sowny.net | The Southern Ontario/WNY Radio-TV Forum


You are not logged in. Would you like to login or register?

February 1, 2018 8:36 pm  #1


ReelRadio To Bite The Dust

Dale Patterson, the founder of the original SOWNY board and the operator of one of the great radio sites on the web let me know today about a very sad turn of events - the apparent impending end of Reelradio.com.

For those who've never been there, the site is one of the original aircheck repositories on the Internet and has been around since 1996 - almost 22 years. In that time, it's spotlighted some of the most incredible talent ever to grace the world's airwaves, including legends like Wolfman Jack, Robert W. Morgan, Dr. Don Rose, Joey Reynolds, Jay Nelson, John Landecker, Larry Lujack, Charlie Tuna, Jackson Armstrong and Dan Ingram - just to name a few. 

Its founder, "Uncle Ricky" Irwin, has been gradually scaling back his participation on the site and the place has been through some tough times in the recent past. He's now issued this unfortunate statement: 

"In the absence of any qualified persons who can continue to manage the site, the REELRADIO Board of Directors has recommended the site be shut down and the Corporation be dissolved. Key considerations also include the ongoing theft of our content and diminishing support. Mike Scott (CFO) questioned my desire to update the Repository file format and make our content more available when it just gets copied anyway. Bob Shannon (Advisor) noted the downward trend of listeners and revenue. It was a great idea, but our time is over."  

If it does sign off for good, it will be a real tragedy. There's more than two decades of astounding radio talent on display there and it would be a real loss if it were to suddenly disappear. It was one of the first sites I ever visited when I got my very first computer connected to the Internet way back when we all still had dial-up and there was no such thing as "Google." In fact, for a time, it was my home page.

The site remains up for the moment, but is no longer accepting any new airchecks and it seems unlikely there will be many more updates. At least Dale's terrific counterpart, Rockradioscrapbookca., remains vital and active and hopefully will be around for a very long time to come. 

So RIP Reelradio. Like the great Top 40 stations it so beautifully highlighted, we won't see its like again. 

Reelradio.com

 

February 2, 2018 12:05 pm  #2


Re: ReelRadio To Bite The Dust

RA.  Art Vuolo, Jr. did a great video of Robert W Morgan; back in 1994 on KRTH.  I once was able to watch the whole thing on the internet years ago.  I see it is still available on REEL RADIO.  However is RR now shutdown.  Can you still join and buy something from them.  I think I'm too late.

 

February 2, 2018 12:22 pm  #3


Re: ReelRadio To Bite The Dust

John:

I'm not entirely sure what's going to be happening to Reelradio or when. For now, the site appears to still be up and still playing most exhibits. A while ago, they instituted a paid subscription firewall, but when that didn't work, they only asked users to register and receive it for free. I registered then, but I have no idea if they're still accepting new recruits given what's coming. I can only hope that, even if they don't update the site anymore, they will at least leave it up and running as long as possible. 

There are more than 3,500 incredible and historic airchecks there, many as you know from some who are no longer with us. It's a tribute to their work and talent that would be so hard to lose. I'm not sure there's anything left to "buy" from them, although they were accepting donations. I don't think I would give them anything right now until they determine exactly what's coming since it looks like they're dissolving their makeshift corporation. 

At least Dale's Rockradioscrapbook site is still here and hopefully will be for years to come! If I'm not mistaken, you're well represented there and deservedly so!

     Thread Starter
 

February 2, 2018 12:35 pm  #4


Re: ReelRadio To Bite The Dust

Because of the high costs to them (Rights payments for the music) of people who registered then went 24/7 with multiple streams, recording everything in sight, reelradio has halted registrations for a while now.  If you weren't already registered, you cannot.

The likely "die date" is just after February 12th, the 22nd anniversary of the site.  The site will be shut down completely then.  It cannot be left unattended because someone has to report and pay all the music rights every month.

 

February 2, 2018 12:46 pm  #5


Re: ReelRadio To Bite The Dust

Still just Real Media though.  Sorry, I will no longer install Real Player or Real Player Alternative.  That's too bad too, because there were some gems on that site.
 


Cheers,
Jody Thornton
 
 

February 2, 2018 1:37 pm  #6


Re: ReelRadio To Bite The Dust

jon wrote:

Because of the high costs to them (Rights payments for the music) of people who registered then went 24/7 with multiple streams, recording everything in sight, reelradio has halted registrations for a while now.  If you weren't already registered, you cannot.

