Destiny: More Interesting News From Vancouver

Today we return to Vancouver, Canada, for the news item du jour here on Radio2020. Two days in a row, I cast my eyes and ears northward from my subtropical office to find noteworthy occurrences.

I’m not sure how I missed this little bit of technology news. It appeared in Broadcaster Magazine on the 8th of May:

Vancouver’s Destiny Media Technologies has signed an exclusive agreement with Curb Records to use its Play MPE system to deliver music to trusted recipients, such as record execs, broadcasters and radio DJs.

The deal positions Play MPE as the digital delivery system of choice for the music industry. Both Curb Records and imprint label Curb / Asylum Records say they will use the Play MPE System for digital delivery of their pre-release content to radio broadcasters and other music VIPs.

Looks like Canada is a place that I should be watching more carefully. For those not familiar with Curb / Asylum I am willing to bet you know the music the put out: Hank Williams, Jr., Plumb, Natalie Grant, Tim McGraw and more. It would seem that Destiny Media has entered the big leagues.

Photo courtesy of alexindigo, used under its Creative Commons license

Neil Tun3s In To The Shared Experience

Neil Hepburn is the man behind Tun3r.com, a fascinating effort blending Internet radio and streamed terrestrial radio with a unique (and fun) interface. Not only that, but as I discovered yesterday, he is also one hell of a blogger.

While I will be revisiting Tun3r in the near future to talk about their new “City Dials,” right now I am excited to present the following post which Neil has kindly given me permission to syndicate from his blog. If you’re short on time, jump ahead to the numbered list at the end (what makes live DJs better).

Without further ado, our first guest post. Take it away Neil:

The Theory of Mind / The Shared Experience / The Passive Experience

The discussion of the future of radio has reached a feverish pitch. What’s being debated is whether or not radio is in denial, and that the current business model is out-dated and obsolete. The Internet offers unprecedented possibilities, including interaction and customization.

Furthermore, many new custom radio sites have cropped up to take advantage of this potential. The idea behind custom radio is that you tell the site what you like to listen to, and it generates a custom station tailored to your preferences. It’s a bit like those recommendation tools that Amazon.com and Netflix use. The big heavyweights are currently Pandora and Last.FM. But there are newer start-ups which aim to take these guys on. The most recent being Jango, MeeMix, and Radionomy.

All of these custom radio services tend to be based on either a “nature” approach (such as Pandora), which analyzes the underlying attributes of the song to determine what songs you might like. Or, the service is based on a “nurture” approach (such as Last.fm), which looks at who else has listened to the song, and then attempts to recommend other songs that were recommended by a similar group of people. Steve Krause has provided an excellent overview of how these services work, which can be found here.

I have used most of these services at one time or another, and while I used to be impressed with the technology, I found myself getting either bored or annoyed with them pretty quickly. To paraphrase Roger Waters [commenting on the first non-Rogers Water Pink Floyd album, Momentary Lapse of Reason], I feel that these stations are nothing more than “a reasonable facsimile of radio”.

To give you an example of what I mean by this, check out Condition30’s ZenStrings music (all free mp3s). Condition30 has developed an engine which can effectively generate a song that never ends and never repeats. The application they had in mind was for video games, which often suffers from overly repetitive music. When I hear ZenStrings, it all sounds like music, but it also sounds very bland and forgettable, and it never really builds to anything. It’s a reasonable facsimile of music.

Getting back to the live DJ. What makes them any better? After much thought, I have concluded that it boils down to three key points:

1. Real DJs can predict how you might react to what they’re playing, and can craft their sets accordingly. The most advanced DJs are not viewing their sets as “a bunch of songs in a row”, but rather as compositions unto themselves. Many techno DJs take this a step further, and even understand how your mind is working in various altered states, and customize their sets accordingly. To be sure, creativity is at work, but a key aspect of creativity is being able to imagine how your work might be perceived under various circumstances. In general, this ability is often referred to as The Theory of Mind, and is a cornerstone of the human condition.
2. Live streams provide a genuine Shared Experience. I believe that radio is the last great bastion of the shared experience. The Internet, as collaborative as it is, is surprisingly bereft of Shared Experiences. It is one thing to tag a photo, or write on a Facebook wall, but these all happen out of sync. Nothing comes close to the emotional pull of a true shared experience. If you’ve ever gone down a roller-coaster with a good friend or companion. If you’ve ever done something cheeky or naughty with someone else. And, if you’ve ever had sex. You will know what I am talking about here. For me, listening to music with others provides that shared experience. It may not always be at the forefront of my mind, but when that certain song comes on, I will knowingly grin to my friends, and that’s all it takes to have that feeling.
3. Radio is in essence, a passive experience. This is a good thing. However, because the Internet invites so much interactivity, some people believe that radio should also be interactive. However, radio that requires or expects that I interact with it is not what I’m looking for. I like being able to do other tasks while enjoying radio. I can do my work, I can drive the car, I can make dinner, I can read, I can socialize with my friends. All while listening to radio. Radio relaxes me. Anything requiring interaction requires decision making. Decisions stress me out.

