Dynamic Range Radio Presents: Halloween 2011

This year's Halloween broadcast is scheduled for the weekend of Oct 28-31 and will run 24/7 until early Tuesday morning on November 1st. I've already added about an hour's worth of new tunes to the mix, so people who've tuned in previous years will hear a lot of stuff I've never played before, and I'm still on the hunt for more.

I'm also on the lookout for sponsors this year, so if you have a service you'd like to promote please contact me for details. (johnerle@dynamicrangeradio.ca)

The Halloween broadcast is always a popular event on Dynamic Range Radio, and a sponsor would allow me to promote the broadcast like I did in 2008 when I had more than 10,000 unique listeners on Halloween and ranked in the top 30 of all stations on the ShoutCast network.

If no sponsors come on board I won't have as much time to dedicate to the show as in past years, so I won't be offering any password-protected servers this time around. I probably won't spend much time or money promoting the show either, so the regular servers should be able to handle the extra load. Still, more listeners means more bandwidth I have to pay for so, as always, your donations would be greatly appreciated.

I'm also open to the idea of playing the Halloween broadcast earlier if the demand is there. I was thinking of maybe playing it the entire week leading up to Halloween, or Friday to Sunday the weekend before. If you have an opinion on how much or how little of the Halloween broadcast you'd like to hear, just leave a message here or on Dynamic Range Radio's Facebook page.

In the meantime, here's a little something to get you in a Halloween frame of mind. A classic Kids In The Hall sketch which, as far as I know, has no name but probably could have been called "The Devil Went North To Toronto."

Halloween Recap

Another Halloween has come and gone, and it was another successful holiday for Dynamic Range Radio. During the Halloween show's peak hours the station had more than ten times the number of listeners it would have normally had on a Sunday evening, and there were significant increases throughout the weekend in both listeners and web-hits. There’s also been an increase for the week following Halloween, so hopefully some of the people who discovered the station last weekend have decided to come back and check out the regular programming.

After spending most of October putting together the Halloween show I managed to squeeze in nearly an extra five hours worth of music, so here’s a complete list of Halloween music that I played for the first time in 2010.

Recently Added Tracks – Halloween Edition

Charlie Daniels Band – The Devil Went Down to Georgia
Barenaked Ladies – Grim Grinning Ghosts
Iron Maiden – Hallowed Be Thy Name
Gowan – A Criminal Mind
Queensrÿche – Gonna Get Close to You
Tom Petty – Zombie Zoo
Ramones – Pet Sematary
Gene Vincent – Race With the Devil
Big Bee Kornegay – At the House of Frankenstein
Alice Cooper – Teenage Frankenstein
Blur – I'm Just a Killer for Your Love
Prague Philharmonic Orchestra – Nosferatu Overture
Depeche Mode – Black Celebration
Pearl Jam – Last Kiss
Jan & Dean – Dead Man's Curve
Dalbello – Gonna Get Close to You
Ray Parker Jr. – Ghostbusters
A Flock of Seagulls – Nightmares
Beck – Satan Gave Me a Taco
The Bonzo Dog Band – Look Out, There's a Monster Coming
Lewis Lee – Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes
The Five Blobs – The Blob
Jumpin' Gene Simmons – Haunted House
The Sisters of Mercy – This Corrosion
Ben E. King – Supernatural Thing (Part 1)
Siouxsie and the Banshees – Fear (Of The Unknown)
Wendy Carlos/Rachel Elkind – Rocky Mountains
Ennio Morricone – The Thing
John Carpenter – The Fog
Tom Waits – In The Colosseum
Vince Guaraldi – Linus & Lucy
Louis Jordan – Up Jumped the Devil
Supersuckers – Born With A Tail
The Fleshtones – You Can't Get Him Frankenstein
Howlin' Wolf – Evil (Is Goin On)
The Four Tops – Mean Green Mother from Outer Space
Marty Robbins – Devil Woman
Andy Williams – Spooky
Electric Light Orchestra – Evil Woman
Family Band – Hatred
Blue Öyster Cult – (Don't Fear) The Reaper

A few of these tracks will probably make it into regular rotation someday, but you'll have to wait until next Halloween if you want to hear Charlie Daniels again.

