In SEVEN days from now (actually six days and just under 22 hrs as of this writing), our new HD-2 station "NGEN" (pronounced EN-JEN, which means the "Now Generation"), will go live! It will be an edgier pop/rock/hip-hop station WITH YOURS TRULY AS ONE OF THE WEEKEND DJ'S!!! That aside, the creation of a second radio station (from the ground up basically...just take away needing to build radio tower sites), has been truly amazing to see the details involved. And for some reason, we decided that it would be a good idea to do everything at once...completely new studios, completely new production rooms, completely new automation system to play our music from, completely new equipment to setup, completely new server room, completely new network structure/setup, and completely new webstream setup with completely new software/hardware/input structure. Yeah, we were and are complete IDIOTS!!! We still have a few issues we're working through, but the studios seem to be all but done for the most part. The webstream has been having some major issues, but as of this morning, it seems to be okay. Still praying over it all.
Working for a major Christian radio station that is continually blessed, and believing that this is God's station that He wants to grow, I don't know how we weren't more prepared for what was to come. If you don't believe in spiritual warfare, sit down and listen. Below are a few pics and videos. The last video is the new NGEN studio. We had to broadcast out of there for over a month while we prepared the new KSBJ studio. Look at every SINGLE piece of equipment in that video. Every single piece has had some WEIRD issue during the setup process. Every...single...piece. Every.............single............piece. And again...WEIRD issues that might happen for a piece or two or so, but not the amount we had. The continual issues we had, which contributed to continual signal issues, blips/drops in our on-air presence and webstream was at a point to where the team was at the highest stress level I have ever seen. Each and every day we were nipping at each other, asking for more and more prayer, and just not seemingly getting any breaks. If that wasn't enough...a real issue happened...
A temporary IT staff member committed suicide last week.
We don't know why he did it, but that was it for us, and it put everything else into perspective. I was told that he came to Christ just days before he did it. I don't know what I believe on the matter, but it seems that most everyone on staff believes he's in Heaven now. However, again, we finally realize that we are not in a battle against working networks or machinery, but against spiritual forces that do not want us to get this radio station off the ground. A station to reach the masses that will be affected by the Father's message. We believe it will be a massively powerful weapon against the enemy, and all that has happened seems to coincide with that.
Please join us in praying for the continued renewal of the Tech teams resolve, to be still in the Father, and to seek His wisdom in these last few days. I will put more info in my Facebook/Twitter feeds as it comes closer to launch day. We plan to launch the station on November 18th, and 7:15CST at the Toby Mac/Skillet concert in Reed Arena. Myself, B and kids will be in attendence to witness the historic event as well! To hear the station, you either need to be in the College Station (Texas A&M) area with a normal radio...in the Houston area with an HD radio (89.3 "2" station)...or...WORLD WIDE, BABY...on the World Wide Web...www.NGENradio.com! I won't be on the radio the weekend of the launch, due to my normal IT duties concerning the launch taking up my time, but the following weekend, you can look for me on your FM dial, or online, during my initial groundbreaking DJ performance!
Now, enjoy a few pics and videos....
This is Don, our Chief Engineer. The man is amazing when it comes to a radio station and a studio. He just gets it, and it's amazing seeing his mind work. He's an all around great guy, and one of my closest buds down here. In the background (right) you can see Lloyd. He is our Network Engineer. I swear his brain sees numbers like the Matrix! Along with Rex, another Engineer of ours, they were the main people working on getting these studios together with me. They did most of the work, but I tried to get in there when I could, to do ANYTHING I could. The pic is the main KSBJ studio. Don is standing where the main DJ will be speaking. To his right are five monitors (the last one that Lloyd is looking at will be removed soon). The set of four will be used to view the CoHost's screen, the Telephone converstation playback software, and then the bottom screens for our music's automation system and it's various windows. The solo screen to the right will be for the DJ to go on the internet for Facebook/Twitter updates, show prep, etc.
Just another panned-back view of the main KSBJ studio.
This video was just meant to be a quick tour of the new studio, but Joey K (our mid-day DJ) was in there doing his show, and provided some ad-lib that I thought was just cooky enough to leave in, instead of redo. Joey K has a very "straight guy" approach on the air, but off-air, the guy cracks me up, and is also a good friend of mine.
This is a quick video of the new NGEN studio. Remember when watching it, that this is the studio we were using while we built the main KSBJ studio, and that EVERY piece of equipment had issues. I know it's hard to comprehend, but really, it did.
Here's the part where I say "I promise I'll post more", but you know me...I probably won't. So just enjoy this post, and keep posted to my Facebook/Twitter/NGENradio.com for updates on the new station!
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