This is a topic that is near and dear to my heart. If I’m wrong, or you disagree, I’m all ears. As those who know me, I’m pretty open minded, even to ideas that I’m inclined to disagree with.

Stay TUN3D.

-Neil Hepburn, TUN3R.com

(Blogmaster’s Note: The original post is located here.
Many thanks to Neil for allowing us to crosspost it!)

Clear Channel 2.0?

Radio giant Clear Channel is taking it to the web. Monday and Tuesday of this week saw back-to-back announcements about the company’s new Internet-based initiatives, both of which show an emphatic embrace of the online world and its place in the evolution of radio.

Let’s take the Tuesday announcement first, as reported by the San Antonio Business Journal:

Clear Channel Radio has launched a new Web site to help advertisers choose between all the diverse promotional tools that radio has to offer these days.

The business-to-business site, www.totalradius.com, gives advertisers a glimpse of all the different promotional tools they can use for their campaigns, including on-air, on-demand, mobile text and digital broadcasts.

“Totalradius.com is a first stop for advertisers exploring the multi-faceted landscape of radio,” says John Hogan, president and CEO of Clear Channel Radio. “At the push of a button, advertisers can hear successful audio branding, get examples of integrated marketing best practices and get in contact with stations in their markets.”

There are sections on the Totalradius site that that include testimonials, breakdowns on how to write a commercial, and several other topics. Online audio and video enhance the effort to engage possible advertisers, displaying the power of radio. All-in-all, a nice step forward bridging the gap between terrestrial radio and the Internet at the industry level.

Then comes the other interesting bit of news (via Mark Hefflinger of DigitalMediaWire). Clear Channel is looking into developing a personalized web radio player for its stations’ websites. That in and of itself is no news, simply good planning. What does make it interesting is that they have opened talks with Pandora.com about collaborating on development. (If you’re unfamiliar with Pandora it is an outgrowth of the Music Genome Project and bill themselves as a learning online radio station that adjusts to your tastes. Tim Westergrin, the founder, is also one of the movers behind Save Net Radio. I had the pleasure of meeting him at the New Orleans Jazz Fest in 2007, and he is an amazingly nice guy.)

Clear Channel seems to be evolving their efforts to be more in tune with the Web 2.0 world, as can be seen in strategic alliances such as the one with Clearspring (developing widgets to stream stations through social networking profiles), or their new lyric search feature powered by Sony owned Gracenote.

Image courtesy of Bull3t, used under its Creative Commons license

Emmis, Meet iTunes. iTunes, meet Emmis.

Monday’s news brought us this shining tidbit about Emmis Communications’ new partnership with iTunes. Tom Spalding of IndyStar.com brings us the scoop:

Emmis executives today announced that its Chicago subsidiary, Emmis Interactive, has reached a deal with Apple’s iTunes Store to market Emmis’ custom “Storefront” technology to outside radio stations and media companies.

Storefront, already in use by Emmis-owned radio station Web sites since June 2006, allows a station to direct its listeners view playlists online to make purchases of the songs the station plays with a single click. Listeners can easily find and purchase songs they are hearing on-air using the customers’ own Apple iTunes account on the computer.

Citing cumbersome redirects from one site to another when attempting to purchase music, Emmis Interactive co-president Ray Mena presents the arrangement as a means to make music purchases less cumbersome.

This is a landmark event. Emmis is the first to successfully integrate iTunes stores into radio websites. One small step for Emmis, one giant leap for radio!

