Art Bell’s announced that yet another station was going to be picking up his program, MIDNIGHT IN THE DESERT, when it starts in July..
Jackson Mississippi will now hear Bell when he begins broadcasting on a program originally geared for an online only crowd..
While Bell has not enthusiastically embraced the radio concept at first, it appears he is becoming a bit more jubilant as stations are announced. He wrote this post on Facebook,
We just picked up another station in Jackson, MS. This is getting rapidly out of control, so be aware.…
Starting July 20th the show will begin Broadcasting on the Internet with 48kbps HEAAC Stereo. Shortly there will be a FAQ for Broadcasters who wish to carry the show Mon-Fri 9PM- 12AM. PT.
Meanwhile Keith Rowland posted a summation on ARTBELL.COM to instruct terrestrial radio stations on how to contact the right persons to get the program affiliated with their schedule.. Stringent rules are being placed on whoever wants in. Rowland writes, in full, the demands:
1. You must carry the entire 3 hour show. From the top through 2 hours and 58 minutes. Keep in mind we are up to 30-seconds delayed from real-time, our servers have built-in buffers and we also add an additional 7-second delay for editing purposes.
2. No replay or archiving of our shows is allowed. We need to protect our membership subscription model.
3. You must have your own blanket licensing for commercial music in your country. We cannot allow relay streaming of our show, as that will incur additional music licensing cost. You won’t be covered by our license.
4. You are allowed (but not required) to cover our feed with two 2-minute breaks each at the :58 and 1:58 breaks (end of the first and second hours). So it’s 4 minutes of your local ads over ours. Of course at 2:58 mark the show is over. Again adjust for streaming server buffer delays. There will be adequate bumper music into and out of the break for you to adjust your automation timings.
5. Otherwise you must carry all our other breaks, which will be floating anyway. So for automation purposes, you can insert your ads at those two fixed times/hard breaks. Your commercials should be appropriate for our programming.
6. We will try to enforce market exclusivity on a first come, first serve basis. We would of course favor larger stations.
7. You must receive our program feed from our hi-quality AAC streaming server (not MP3). You should use a dedicated computer (with nothing else running including background tasks like Windows update) using an appropriate player that receives AAC or a hardware device like the CC-Wifi radio, hardwired into your network. Do not use Wifi (but you knew that).
Even with the stringent rules being placed on the AM crowd, many appear to be interested. The return of Art Bell will be undoubtedly creating an excitement level beyond any other host in recent memory. The advertising a station may be able to sell in order to meet the rules announced is key. And so far we are aware of stations now getting into the act—-along with shortwave. And the online world..all where this began.
Midnight is coming.. The clock ticks on.
Is George Noory beginning to feel the pressure..?