Dynamic Range Radio Presents: Halloween 2010 - October 29-31

If you only discovered Dynamic Range Radio this year you may not know that my annual Halloween broadcast always brings in a flood of new listeners. In 2008, there were more than 10,000 unique listeners tuning in throughout the day, and DRR ranked in the top 30 of all stations on SHOUTCast during the broadcast's peak hours. My regular servers were maxed out before 10am that day, and I had to add four more temporary servers just to keep up with the demand.

Unfortunately, the extra listeners that year didn't lead to extra donations, so I lost a frightening amount of money.

What I did last year was set up a password-protected server for supporting listeners that would guarantee them access to the Halloween show even when the free servers were maxed out. That worked really well last year, so I'll be doing the same in 2010.

Anyone who makes a donation of at least $10 in September or October will receive guaranteed access to the password-protected server, while everyone else will have to take their chances.

As a special thank you to people who've made donations this past year out of the kindness of their hearts, I'll be sending passwords to a select group of listeners who've already made sizable contributions in 2010.

Since Halloween falls on a Sunday this year I'm planning to play the Halloween broadcast all day Friday, October 29th, and then repeat it throughout the weekend. I might start the broadcast a few days earlier if the demand is there, so if you'd like to hear it start on Wednesday or Thursday that week, leave a comment here and I'll consider it, but the playlist should be roughly fourteen hours long this year so repeating it all week would probably be too repetitive.



And if you haven't figured out what you're going to wear on Halloween, I highly recommend looking at the costumes available on Amazon.com (see the link above) or BuyCostumes.com, a retailer I just signed up with. I was amazed by the craftsmanship that went into some of the costumes like the new Mad Hatter or Alice In Wonderland themed outfits, the Harry Potter robes, and the Star Trek uniforms. Plus there's the always reliable vampires, monsters, and Gothic themed outfits.

If you buy anything from either Amazon or BuyCostumes.com, Dynamic Range Radio will receive a healthy commission that will go towards keeping the station alive for another year.

Halloween Passwords Have Been Sent

Those of you who've made donations as of 3pm Friday were sent an email containing your username and password.

I used whatever email you provided when making your PayPal donations, so if you haven't received the message, let me know.

The link for the pasword-protected server can be found under "Listen Now" on the left-hand side of the website. If you have any trouble, just let me know what media player you're using and what the problem seems to be and I'll try to help you out.

And there's still time for those of you haven't made donations to receive your own passwords. Anyone making donations this weekend will receive passwords as soon as I'm able to set them up, but they all have to be entered manually so don't wait until the last minute or you may miss out. If last year is any indication, Saturday is when the regular servers will be pushed to the limit.

Dynamic Range Radio's Halloween Special 2009: Oct 30th - Nov 1st

Last year's Halloween show proved to be very popular, maxing out with 1,200 listeners tuning in at the show's peak, and more than 10,000 unique listeners throughout the day. I also set new records for the number of web hits and the Halloween show was among the top 30 most popular broadcasts on the entire Shoutcast network.

Unfortunately, despite having so many people tuning in, last year's Halloween show only lead to one measly donation, meaning that I lost a frightening amount of money. Since I can't afford to do that again this year, I've decided to try something different.

First of all, I won't be broadcasting all month since there weren't enough listeners in the early part of October last year to warrant the extra expense. This year's Halloween show will play all day long on Friday, October 30th and continue throughout the Halloween weekend.

Second, instead of setting up a separate broadcast on different servers, I'll be shutting down the regular programming and switching over to the Halloween show on my normal servers, but they won't be nearly enough to handle the extra demand, so that leads me to the most important change this year:

In addition to my regular servers I'll be setting up a password-protected server which only supporting listeners will have access to. Everyone who's made a donation of at least $5 over the past year or prior to October 29th will receive a password before the Halloween show starts on Friday, October 30th.

