound annual growth rate of 29.7% That web radio is the fastest growing area of the World Wide Web is in no doubt. What the sector has lacked until now is a platform to incorporate potential broadcasters to supply the channels necessary in the radio boom.

KryKey is the perfect platform for the Web Radio Station. It simply allows you to create your own PRS (Personal Radio Station) where you can invite other people to act as DJs. The KryKey software incorporates an easy-to-use MP3 streaming interface, where you create playlists of MP3s you upload. Today in a terrestrial radio studio, it is normally a similar digital interface that is used to play the music. What KryKey does is reverse the traditional radio barriers, of it costing so much money to set a studio up and being incredibly expensive and tightly regulated to conduct a broadcast, which has certain broadcast limits. You can set up and run your KryKey PRS from your own living room or office, with DJs not even having to be present with you but sat in the comfort of their own homes.

How is the station funded? People initially told about KryKey suspect that it is an ‘under-the-counter’ pirate radio broadcast service. Sure there are places on the net where you can set up internet pirate radio, but the quality of the stream is appalling, there are server issues and no guarantee of station stability. KryKey uses incredibly powerful US servers and one of the most important feedbacks received is that customers are very satisfied with the volume and 128 bitrate quality of the KryKey stream. KryKey earns its revenue through advertising on the station. One of the options for PRS owners is to create their own advertisements or promo dittys. If, as a station manager, you are unhappy with having short advertising intervals there is a subscription service available to ensure your broadcasts are advert free. The station needs revenue as according to radio laws it has to pay royalties to artists that are played on the KryKey network.

KryKey is a truly globalised service. Involved in the running of the company are Americans, Australians, Belorussians, Indians, British & Bulgarians. Web radio stations can employ DJs from all over the world. Presently there are over 130 KryKey PRS running on every continent, with growth rates of PRS creation becoming exponential.

The service is still in its Beta test format and new features are becoming available to increase the facilities for broadcasters. Hot new developments include a live broadcast facility where a mixing desk can be linked to the PC. Enhanced studio features and customisable homepages are due and also a chat and phonein facility to enhance audience participation in shows. Unlike other competitors in the computer music world, KryKey is not just a music streaming service. It allows real live radio. There is a microphone option so each track can be introduced and broadcasters will have to ensure that their shows are well-presented if they want to retain listeners. KryKey truly is innovative and has the potential to really bring the world of web radio to the websurfers feet. The hardware for web radio will sweep the market over the next few years and as portable listening devices incorporate web radio streams, it is most certain that the world of radio has never been a more exciting place to be. Get yourself KryKeyed and set up for the revolution!

Krykey Chinese webpage

Krykey is trying to expand into China's massive internet. Here is the translation work I have done for the webpage we are building http://www.krykey.cn (not up yet but will be soon)


欢迎您到KryKey公司。 我们是一台新互联网收音机。 您能还是听还是创造您自己的广播电台。我们现在，从在世界周围在美国，澳大利亚，英国俄罗斯和希腊，有广播电台。 我们有一个中国的广播电台，http://www.krykey.com/prs/China_Net_Radio 。 我们确实想要给听众和广播都中国的我们的服务。 广播电台在互联网是新核令人激动。 我们是高兴和骄傲给中国引进一个KryKey公司。 谢谢。http://www.krykey.com

Web Radio

In this digital age what is the future of web radio? The internet provides us with the ideal opportunity to all become broadcasters. As fierce as the market is for listeners, I feel that web radio provides DJs with broadcasting opportunities like never before in history. If you're good then your shows will get listeners. Krykey provides us with a great way of reaching our audiences and I can see it growing and taking listeners from established radio. It would be great if it could broadcast over DAB or traditional airwaves but with the new arrival of internet car radios etc, web radio is certainly a growing phenomenon. Not many people don't carry mobile sound devices these days and web radio is a facility that will in the future be present on them all. It is a fun time to be a web radio DJ, I'm sure you'll agree...

krykey facebook group