The likely "die date" is just after February 12th, the 22nd anniversary of the site.  The site will be shut down completely then.  It cannot be left unattended because someone has to report and pay all the music rights every month.

Can you explain what you mean here Jon. Do you mean that people started to record what was on the sit and that Reel Radio's copyright costs went up due to that ?

Not sure what type of copyright licence they have but the Socan Licence that I have for my site is a flat rate fee every year, set up for not for profit web sites/radio stations. The fee does not increase with the number of users

Anyway sad if they shut down.

​I agree with Jody. Real Audio is irritating and outdated but to convert to another system is probably too much for them at this point. What they could have done is start adding new files in another format.

 


Cool Airchecks and More:
http://www.lettheuniverseanswer.com/
 

February 2, 2018 4:24 pm  #7


Re: ReelRadio To Bite The Dust

Fitz wrote:

Do you mean that people started to record what was on the sit and that Reel Radio's copyright costs went up due to that ?

Not sure what type of copyright licence they have but the Socan Licence that I have for my site is a flat rate fee every year, set up for not for profit web sites/radio stations. The fee does not increase with the number of users

Anyway sad if they shut down.

​I agree with Jody. Real Audio is irritating and outdated but to convert to another system is probably too much for them at this point. What they could have done is start adding new files in another format.

The U.S. system is very different.  reelradio must document every single song that anyone listens to in the course of listening to each aircheck, and the number of times it was "listened to" during a given month.  There are several (three?) music rights associations that must be reported to and paid, on a per performance basis.  I don't know the exact details

By the way, I spoke to SOCAN 15 years ago and they told me that their license only covers listeners in Canada.  Legally, each country where a listener listens from in a given month or year, must have fees paid to their music licensing body.  In practice, it is a liability issue in the sense that you need to be paying in whatever countries have a large number of listeners to your site's music.

I bring this up, because when reelradio was first looking at having to pay fees, the idea of moving the server to a country with no music licensing fees was floated, and shot down after my conversation with SOCAN.

As for RealAudio, that is the real job that lies ahead for anyone considering taking over reelradio.  Go back to the original masters of each aircheck, digitize it all over again, and encode it to whatever current technology is decided upon.  As a rule, no .wav files were kept from the original RealAudio, especially in the early years.

They have been encoding exhibits in mobile-friendly formats for some time now.  Not sure if this is complete, but here is a list of airchecks available in "mobile" format:  http://www.reelradio.com/mobile/index.php

Last edited by jon (February 2, 2018 4:29 pm)

 

February 10, 2018 4:42 pm  #8


Re: ReelRadio To Bite The Dust

There was talk of a new President replacing the Founder, who is unable to continue for much longer due to medical issues.  But the home page of reelradio.com now says: "THIS SITE WILL SHUT DOWN WHEN FUNDS ARE EXHAUSTED. WE CURRENTLY HAVE $6740."

It also notes that both Registrations and Donations are not currently being accepted.
 

 

February 15, 2018 12:20 pm  #9


Re: ReelRadio To Bite The Dust

It's rare that a newspaper does anything on radio. It's even less often that they do something about online radio. But this story has actually made a Los Angeles newspaper. Not a lot of new facts, just lamenting that such a great site is soon to be no more. 

A treasure trove of radio is set to get shut down 

     Thread Starter
 

February 16, 2018 9:24 am  #10


Re: ReelRadio To Bite The Dust

Unable to connect to Reelradio.com this morning. I'm hoping it's just a technical glitch, but I'm guessing the site may be gone for good. What a shame it couldn't be saved.

     Thread Starter
 

February 16, 2018 4:42 pm  #11


Re: ReelRadio To Bite The Dust

After being down for hours, Reelradio is back up. For how long I don't know. Enjoy the reprieve! 

     Thread Starter
 

February 16, 2018 10:53 pm  #12


Re: ReelRadio To Bite The Dust

Well good to know that they still have their sense of humor at this late and dark hour. I just saw this:

ESTIMATED SHUTDOWN IS MONTHS AWAY
SO STOP COPYING LIKE MANIACS!!


 


Cool Airchecks and More:
http://www.lettheuniverseanswer.com/