My current servers allow for several hundred listeners at any one time, and I'll leave those running for anyone to listen to, but if you're not one the first few hundred people to tune in, and you haven't made a donation, you might be out of luck, so if you enjoyed last year's show and you don't want to miss the new songs and movie clips I have in store, get those donations in today.

Halloween Another Stunning Success... And It's Not Over Yet

Dynamic Range Radio's Halloween broadcast rewrote the record books yesterday, setting new high water marks in nearly every way imaginable.

At its peak, the Halloween broadcast was reaching more than 1,200 listeners, which shattered the old record set by last year's Halloween show.

Having 1,200 listeners pushed the Halloween show into the top 30 of all internet radio stations worldwide according to SHOUTcast, and it may have even cracked the top 20 at some point. The highest ranking I saw was #21.

Among eclectic stations, which is the standard I usually measure Dynamic Range Radio by, the Halloween broadcast ranked #2 at its peak, kicking KCRW's ass and breathing down Radio Paradise's neck. (Now that it's Saturday, I'm back to having my ass handed to me by both of them.)

Looking at web hits, I tallied almost 1,000 unique page loads on Oct 31, doubling the record set one year ago. And those 1,000 hits mean that I had more page loads in one day than I've had in any single month up until now.

But despite all the people listening, and all the people visiting the website, the one area that wasn't overwhelming was the number of donations. I didn't get nearly enough to cover my expenses, so that kind of puts a damper on things.

If only 10% of the people who listened had donated $10, I would have been in good shape. Even 5% donating $5 would have been great, but when less than 0.1% choose to make a donation, that means I'm going deeper and deeper into debt.

Still, I hope that all the exposure yesterday will lead to more people tuning in to the regular broadcast over the coming months, and maybe, someday, the goal of breaking even will finally be reachable.

As for the rest of the weekend, I plan to leave the Halloween show running until Sunday night at least. To me, Halloween isn't over until the Simpsons' Treehouse Of Horror Special is broadcast, and there are still enough people listening to keep the Halloween show among the top 10 of eclectic stations on SHOUTcast, which is not too shabby.

Once I shut it down, all the servers will switch over to the regular broadcast, and hopefully iTunes will decide to keep it listed. :fingers crossed: The regular broadcast could really use the same boost that the Halloween show received.

Bruce Springsteen posts Halloween song on Web site

I saw this news item today and figured it would be of interest to some of my Halloween listeners.

RUMSON, N.J. (AP) - Bruce Springsteen has a Halloween treat for his fans.

The rocker has posted a free download of a new song, "A Night With the Jersey Devil," on his Web site. The song has a blues beat, and Springsteen sings about "16 witches casting 16 spells."

Writes Springsteen: "If you grew up in central or south Jersey you grew up with the 'Jersey Devil.' Here's a little musical Halloween treat. Have fun!"

There's also a video showing Springsteen as the legendary Jersey Devil.

Earlier this week, Springsteen announced that he and his wife would not hold their annual elaborate Halloween display at their Rumson mansion. The couple said they were worried about people's safety because the event attracted too many visitors.

---

On the Net:

http://www.brucespringsteen.net/news/index.html

The number of people tuning in to my Halloween broadcast this year has been above and beyond my wildest dreams, so thanks and hello to all the newcomers. I hope you enjoy the Halloween show, and I really hope you visit the station again once Halloween is over to check out my regular broadcast. If you liked the eclectic mix of Halloween tunes, there's a good chance you'd enjoy Dynamic Range Radio on the other 364 days of the year.

Since the number of listeners for the Halloween show has been far more than I expected, that also means that my expenses will me much more than I anticipated, so if you can afford it, please consider dropping a few bucks in my tip jar. If just 10% of the people listening right now donated $10 each, that would cover my expenses for the Halloween broadcast and the entire month of October.

