People have been asking, "BZ, what happened to your radio show? You used to be on three times a week (Wednesday included, with the SHAT Show), then twice a week (Tuesday and Thursday nights), then now -- perhaps once a week, if that."
In fact, I was entirely gone for three months. More.
The answer to "what happened" is: change.
A metric assload of change.
The same kind of change that has affected you all individually, your family, your business, your work, your entertainment, your restaurants, your stores, every bit of your life. Ever since late 2019, all of 2020, and all of 2021. And likely every bit of 2022.
Because this crap is far from over.
I'm certainly no different, and neither is the SHR Media Network.
Shaun Lewis, at the final SHR Media Network studio in downtown Sacramento, with the new Arrakis board and Shure SM7B microphone, in 2018.
The two original owners and creators of the SHR Media Network are no longer involved. Shaun Lewis experienced a life-changing event which devastated his life, as did various knee injuries requiring surgeries.Moreover, SHR had to leave its studio because the owner was going to sell the house in which it existed -- in the hot Sacramento housing market.
Sack Heads Clint (right), the other SHR Media owner, found himself wrapped up in work and had no time whatsoever for SHR, with the last SHAT Show -- which was his last appearance whatsoever on radio -- occurring on February 26th of 2020.
BZ and CLINT on the SHAT Show, in the original SHR studio.
Sadly, I make this unequivocal statement: Shaun and Clint are never coming back to the SHR Media Network. We've spoken numerous times. It's not going to happen.I'm still having a bit of difficulty dealing with that, quite honestly.
Making me -- the interloper, the greenhorn, the luggage-carrier, the "new guy" from 2016 who only got a show in January of 2017 -- now responsible for the future of the media network that Shaun and Clint themselves created.
CLINT, BZ and SHAUN in the original SHR Media Network studio.
So I had a choice. I could either crash the network, kill it, gut it, rip it out by its roots -- or I could try my best to continue SHR.I've decided to try to continue SHR to the best of my abilities, whilst simultaneously recognizing the hard work accomplished by both Shaun and Clint.
First, I was thinking of changing the name entirely -- to BZN.
Or I was considering taking a hiatus from internet radio.
Or I could simply build on what Shaun and Clint had started back in 2012, almost ten years ago.
That turned out to be my preferred course.
Because I want to honor Shaun and Clint, then attempt to strengthen and escalate what they created, if I can.
There are, naturally, a number of hurdles in my way.
The primary challenge is the technology required.
I'm not called a Techno Luddite for nothing -- though I am light years ahead of Clint, who is 175 years my junior.
I come from analog radio where, at least in Kalifornia, the Sparta Corporation ruled the day, as did turntables, VU meters, pots, reel-to-reel tape machines, metal editing blocks for tape, razor blades for editing, cart machines, terrestrial radio, a soundproofed editing room, custom boards, and radio stations beginning with either K or W.
Sparta Electronics Corporation radio console mixer. I found Sparta equipment almost everywhere I went in 70s terrestrial radio, except at KFBK, which had its own custom-built board.
Custom KFBK board in the 1970s, with Joyce Krieg. Cart machines sitting on top of the board.
Same board, with announcer Ron Lyons at KFBK-AM. I worked with Ron Lyons at KFBK in the 1970s, before he went back to San Francisco with KNBR and then KCBS. Note the mic, an early version of the Shure SM7B, the five cart machines on top, master VU meter in the middle, and the cart rack storage at right.
KFBK promo for the morning drive Ron Lyons show.
This is how AM radio used to work in the 1970s, with the talent -- in this case, Donald Rose of 610 KFRC in San Francisco -- in an announce booth, and the engineer or producer in another, running the cart machines, tape decks, mics, and everything else. Look at all the carts in the revolving cart racks, and the multiple cart machines required for the show.
Don Rose's KFRC engineer, Steven Rude. Note the complexity of the board, the window, cart decks, multiple carts. This was everything but simple.
Without a good engineer or producer, you're toast. Oh, right. BZ has no producer.
So this "everything is digital now" thingie is kind of confusing for an Analog Guy in a Digital World. But wait. There's more. The SHR Media Network left the downtown studio and found itself plunked down into the living room of my wife's house in South Sacramento. There, the internet, if you can call it that, "provided by" Frontier, runs at this speed.
In early January of 2022, I'm not kidding. You can get faster speeds by either dial-up -- or two tin cans connected by string.
Frontier's explanation is simply this: you live in an old neighborhood in a predominantly copper wire based area where the chances of us performing upgrades are twofold: slim and none. Why? Because most of the people there can't afford really good internet anyway, so screw 'em.
Oh sure. We're upgrading like crazy in new neighborhoods. Because those houses are at least $750,000 homes. But in yours? Nah.
