DBSTalk.COM Holiday Channel now OFFLINE

[Scott Greczkowski]

I just wanted to thank everyone who has tuned into the DBSTalk.COM Holiday Channel over the past month. The DBSTalk.COM Holiday Channel is now Offline.

It's has been fun bringing it to you!

Running a station 24 hours a day 7 days a week took a lot of work and computing power as well as a lot of bandwidth.

Our Holiday Channel actually broadcast from my house in Connecticut, I had 2 Pentium 4 1.7 GHZ Machines feeding out the audio 24 hours a day. At various times we would switch the streaming machine which fed our signal to Live365, this was done so that I could build new play lists and also to reboot the machines. Because of this we had barely any downtime to the listeners!

Also because all the songs we streamed off my PC's here in Connecticut I was able to broadcast in both Broadband and Dial Up formats at the same time from the same PC. One big advantage to this setup was besides serving both our Broadband and dial-up users we were able to run commercial free.

To upload the stream 24/7 required more then 4 GIG of uploading a day, I am really surprised that my Cable Modem provider (COX) did not yell at me for all the bandwidth I was using. :)

Thanks go to our Gold Member who helped build the Holiday Channel into what you have heard. Many of the songs heard on the Holiday Channel were provided by our Gold Members!

I hope you enjoyed the Holiday Channel, and if feedback is good then perhaps we can do it again next year!

I was surprised what an International hit our Holiday Channel would be! Just some quick stats on how may people listened to our Broadband Channel on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day!

(TLH = Total Listening Hours) (BTW Sorry for the alignment) :)

Country Streams TLH
United States 2899 1570:16
Canada 129 55:15
Malaysia 61 22:58
United Kingdom 37 5:32
Japan 22 4 :45
Spain 12 3:45
Sweden 9 3:03
Italy 3 1:41
Taiwan 5 0:56
Finland 3 0:46
Unknown 2 0:36
Germany 14 0:29
Korea 1 0:21
Belgium 3 0:20
Singapore 3 0:18
Denmark 1 0:08
Brunei Darussalam 1 0:06
Netherlands 2 0:04
Bahamas 1 0:03
Hong Kong 1 0:02
Brazil 2 0:01
Mexico 1 0:01
Saint Kitts and Nevis 1 0:01
Malta 1 0:00
Norway 2 0:00
Totals: 3216 1671:38


Thanks again everyone! Happy Holidays from DBSTalk.COM!

[Chris Blount]

I would like to publically thank Scott for making this happen. The holiday channel was a big success and hopefully brightened things up for everyone.

Great job Scott!!!

[sorahl]

Thank you Scott. I really enjoyed the channel! Thanks a lot!!

John

[TNGTony]

Scott,

Thanks a million for the music channel. Though I didn't listen as often as I would have liked, I really enjoyed it!

See ya
Tony

[raj2001]

I listened to the holiday channel, just for a little but I enjoyed it. Hoping to see more of it next year. As for Cox I wouldn't worry too much about them. There are probably alot more users who use more bandwidth than you did on a regular basis to upload music and movies.

[Scott Greczkowski]

Thanks guys I enjoyed bringing it to you. :)

[Richard King]

I listened a few times and enjoyed it very much. In fact, thanks to the specials that you ran, I ordered in two Trans Siberian Orchestra CD's and one DVD. You should get a commission. :D

Are you going to do any more generic or specialty programming between Christmas seasons? How about a program that transmits regional music from local bands around the country? You could take submissions from members since you have the country pretty well covered.

[Scott Greczkowski]

Greetings from the Hospital.

No plans to do anything further at the moment, we have canceled our Live365 accounts used for the Holiday Channel, however we can always set something up on my home servers with no problem. :)

[Chris Blount]

Ya know, I like RKing's idea. I think it would be great if we set up a semi-permanent channel with different types of programming submitted by our members both DBS and non-DBS related. One example would be a talk show about installing and setting up a DBS system. Or maybe other shows about receivers and how they compare. The sky is the limit.

On the music side, shows submitted by members throughout the country would be a great way to bring the community together and help us learn more about our fellow DBSTalker's.

Just brainstorming a little here. Comments?

[sorahl]

Hospital? Visiting? if not, hopefully not for long!

[Mark Lamutt]

Scott's wife is delivering their baby today (hopefully)!