And if you really can't afford a cash donation, I'd also be willing to accept leftover Halloween candy. No razor blades, please.

Dynamic Range Radio Presents: Halloween 2008

Dynamic Range Radio is pleased to announce its third annual Halloween broadcast which will begin at one minute after midnight on October 1st and repeat for the entire month leading up to Halloween.

You can read the official press release here, spread the word on Facebook by clicking here, or visit the Last.FM page dedicated to the Halloween show by clicking here.

If you tuned in last year you have some idea of what to expect, and I've added more than three hours worth of new music to the mix to keep things fresh.

To read a recap of the previous Halloween broadcasts, click here, and to get you into the mood, here's a selection of videos from YouTube to give you an idea what you'll be hearing once the Halloween broadcast is up and running.



As always, I apologize for the extremely poor sound and video quality offered by YouTube. Tune in to my Halloween show, or my normal broadcast, and I think you'll hear the difference.

And if you like what you hear, and if you can afford to lend some support to independent, commercial-free radio, then please consider dropping a few dollars in my tip jar. Just look for the PayPal icons on the left-hand side of the page.

Or take advantage of Amazon.com's special Halloween offer and I'll receive a small commission on whatever you purchase.

Dynamic Range Radio's Halloween Show Now On iTunes!

Yes, I received some exciting news today. Dynamic Range Radio's Halloween show is supposed to be listed in the iTunes radio directory starting sometime tonight, so welcome to everyone who may be discovering Dynamic Range Radio for the first time.

I know that some other internet radio stations have experienced sudden tremendous growth after being added to the iTunes directory, so tomorrow could be an eventful day for Dynamic Range Radio, but unfortunately I won't be around to witness it.

I started some gruelling training for a new job this week, so I'll be unavailable for at least twelve hours on Thursday, and maybe more.

If there is a sudden growth spurt tomorrow there's always the possibility of growing pains as well, so I apologize in advance if anything goes wrong when I won't be around to fix it. I've done my best to prepare everything tonight, and I'll deal with any issues that may arise as soon as possible.

Not that I'm expecting problems, but I wanted newcomers to understand why they won't get an immediate reponse to their queries if something should go haywire.

But hopefully everything will go smoothly and Dynamic Range Radio will have lots of new listeners tomorrow who come away with a positive first impression and have nothing but nice things to say.

What a nice treat that would be.

Problems Tuning In To Halloween Show?

There were some changes made by my server provider recently, so the old links for the Halloween broadcast needed to be updated. The links on this site are working properly, and the Shoutcast listing is working fine.

The iTunes radio listing should be updating within the next 72 hours, but those of you using iTunes can always tune in directly from this site. Just look to top left hand-corner under "Listen Now" or just click here.

Dynamic Range Radio's Halloween Show Starts Early!

I started broadcasting a final test last night which was supposed to be private, but I accidentally made it public, and since people started listening almost immediately, and since I've been getting a fair number of web hits from people looking for the Halloween show, I may as well leave it up and running, barring any complications, but I tested it for several days already and everything seems fine.

With both broadcasts running, it's much more difficult for me to monitor the streams, so please let me know if you're experiencing any buffering on either the regular broadcast or the Halloween show, and I'll look into it.

I'll be updating the listen links and adding the Halloween playlist later this afternoon, but for now you can listen by clicking this link.

I hope you like it.

Halloween Another Great Success

What can I say about a broadcast that brought more unique visitors to my website in one day than I'd had in the previous three months? Obviously there was a demand out there for Halloween music, and I'm glad Dynamic Range Radio was able to fulfill that need for so many people. There are even a few stragglers listening to the Halloween broadcast as I write this on Thursday night, so I've decided to leave it up for a little while longer before shutting it down. Click on this link to see if the broadcast is still running.

The fact that so many people learned about my station over the past week is terrific, and I hope some of you stick around to hear what my normal broadcast sounds like.

