To Date.
I should have started this ChangeBlog way back when I launched the website to capture all the work that has been done to get Robtronik.FM up and running. But since I didn’t, I think that works mostly in anyone’s favor who might be reading this now. If I had been maintaining a blog on changes you might have suffered all my complaining and minutiae of working through technican details to get the station up and running.
So, here is the short list of (mostly) everything done to date to get a stablized streaming platform running - and not really in chronological order. This is stuff I had to do:
Source music tracks - lots of them, most from my personal library collected over the decades. Lots of tracks from my Bandcamp page too. Go check them out. I have a ton from Beatport going way back to 2006 when you first ordered CDs with tracks on them and they sent them out to you. I think they should do that again - CDs making a comeback (with Beatport branding etc.). Right now there is close to 4k tracks on rotation.
Set up cloud based server that serves the stream to Live365.com that handles all my licensing and geographic requirements. I use PlayIt Live software to manage the back end playlists, track management, clock programming for every hour of the day for streaming, LUFS and a track preparation (for those that care, I’m running at -15 LUFS which is what most of the streaming services run at - running too hot distorts the audio getting to you via web or mobile devices).
Created iOS and Android apps so you can have mobile experience for this station instead of just web based. Honestly, the mobile version is best - I highly recommend it.
Created focused music shows to pepper throughout the day - focused on genres of dance music that I love: Techno, House, Breaks, Bass, Drum and Bass, post-punk, eighties, etc. That’s all found on the schedule page now. I’ve also added Lars Behrenroth as our first dedicated (syndicated?) show Deeper Shades of House on Tuesdays. I will probably add his show to Sundays too. Its really really good. I intend to add a Rave, Trance, and probably downtempo breaks spotlight or show still. I am currently working on a DJ mix show called Journeys which will run every day (like Razor does at Midnight PST) and I think it will be amazing. I’ve got some really good sets to always put on rotation - I promise you will never get bored. Shedule is here.
Oh, had to create station IDs and sweepers for identity purposes - Personality - Stationality - This has been a grand experiment to date. If I am being honest, and I am, I don’t really like them too much. They are way too, um, hype sounding - probably borderline cheesy and more work is needed to dial in the right vibe and sound with them and for each of the shows. But I choose progress over perfection with this effort, so for now, they work well enough.
What else? Working on events in Las Vegas to be a footprint in the real world for the streaming shows - Compression is coming back to Pachi Pachi soon. I needed a break after doing 6 shows over 6 months - and figuring out what to do next. I decided that Robtronik.FM was next, but now that this is really starting to develop, I can pivot back to shows with the station being the umbrella that ties everything together.
There is more to cover - but I’m done writing now for the day. In the future I will tackle why I called this station Robtronik.FM (ego? accountability? asshole move?) and my stance on AI in the “radio” streaming space that I am currently exploring too.
Drop me a line at robtronik@robtronik.fm for any suggestions or feedback. Thanks for reading!