According to Jeff Smulyan, CEO of Emmis, competitors approached Apple about what Emmis was doing with their online stores wanting to emulate them. Apple told them that Emmis built it, and then approached Emmis about licensing the setup. No financial details of the arrangement have been released as of this time.

An example of the custom iTunes page (The one for Power 106fm, used in the image at the top of this post) is available here.

Image: Screencap of Emmis / iTunes custom store for Power 106fm

Hitting A Triple: AOL, Last.fm, and CBS Radio

In an expansion of the relationship between CBS Radio (parent company of Last.fm) and AOL, a deal has been struck to have Last.fm power AOL’s internet radio efforts in the European theater. Mark Walsh of Online Media Daily transmits the details:

The alliance builds on a deal struck in March under which CBS Radio is providing AOL Radio an array of content in the U.S., including over 150 music, news, talk and sports stations. In addition to providing content, CBS has assumed responsibility for ad sales for all of AOL’s 200 online stations as well as the 140 stations it brings to the table.

Last month, Last.fm reach a separate agreement with CBS Radio to stream live broadcasts from the network’s radio stations, while giving listeners from the CBS Radio Internet Network access to Last.fm’s library of free online music.

These two agreements alone signal major advancement in the evolution of terrestrial radio’s approach. CBS is extending its broadcasts onto the Internet, while their listeners are gaining expanded access to music through the Last.fm library. All in all, a lovely synergistic evolution.

The latest partnership allows AOL Radio’s European users to listen to any track repeatedly on Last.fm as well as providing access to other content including videos, pictures and event listings. A recommendation feature also allows people to share and discover new music.

With 21 million unique visitors globally per day, Last.fm brings muscle to the table to complement AOL’s legendary engagement with its user base. The new on-demand music service will start off in France, Germany and the U.K. If things adhere to the proposed production schedule the service should roll out across other European nations over the next several months.

Photo courtesy of Geren W. Mortensen, Jr., used under its Creative Commons license

Matrimonial Transmission

It is extremely interesting to watch the back and forth flow of ideas between the Internet world and “real life.” In this day and age, anyone can throw together a website or MySpace associated with any sort of event or concept. Wedding websites seem to be particularly popular these days, as I found out during the chaos leading to my own wedding.

This is why the following story stuck me as interesting. Far to the north in Canada, a couple is not only setting up a website for their wedding, but also going on air with their own temporary radio station! This via Aloma Jardin of the Times Transcript:

In a world where wedding websites have become commonplace, Moncton native Serge Cormier decided to take things one step further and turn his wedding into a four-day radio broadcast.
“I’m just somebody that likes to stand a little bit above the crowd,” says Cormier. “I thought it would provide a lifelong memory of our wedding. We’ll make a recording of the entire broadcast and we’ll be able to listen to it time after time. And we will be able to share our wedding with the general population as well, which I thought is a neat idea, to let the world know how much we love each other.”

Fiancée Yanbing Zou, who Cormier met when both were students at the University of New Brunswick, only needed a little bit of convincing.

“She understands my passion for radio,” explains Cormier.

As our lives are increasingly on display thanks to social networking applications like Facebook, this is a beautiful example of things coming full circle. This is a great example of Internet age thinking being applied to broadcast in a new and interesting way. Microcontent makes its way to the airwaves, if only on a temporary basis.

The broadcast is actually going to be run out of a hotel room at the Holiday Inn Express on Mountain Road, where the wedding and reception are taking place. The hotel graciously allowed Cormier to install an antenna on its roof to help make the broadcast happen.

WedFM will begin broadcasting on 100.9 FM at 2 p.m. May 14 and continue until about noon on the day after the wedding, May 18.

“Basically when we have to check out of the hotel room,” Cormier says.

Cormier says the station will be broadcasting 24 hours a day, though, like most commercial stations, the overnight hours will be covered off by pre-programmed music.

Some of the other programming in the works includes a pre-recorded Top 40 countdown hosted by Cormier and Zou and Chinese language lessons to share a bit of Zou’s heritage. Zou grew up in China and moved to Canada five years ago to study at UNB.

“There will also be live coverage and interviews during the wedding ceremony,” Cormier says.

“Myself and my fiancée and other people in the wedding party will be interviewed during the day on Saturday and there will be a live-to-air broadcast of the wedding party on Saturday night.”