Dynamic Range Radio Presents: All Hallows' Week

Dynamic Range Radio's second annual Halloween broadcast will begin at midnight on the evening of Wednesday, October 24th and play for the entire week leading up to Halloween.

You'll hear a ghoulishly groovy mix of tunes including some traditional Halloween favourites as well as obscure treats for the alternative minded. In keeping with Dynamic Range Radio's eclectic spirit, you'll hear everything from Tom Waits to Iron Maiden, covering the gamut from modern, classic, and alternative rock, as well as Celtic, ska, alt-country, and select cuts from horror movie soundtracks.

If you have a retail outlet or a cafe that's all decked out for Halloween and you're looking for some appropriate music, look no further. And if you're having a party, whether at home or the office, All Hallows' Week will save you the trouble of making a mixed CD.

The Halloween show will be separate from my normal broadcast, so people who discover the station because of the special broadcast will also be able to hear what Dynamic Range Radio sounds like normally. Once the Halloween broadcast is up and running, I'll add links to the audio as well as a separate Last.FM playlist.

I may be offering different listening options in addition to 128k mp3, so check back later for more details

**UPDATE Oct 24th**
This Halloween broadcast almost didn't happen. Last week, after much preparation, I set up a new computer on a new internet connection to a new server and started testing the Halloween show alongside my normal broadcast. Unfortunately, something went wrong and it took me a couple of days to determine that it was the server. The company I'm using had been very reliable up to that point, but I didn't want to promote something I may not be able to deliver, so a lot of my plans were put on hold. After a few days, I received assurances that the server issues had been sorted out, so I re-focused on the Halloween show, albeit behind schedule, and launched it a day early simply because I was excited to get rolling and see what happened.

More server problems, that's what happened.

After a half-hour of stressing out and re-examining my career choice, I tried to gain perspective by remembering what happened to the Colorado Rockies on the eve of their first World Series berth. They had decided to sell tickets entirely online, but demand was so great that their servers crashed and had to be shut down. So if a major league baseball team with millions of dollars at their disposal still can't avoid a major computer glitch at the worst possible time, what hope do I have of achieving perfection? All I can do is offer the best service I can, which is is least on par with my competitors, and hope my listeners understand and appreciate the effort.

Go, Rockies, Go!

Dynamic Range Radio
No Compression. No Limits.

Halloween A Great Success & Two New Servers Being Tested Today

First of all, thanks to everyone who tuned in on Halloween for my first ever 24 hour broadcast. Everything went swimmingly, the technology driving the station help up the whole way through, I shattered my old record for number of concurrent listeners, and I had lots of people discovering the station via Shoutcast. All in all, it was a great day for Dynamic Range Radio.

But instead of sitting back and congratulating myself, I'm busy testing not one but two new servers today. I'll be re-broadcasting Sunday's 11 hour show until approximately 8:30 pm Pacific time unless something goes haywire, so tune in if you can and let me know if you have any problems.

Since the Halloween show was such a success, I'm planning something similar for Remembrance Day, aka Veteran's Day for my American listeners. If you have any requests for suitable Remembrance day tracks, email them to me ASAP and I'll see what I can do.

Halloween Broadcast Under Way

Ooh, very scary!

Yes kids, I started the broadcast at shortly before midnight PST. I came up with a total of fours hours worth of Halloween music, so I'll be repeating the show a total of six times today and shutting down at midnight PST, assuming that there isn't a meltdown somewhere along the line.

If you're tuning in from this site, please remember to not use the link marked "backup server" unless the first server goes down. That backup server only holds ten people and doesn't get listed on Shoutcast, so more people tuning in on the first server means Shoutcast browsers are more likely to discover my station.

Once again, thanks to everyone who tunes in. And if you decide to make a donation or purchase something through one of my Amazon links, please send me a message to let me know. No one's done either of those things yet (ahem!) so I have no proof that they actually work.

And if you're tuning in for the first time, check out the broadcast schedule and bookmark this site or subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on this ever-growing eclectic online radio station.