You may have noticed a lot of change here in the past month, including the requirement that you be a registered user to view the website.
I think the message is clear that if I don’t get a lot of help with this web site soon, it will go away permanently.
Things to know if you want to see this hang around:
- This isn’t about money – it’s about you helping keep something you like going.
- All user passwords were reset because I needed to better protect your password’s security.
- This has been made about as simple as it can be. The time for excuses is over.
What to do now:
- If you don’t have a Streaming Radio Guide account and password – get one by trying to login and submitting an account request
- Reply to the account request to confirm it is a valid email account that you control
- Optionally, change your password to something you’ll remember, but not something you use on other accounts
- Go to the Menu (now the home page) and look for the volunteer section in the lower right side
- Click on Volunteer Status (or click on the Volunteer Menu item on the top of this blog page)
- Agree to the terms of being a volunteer
- Wait for me to approve your request. If I think the email address is not going to be read regularly (ie srguide-spam@mailfilter.com) – expect a test email from me to you – for you to reply to.
- Check the Volunteer Status in a few days.
- Once you’re a volunteer, you’ll get a welcome page with instructions and the links.
It is worth saying that this has nothing to do with the old volunteer program – you are only “testing” one thing – is the radio station web page we have in the database still valid and is the format of the radio station still the same?. This can be done at any time of the day, on any device you have, and has nothing to do with testing streams or looking at what program is is currently on any station.
Doing a “test” works like this:
- Select the types of stations you want to test (Colorado in my example)
[Click to enlarge] - Look at each station, especially paying attention to risk warnings if the web site URL looks like it isn’t pointing at a reasonable place. If you have adequate protection in place and your data backed up, click on the URL for radio station (on the left side
- Remember the call sign, frequency and format of the station you’re testing. (KDBM-FM 101.1 in Parachute Colorado, playing Dance/Party music). When the web page comes up, Compare what you’re expecting to see with what you do see. Pay close attention to watch if the address bar jumps is to somewhere other than 95rockfm.com.
You may be wondering why a station on 101.1 has a URL with 95 in it! [I sure am – that seems wrong] Clicking on the Wiki link gives us clues – that this station on 101.1 is a simulcast of another station KKNN-FM – but wikipedia also points to an entirely different web site that doesn’t mention a simulcast and looks more correct as it matches the name of the station owner. This is a definite “Ignore this and let someone else fix it”. Click Ignore Station and move on.
The next station on the list is KHOW-AM on 630, a well known Clear Channel talk station in Denver. Let’s see if it makes sense:
- If the Call Sign, Location, Frequency and format check out, [This is obviously the KHOW-AM 630 clear channel talk station and it didn’t jump to a different domain – the www. in front and a page name like index.html or main.php don’t matter – only the domain (khow.com)]. This web page is correct – click on “Accurate”. You’re done. Move on the next station.
That’s it. Repeat as your time permits. This is designed so you can do it anywhere at any time on any type of device. It’s not a race, but it should also go fairly quickly after you learn what to look for.
I’m looking forward to your help.
It is good to see this again. I am retired; so, I have time, but I need to study this awhile to understand exactly what I am doing. I will try to help, but I will probably start very slowly. Thanks for your work.
Well, there have been a flurry of volunteers, but only two people doing anything more than a token effort . Doing one station one time is not “help”.
My current plan is to modify the site so it won’t “open for the day” until 100 stations have been verified by someone other than me. The very substantial risk is people will click “it worked” on 100 stations without doing anything – just to “open the door”.
Last night, I reset sessions (except people who visit regularly) to let them know the web site is not “business as usual”, forcing a password change.
Just volunteered. I will see if I can figure this out and help. I really miss the site when it is down so I want it to stay up.
September progress repot:
The Average number of days since visited is down from around 750 to 563 – I’ve been hammering the really really old stuff – mostly simulcasts and LPFM stations – leaving the easier stuff to the rest of you 🙂
Public radio networks are a mess, as statewide networks realign because HDradio isn’t the answer to revenue fade and people who really like classical music don’t want to stream it over the internet from a 24 hour a day non-local simulcast, and nobody wants to listen on AM
Please avoid the temptation to chase metrics. This isn’t a race, When I see “testing” where each station took 10 seconds, I know you didn’t do anything and that makes me sad.
This station was listed as unknown format and it wasn’t flagged – the format for 103.9 is stated very clearly now (unlike a year ago)
http://www.krfsfm.com/about.htm
If you get bored with reviewing stations, another thing you can do is update facebook counts:
http://streamingradioguide.com/facebook-counts.php
It isn’t all that useful, but it is interesting to see which stations have the most facebook audience and how rapidly they are growing.
For extra credit, figure out what a classic rock station in South Carolina has the most Facebook likes in the country among classic rock stations
http://www.classicrock1011.com/
“Metro” Anderson, SC has a population of 57,000 people and the station has 180,000+ people who like it.
Glad to see that the site is back. I hope all goes well. I will be glad to lend a hand with volunteering.
I think I have it now! Hopefully!
The worst part is over 😉
My long term hope is that people will start to gravitate to a type of station or geographic area. Once it is “caught up”, then it’s just a matter of spending a little time weeding the lawn. You’ll start to get familiar with “your” group of stations and changes should pop out at you, or you might even hear something in the news like a format change or station sale.
My hope is it becomes a bigger group of people doing an hour or two a month, not 3 superheroes trying to do it all.