With only 50 watts of power, the actual broadcast will only be heard in Moncton, Riverview, and Dieppe, and Cormier expects even then coverage will be kind of spotty, so he is also hoping to webcast the radio broadcast on the couple’s wedding website, www.wedfm.ca.

While it certainly will require far more effort than a simple wedding website, this effort is guaranteed to be uniquely memorable. Cormier is not shy about the fact that he is going to see how things go with an eye toward possibly making this sort of temporary, wedding themed radio station into a business all its own. He’ll be looking at all of the feedback with that in mind (hopefully after the honeymoon).

I’d like to close by wishing the happy couple all of my best. May your signal be five by five and your ratings the highest possible!

Photo courtesy of Leslie Duss, used according to its Creative Commons license

Stormy Weather

As regular readers are aware, I am a child of the deep south — New Orleans to be exact. As a result, I am far more familiar with hurricanes and floods than I am with tornadoes and other weather systems that afflict the inland areas of the country.

This is why I must confess to being surprised when I read Bill Graham’s post about weather radios on KansasCity.com. Not because the need for weather radios surprises me, but because I literally had no idea that some areas of the country actually have World War II style sirens for tornado alerts. With a hurricane you get advance notice, but tornadoes appear and disappear with alarming speed. This makes having a weather radio extremely important.

Sirens are a Cold War relic pressed into weather duties. But you won’t always hear one before a tornado strikes.

Two tornados that touched down in the Northland early Friday are proof. They hit about 2 a.m. in Gladstone and Kansas City, North, destroying some houses and severely damaging others.

Those twisters formed and disappeared quickly along a rapidly moving thunderstorm front. No tornado warnings were issued and thus no sirens sounded. Forecasters were not sure whether they were straight-line winds or tornados until they checked the wreckage after daylight arrived.

Now as far as I know, we have never had warning sirens here in the Crescent City, but then we tend to keep an eye on the weather out of reflex. Usually about the only time we get tornadoes is if they spin off from a larger storm, and for most of us, radio is where we get our info. Sudden weather systems like this are something I find extremely unnerving.

So why would a weather radio help in that situation?

Because, forecasters did issue severe thunderstorm and hurricane-force wind warnings before the storm hit. Twice in fact.

A weather radio is usually silent. But when such a warning is issued, an alarm sounds that can wake you up. The radio will then give you recorded or live messages from forecasters about the type of storm, its path and what time the storm will arrive in a community.

When Mother Nature calls, she calls collect. Radio, requiring much less infrastructure than Internet or cell phones, is a medium made for emergency communication during severe weather. “Smart” weather radios that can wake you up when circumstances dictate can make the difference between tragedy and survival.

Sirens? Really? I, for one, would rather trust the airwaves.

Photo courtesy of OAR/ERL/National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) via [pingnews].

Getting Social: Web Theory Meets Terrestrial Radio

Yes, you did read that title correctly, and personally, I think this is one of the niftiest innovations I have seen in a while! The BBC along with their creative design consultants Schulze and Webb are bringing the Web 2.0 world of social networking to radio. Mark “Rizzn” Hopkins of Mashable writes about this modular gadget:

The module featured here is set up to have a series of buttons, much like the buttons on your car radio, that function as station pre-sets. Rather than being pre-set to defined stations, the buttons are pre-set to your friends - and whenever they’re using the radio means their light will be on, and pressing it will allow you to listen to what they’re listening to.

It’s not the most revolutionary use of social technology on a gadget, but it is certainly one of the most interesting. The BBC commissioned the device from Schulze & Webb, a creative design consultancy clearly not limited to any particular media type

There are other features also taken from web theory. The Olinda dial was inspired by the auto-complete features from most of the current web browsers. The outer scroll goes through stations alphabetically, the inner one scrolls through the most listened stations. The modular system is designed with a set of specs so that other device makers can add onto it and build in their own functionality (said to be inspired by the Flickr API).

This is the kind of thing I love to see, creative evolution in action! Schulze and Webb are taking the Web 2.0 mindset even further though, it’s not just “friends.” The idea of doing a hardware open API is a wonderful blending of real life and internet perspectives that I think will really give this one legs! They truly seem to appreciate and the so-called Generation C audience.