So on Thursday, June 10th, 2021, Shaun and I moved the SHR studio from downtown. Shaun set the whole thing up in about two hours.
Shaun did his job, but Frontier couldn't care less about doing its job, so I could no longer run streaming video of the show. Audio only. And audio only on a good day when Frontier deigns to not dump the audio stream -- either entirely, or, off and on during the show itself.
Necessitating my having to chop up the show into two or three or four separate pieces, with lots of show missing in between. I've done that. You can see the posts.
But wait. There's more.
I'm not staying in Kalifornia, thank God.
In fact, I've already purchased a house in a free state (with a very soon-to-be-coveted 2.1% APR) where permitless concealed carry is lawful. And everyone hates Kalifornians. For obvious reasons.
The driveway of BZ's new house, in the first days of winter, 2021.
Which means that I have to move the studio again.From downtown Sacramento, to South Sacramento, to the free state, about 950+ miles away.
This is something I hope to have accomplished by the end of January or February. Crossed phalanges. Frankly, it all depends on the ability of a moving truck to surmount the five mountain passes between Sacramento, Kalifornia, and New Town, Free State, a great distance, in winter.
Within that new house, I will have fiber-optic. Connections will not be an issue.
But, because BZ is still a Techno Luddite, and there is no such thing as a convenient Shaun nearby, BZ will have to figure out the initial connections.
So for a while, you can bank on the show being audio only.
Until either Shaun, Allen Thomas, Jack Alexander, Jeremy Hanson, or some other kind of "deus ex machina" comes down from on high and hooks me up to audio and back to live video streaming via xSplit -- or perhaps even Streamyard, vMix, or OBS Studio. I'll have to figure that out also.
Then, of course, I'll have to find a live streaming host that won't kill me because I'm politically Conservative. I won't do podcasts or stale shows. I want to be LIVE at the time I broadcast.
I can post the shows as podcasts later.
You can bet I'm never streaming live on either YouTube or Facebook again.
At this point I'm looking into either BitChute or Rumble for live streaming. If you have suggestions, let me know.
Arrakis mixer on left, with BZ's gorgeous Electro-Voice RE20 microphone.
Then I'm going to have to figure out if I wish to continue working with my Arrakis ARC Talk 8 Blue mixer (above), or hook up the Rode Rodecaster Pro I have sitting nearby in a box (below).
Rodecaster Pro mixer. Will it work for The Saloon if I do audio and video?
That's a story for a different day.But I'm faced with another dilemma.
I no longer want to be associated with the state of Kalifornia, so I'm trying to figure out if I'd like to start a sub-network to SHR.
Something similar to this, in order to celebrate the freedom aspect of the network.
I'm on the edge with regard to this. Do it or not?
My New Year's Resolution for the network is this:
Ideally, my goal is to bring BZ's Berserk Bobcat Saloon Radio Show back to two, two-hour shows per week, on Tuesday and Thursday nights -- just like I was doing since January of 2017.
I was even toying with the idea of increasing the frequency of the show, from two nights a week to four or five nights a week -- making it a one hour instead of a two hour show.
I'd also like to bring back the SHAT Show, on Wednesday night again -- with a rotation of co-hosts -- until I find one that works with me as smoothly as possible, as "Clint-like" as possible.
Maybe that combination will never occur again; but I'd certainly like to try.
I don't think Money Talk With Melanie will return to SHR, because Melanie Collette is finding success on Newsmax TV -- but I believe I'll be able to keep The Wright Way with Shannon and Mike, Dave Milner, Southern Sense, The Liberty Cast with Earl Jackson, and perhaps even expand our hosts.
I very much would like to expand the SHR shows with more great hosts -- perhaps with an eye to enticing LONNIE POINDEXTER to return, as well as RALPH J CHITTAMS and JEFF DUNETZ -- if we can figure out more technology.
2020 was a huge challenge. 2021 as well. And I readily admit that I found myself massively distracted in 2021, that I didn't keep my eye on the SHR ball, because of losing the downtown Sacramento studio, the problems I encountered with the South Sacramento studio, selling my house, purchasing another house in a free state, and wrangling the sale and cleanup of my wife's house.
To everyone on SHR, for that I apologize. Life. It happens.
But once moved to my new digs, once my studio is up and running in a room entirely devoted to it, and once I get a grip on the various technological aspects of running an internet radio network in 2022 -- I hope to bring consistency and even more excellence back to the SHR Media Network, such that people can count on shows, count on quality, and count on great guests and information!
My life is like your life -- turned upside down, challenged, fairly uncertain, all the while trying to remain Semper Gumby.
Not always possible.
But now you know my goals.
Let's see if I can achieve them.
God bless you all, and thanks for listening to the SHR Media Network, Conservative Media Done Right.
BZ
