First of all, thanks to everyone who's voted for me in this poll
Here's my two cents on the points raised so far though. I've been on a few net-radio stations now and it's safe to say that AH is certainly in a class of its own in many respects, but I'm with Jaycan really when he says that you shouldn't change something that works.
One station I've been on catered for all genres, not just trance, and that proved to be quite problematic with scheduling - for example, I used to finish my show and be followed on my a minimal house DJ, and hence most of the listeners switched off when I'd finished as they were trance-heads (I say most, but we were only talking 30-40 at peak times, it was a small station). This meant that the station was used mainly as a sounding board for DJs to promote themselves and their own shows, whereas the difference with AH is that it is a recognised brand - ie, when you tune in, you generally know that you're going to get something of a trancey nature of premium quality, and thus the genre differences aren't as pivotal.
If AH was branching out into minimal house, techno, gabbacore or whatever, then it would make sense for obvious reasons to separate the channels accordingly so as to avoid these drastic shifts in genre which would alienate listeners. However, while we remain trance and progressive, I don't see any real need for this, as in the greater scheme of things they aren't too far apart on the overall EDM spectrum. And besides, once you split, you lose the middle ground for people who like to play both. Being a trance fanatic I confess I don't see any reason why we should branch out into other more drastic genres as to be fair, the net-radio market is already pretty saturated with stations catering for everyone anyway. The only reason I could ever see it being viable in the future would be on a commercial level (as catering for more genres would make us more financially viable for advertising etc)
The one thing that holds true on here as it has done on all the stations I've played on is that I believe it is a DJ's responsibility to promote their own shows however they see fit. I confess I've always been one to run a non-spam policy and find word of mouth far more effective and satisfying but that's just me. I love promoting the station generally because I think there is a wealth of talent on here that deserves exposure, and I tend to do this by promoting the station through recommending the DJs I like to other people on forums and in person and so on.
I see no reason why AH cannot become synonymous with the trance genre itself and demonstrate that it is at the forefront of all the trance radio stations (which I believe it is). I think the broadcasting of clubnights and events can only help in this respect and I'm very happy with it as a development. But at the end of the day, you only have to look at the names on this poll to see exactly how much talent there is on here, and hence it follows that anyone out there who likes trance will eventually find us one way or another by way of livesets, the torrents, DJs wearing the T-shirts at gigs, seeing the brand on flyers, tuning in for club broadcasts, etc etc, and so my conclusion would be to continue in the fashion we've done up to now.
Considering the short amount of time AH has been up and running, its success has been unprecedented. There's a reason for this, and that is that the management, the admin, the DJs, and the listeners are all part of this great community and working in unison to make it the wonderful place that it is.
Regarding Frank's point of people not giving DJs they haven't heard of a chance, there is some truth in this, but I think the best course of action in this instance is just to plug away regularly, and keep the quality as high as possible. My first ever show on net-radio back in May 2004 had the grand total of one listener but I'm pleased to say that that same guy does still tune into my shows even now - the only way to create a steady fanbase is to be patient and to be consistent, and in time, your message will get out
![Smile :) :)](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/twitter/twemoji@14.0.2/assets/72x72/1f642.png)
When I first started doing this I never dreamed I'd one day be receiving emails from people from all different continents telling me how much they enjoy my shows, and if I'd given up early when it seemed that no-one was listening then I'd have never had them at all
One thing I think could assist in this respect though would be to examine the science of the replay schedules. I know some people tune in all day every day but I know others like myself can only get to tune in at certain times of day for limited periods, before you even factor in the time difference issues we have from being a worldwide station. I don't know if there's a system to this already but I certainly think it would help those of us with the less-sociable slots on the schedule to reach new listeners in new places
OK, so I guess that was probably at least 10 cents, but hey, I have just got back from holiday...
![Lol :lol: :lol:](/data/assets/smilies/lol.gif)