In true social networking style, they have a Flickr group with pictures of both development and the prototypes. You can also go to the developer’s page and see a nice profile of the unit along with a downloadable pdf pamphlet.
Photo Courtesy of Jack Schulze

Held Hostage: Radio as a Lifeline

During my tenure here on the Radio 2020 Blog, I have looked at technology, community, content, and other aspects of the radio ecosystem. I have talked at several points about how fundamental radio was to us in New Orleans after the levee failure of 2005. Now I want to show you radio as a lifeline.

Sarah Hampson of the Canadian Globe and Mail brings us the story of a journalist imprisoned and how radio was his anchor. Alan Johnston, the BBC correspondent to Gaza City, had reported on 29 journalist kidnappings during his three year tenure in the Middle East. On the eve of his own departure, he became the 30th. On March 12, 2007, he was taken hostage by the militant group known as The Army of Islam.

Over the next 114 days, it was a battle to stay sane, especially as he knew that the BBC does not pay ransoms. Radio was what kept him going:

For his mind, his salvation came in the form of a radio, and for his body, in French fries and boiled water.

Locked in a small room, he had only a chair and a sagging thin bed. He told time by the passage of the sun and calls to prayer at a local mosque. The one thing he insisted his captors give him was a radio.

“I pushed for it every day, and argued and kept at it whenever I thought they would bear listening to me. Maybe they felt sorry for me, or maybe they were sick of hearing about a radio or maybe they did it as an act of kindness. But anyway, at pretty much my lowest moment, they appeared with this radio and that changed everything,” the 45-year-old says.

On it, he heard of the demonstrations, vigils and other efforts to gain his release. “To know that the outside world is almost inexplicably rallying to your cause is amazing and difficult to quite understand. It’s overwhelming to be the subject of that sort of focus of goodwill.”

It is highly doubtful that an iPod or laptop would have been allowed by his captors. Likewise any communications device, be it cell phone or other, would have been confiscated. Radio, a medium seen as harmless, became a conduit to the world he had been taken from. Through it tales from the outside world were able to keep the flame of hope alive during circumstances that would otherwise crush most people.

To think that these invisible waves that permeate the air around us can be a lifeline to a man imprisoned is nothing short of awe inspiring.

WWOZ/Jazz Fest II: Community Voices

Welcome to part two of my focus on local radio and community. Today, I am going to present some of the input I have gotten from members of the community here in New Orleans during the 2008 Jazz and Heritage Fest. I contacted many people at different socioeconomic strata as well as different geographic areas to ask them for their thoughts about WWOZ (90.7fm). These quotes have been gathered in person, over the phone, and via email over the course of this second weekend of Jazz Fest. The question was a simple one: “What does WWOZ mean to you?”

The relevancy of radio here in the Crescent City illustrates what, to me, is the true power of the medium as it reaches throughout our battered city and beyond to create continuity for New Orleanians wherever they may be.

WWOZ is the musical spirit of the city’s soul for New Orleanian radio listeners. When I need to find out the down-home, small venue events, I go to WWOZ to find out who, what, when and where. I don’t need to know the why. In between those small gems of information is the wonderful music that embodies the culturally rich musical heritage of New Orleans. If I were to try and capture the names here, I’d go on for pages and pages. I’ll spare myself the agony and go tune in to WWOZ instead, where I get to hear the music of my home and feel it’s vibration through my soul. WWOZ is and always will be my hometown radio love.

Michael “ReX” Dingler, NoLA Rising

Feelings such as Dingler’s abound. Locally relevant content combined with programming that has a global appeal — this is a great example of how these two key elements can create dedication in listeners even beyond the broadcast range.

I discovered WWOZ when I moved to New Orleans from New York in 2003. The music pouring into my ears made me know I was finally home. During the two years it took to put our house together after the storm, WWOZ was the only constant in a haze of debris removal and drywall dust. Just listening to all that amazing music gave me the stamina to drag out another bag of garbage, bleach down some more mold, nail in another piece of flooring. I renamed WWOZ my “Renovation Station” - thank you for all your wonderful work!

Marrus, painter, illustrator, storyboard artist & really lousy drywaller

Another local creator and musician shares his two cents:

[...]only WWOZ speaks from the heart of this great city’s role in growing the roots of all modern music! And it speaks not only to the city but to the world, via internet — a value that cannot be overestimated in this post-Katrina era.

