MY OTHER PASSION & HOBBY!!!

With my recent fascination with the Olympics, politics, and never-ending preoccupation with working on my first novel, stitching and crocheting, it occured to me that I had let my other 'passion hobby' (as I like to call it), fall by the wayside. But I guess with everything I have going on almost all the time, I wouldn't be human if one of these things didn't get neglected.




So on Saturday I decided since Tropical Storm Hanna pretty much rained everything out & forced me to stay inside for the day, that I would dedicate some time to updating my internet radio station, Jukebox Junction Radio. You know how plans NEVER unfold the way we intend for them to. Mine were no exception. MY plan was to dedicate the morning to this project so that I would have the afternoon to resume my stitching on that dang Christmas stocking (that is going to be the stitching death of me yet!!!). Little did I know that time would turn into all day and move on into the evening. (I had more work to do than I thought. LOL) My initial intention was to update my station with new music and remove some songs that had run their course with the listening audience. It seemed easy enough and actually it was for the most part. And it didn't take all that long. But then....
THEN...I started thinking ahead to my programming for the upcoming holiday season. BIG MISTAKE!!!! I pulled out my library of holiday music and playlists from last year. I started uploading the music to the station (thinking it would only take me a little extra time to get it on the station!!!). HARDLY!!!! Somewhere between the end of the holiday season last year and yesterday, I had forgotten just how much holiday music I have!!! It's absolutely insane. I think I have every single song ever heard on the radio during the holiday season! (That's a GREAT thing if you are a listener, but not so great thing if you are a radio station owner!!!)



At about 9pm EST last night, I finally decided to stop fighting with my heavy eyelids, (especially since my eyes had formed a somewhat impressive glazed over appearance as I looked into the computer screen), and resume this larger than I had anticipated project for another day.

I'm in total holiday mode and have been since late July I think!! Last year I began playing continuous Christmas music from the 2nd weekend in November until just a few days after Christmas. For the most part, I was able to upload just about all of my Christmas music library to the station on Saturday and only have about 1-2 more hours of music to upload to be completely finished. Now that it's on the station, I'm so tempted to start playing hints of it here and there until the time comes. However, I'm reluctant to do so for fear of committing the ultimate betrayal to Halloween and Thanksgiving that occur BEFORE the Christmas music season is supposed to kick in officially! That's the great thing about internet radio, I'm in control without having to worry about the FCC breathing down my neck dictating what I need to play when.

And believe it or not, there are stations on Live 365.com that are strictly all Christmas music that play 24/7, 365 days a year. You wouldn't believe the folks that listen year round. I don't know if the listening audience for those stations are from outside the US or if the audience is made up solely of diehard Christmas music fans from the US. All I do know is when I played Christmas music exclusively for those 6 weeks during the holiday season last year, I had more listeners and listening hours on my station than I'd had at any other time during the entire year.

I'm not sure yet, what my decision will be regarding when I will begin playing holiday music 'officially'. Rest assured you'll be the first to know. I may sneak in a 'taste of Christmas music' weekend or afternoon here and there between now and then. But the one thing I do know, is getting the station ready for the upcoming season is a lot of preparation and hard work and at least once it gets here I'll have the work behind me and can enjoy listening right along with everyone else!!

(**Yours truly above manning Jukebox Junction Radio!**)

So onward to the holiday season!!! Feel free to check out my station, Jukebox Junction Radio any time & offer your feedback or make a song request. I love hearing from listeners! And remember my slogan, "Jukebox Junction Radio, where we feed your musical soul!"

Until next time...Happy Stitching! :)