The last week or so has been busy but it does feel like it has all gone really quickly. Last weekend Elle was back in the West Midlands visiting her mum and sister, which was when I was supposedly going to catch up with lots of the stuff I had to do, and have had to do for months in some cases. Granted, I did do some of it. However I got a bit distracted by creating my own online radio station.
It's something I've always wanted to do, but there are few ways to do it and make it affordable and legal. So I never got round to it before now. Plus, I already had other radio shows at the other stations to keep me occupied at the time. This isn't the case now.
So last Saturday night I spent 5 hours, and £250, and created Soul Central Radio. I opened the service with Live 365 as it's relatively affordable and I don't have to worry about royalities as they cover that as part of my subscription. I'm still tweaking the music quotas but essentially Soul Central Radio is a mix of classic and modern soul music, encompassing soul, funk, acid jazz, jazz funk and soulful house. The music is 40% classic soul, 40% modern soul and 20% soulful house. I have created four different playlists. One is what I call the "4 decades mix", and is a mix of all the tracks on the playlist. This airs mostly in 3-hour blocks, 6 times daily. I also have a classic soul and funk playlist that airs for 1 hour, 3 times daily. Similarly, there is a 90s and modern soul playlist which also airs for 1 hour, 3 times daily. Finally I have a soulful house playlist that airs for 30 minutes once a day. I really like how the station pans out - the different playlists break up the flow, which I think is a good thing in this instance. Plus there are more tracks on there than on most radio stations in the country, meaning less repetition.
I also bought the domain name and some professional station IDs from RPC Productions. Listening figures have been really promising so far, and already the station is 19th most popular soul station on Live 365 out of over 120. It is mostly for fun, but it still allows me to share some great music with the world which I've missed doing since giving up Grooveline and the Soul Cellar. It is also something that I do plan to try and develop as time goes on. The playlist will be updated weekly, and one of my first priorities will be on creating a better website.
Last weekend I didn't do much else than create the station and then listen to it! Had a good week at work last week. Was a bit busier than previous weeks. On Thursday morning before work I spent most of the time clearing the living room and hall of furniture and everything else so that the carpetfitters would be able to lay the new carpet on Friday morning.
They came just before 9.30am, three guys, and were quite happy to move the remaining furniture (a couple of units and the sofa) from one end of the living room to the other as they were laying the carpet. It took them just under an hour and they even hoovered up after themselves!
So the landlord is coming round in two weeks time to see the carpet, and just to meet us generally as we haven't met yet, despite living in the property for nearly 4 months now. Wow, 4 months. In some ways it feels like just weeks, and in others it feels like over a year since we moved! So much has changed this year. All of it for the better, I hasten to add.
This weekend has been great. Elle and I have spent it together from start to finish, which is rare these days. We had a mostly lazy afternoon yesterday, and went out for a meal in Hampstead in the evening. We went to a French restaurant, and the food was rather good. The service was great too. Then we headed to Camden for a couple of drinks before going back to the flat. It was bitterly cold last night, and when I woke up for a drink this morning I noticed a light dusting of snow outside.
We were rudely awoken at 11am this morning by our neighbour downstairs who was playing a trumpet, rather badly. They would play for 10-15 minutes and then stop for the same period of time before starting again. And again. And again. This actually went on for at least 6 hours, although we got up out of bed long before that!
I had the radio magazine to do this weekend, which I finished this afternoon. Otherwise, it has been a really lazy day, other than the hour or so I spent tidying the flat and doing the dishes. Had a bath tonight too, caught up with a lot of my emails (still catching up from when I went home in the summer!) and played some Fifa tonight.
Got a three day work week this week, although that'll potentially be 2 days as I am planning to book Wednesday off when I go in tomorrow. On Thursday morning I fly out to Scotland for a long weekend, returning on Monday evening.
This week on TV I've watched Setanta Sports 1, TMF, CNN International, ITV1 and BBC One.
On radio I've listened to Vatican Radio, CNR 1 (China), Radio Mauritania, Soul Central Radio, BBC Radio 6 Music, Capital FM, Traffic Radio, BBC Radio 4, Punjabi Radio, Kiss 104.1 Atlanta, talkSPORT, Jazz FM and Gold Kent.
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