Who broadcasts Jazz Fest on the radio? WWOZ. Who recognizes and plays timeless local music? WWOZ. What station is my car radio tuned to? WWOZ! If WWOZ doesn’t represent New Orleans on the radio, who will?

Lewis D’Aubin AKA Dr. Pinkerton of The Consortium of Genius

But my personal favorite is the response I got from New Orleans Blogger Mark Folse who rather than send me a paragraph or two wrote a lengthy, inspiring, and heartfelt response on his own blog. Here is just a taste of it:

During my almost 20 years away from the city, WWOZ and programs like it’s Jazz Fest broadcasts were one of the links that offered me an opportunity to experience the grace of New Orleans, that redeemed what seemed at times the mortal sin of leaving. When I lived in the far north, I would spend some of the first decent days of Spring not out clearing my yard but huddled in my cool basement around my computer, the WWOZ stream struggling through the dial-up connection like a short-wave broadcast from another continent. When the entire city went dark in September ‘05, one of the first thing I found was the ‘OZ stream out of New Jersey. It was the sound track of all of my early postings to Wet Bank Guide.

WWOZ and Jazz Fest are both prominent ambassadors for New Orleans, and links that tie us all together: the people who are home, the ones still somewhere else by circumstance or choice, and the visitors lured by the glamor of the city. Without either institution the city would somehow survive, even if dearly diminished, even as we survived the steady erosion of some of our cultural landmarks over the last generation. Even with the gaping hole the absence of either would leave behind, it would still be New Orleans. Those of us here would find the music and the food and the spirit of the street parade on our own. Not so the displaced or the visitors who descend on the city every year for the Fest. Without ‘OZ streaming into the world or the Fest to draw it’s listeners here, the numbers of the foreign legion of New Orleans would be fewer and their strength diminished. We would be silently but certainly undermined in our determination to live here and remake New Orleans if either were to stop.

Mark Folse, Toulouse Street

This is passion for radio, and it does not stop at the city limits. Since I had the distinct pleasure of hanging out with Jason Osburn from StreamGuys while I was at the NAB Show, I dropped him a line as well. (Back when I was a web producer for WWOZ, I had my first introduction to Jason’s company as they handle the streaming for the station.) Despite suffering physical illness, he jumped at the chance to speak about the station:

“WWOZ contacted us for [streaming] service shortly before Katrina hit. Having spent some time in New Orleans, I was very excited for the opportunity to work with them.

Many of us at StreamGuys have a background in music, so to be working with a station so known for it’s support of it’s culturally important local music scene was a treat. When Katrina occurred, we extended a helping hand by offering them free streaming services for a month. We later learned they didn’t initially use our service as they were able to initiate their “WWOZ in Exile” stream from servers at WFMU in New Jersey for a period of time.

Over the years, we have watched WWOZ’s webcast popularity grow immensely. Their unique format is now enjoyed outside the boundaries of their terrestrial broadcast range.

Music spreads and helps retain the soul and the history of culture. To this end, WWOZ is an important station. We hope to continue our relationship with them for many years to come.”

Jason Osburn, Executive Vice President, StreamGuys, Inc.

These are just a few reactions. There are many more still coming in, but this should illustrate what power the medium has. There are still many areas here that are only marginally inhabited, and many that lack any sort of Internet access. For those areas and people the power of broadcast is a lifeline, raising spirits and providing information for our residents as we rebuild. At the same time the stream reaches out across the world sharing our unique musical legacy with the global audience. When I used to answer the help emails for the station I would get notes all the time from people in Spain, Russia, South America and just about anywhere you can imagine thanking the station for reaching out and bringing them the sounds of New Orleans.

Community, macro and micro. Radio engages on both levels. While the digital revolution is incredibly important, we must not lose sight of the fact that broadcast still has a place in the media ecosystem. A huge place, especially if you are from New Orleans.

Transparency: My relationship with WWOZ goes back a number of years. I have worked for them in both paid and pro bono capacities and, as a result, have an inside perspective. I have worked in capacities ranging from Web Producer to Will Call over the years. While I am at the Jazz Fest this year, I am donating work once again as a Blog Producer for their Jazz Fest Blog while analyzing their impact and influence on New Orleans culture and community here on the Radio2020 blog. It is my experiences with WWOZ that made me into the proponent of radio that I am today. They are the biggest reason that I accepted this assignment with Radio2020 in the first place.

Photo by George “Loki” Williams