Time to say goodbye

I started doing internet broadcasting on June 16, 2008. I started on a site called NowLive.com. NowLive claimed that it was a social broadcasting site. To me when I first joined on May 31st it seemed to be nothing more than a glorified chat room, which, by the way, I hated.
As I started listening I found that it was more than that. You could actually call in and interact live. Now, that I liked.

I really must thank NowLive for introducing me not only to internet broadcasting but also to some people who have become very dear to me.

First, there is Baddog. When I first went into his show (Dog House with Baddog) I found him to be a very quiet laid back person. Now I have found that when he is like that you had better find something and hold on cause something is about to happen. I became his co-host and we have had a great time together. I love this man and his family. They are actually really part of the family now. Our son married his daughter. Incestuous little group aren’t we.

As I listened to the Dog House I was introduced to two brothers who are from Alabama. I found out that Meroll and C-roll had a show called Brotherly Love which seemed to be about anything but love. But then given my dad’s family, I was used to that. I soon became a regular caller on that show as well.

This little group of people was becoming very close. So close in fact that that right before Christmas 2007 on the Dog House with the help of Meroll and C-roll, Smokin and I renewed our wedding vows. It was December 23, 2007, our 35th wedding anniversary. We spent it with our family on NowLive.

While NowLive grew there was a force at work that I think started the sites decline. The advent of the NETWORK.

I can see networks for radio and TV. In the future there may be something to networks on internet radio/TV. But at the stage this was in last year this was just a joke. It was people looking for power and they found people who were willing to give theirs up. All for the promise of some cold hard cash. No cold hard cash ever developed. But the chasm that developed on the site was proving to be very destructive. Friends were turned against friends as one network would not allow its members to promote shows outside of their own network. This was something that Baddog, Meroll, C-roll and I could never agree to. We believed in supporting all shows on NowLive thus promoting the site. Although all of us were approached to join these networks, we declined. This rattled some cages and angered some people. But we stayed true to running our individual shows the way we wanted.

Here is where our next character in the cast enters. Actually, I had been working with Pastor Rick Hope for some time. He was running a show called Challenge from the Heart. A show designed to get people talking about Jesus Christ. An off-shoot of that show was Sunday Morning with Pastor Rick. Yep…our very own NowLive internet church service. Complete with a sermon by Pastor Rick and some Christian based music. That show was picked up as a featured show on NowLive and was also broadcast on Yuwie radio. The family had grown by one as Pastor Rick became our pastor. PastorRick also officiated when we renewed our wedding vows.

There is one other accomplishment of note I would like to mention here. In August, 2007, the staff of NowLive asked for someone to step forward and try to break the website by doing a marathon show. Baddog stepped up and accepted the challenge. With the help of his wife, SexyShelly (and the name is appropriate), and his daughter Amanda and a cast of several others including the rest of the “family” we ran a show for 137 hours. The only down time was when the site crashed (they told us they wanted us to break it). Those breaks were very short, only a matter of minutes, and we were back on the air. The marathon consisted of 137 hours of interactive comedy. Music was played to allow the occasional trip to the outhouse (hey, we are rednecks) and to throw down some groceries. Then back at it. I want to make it clear that this was all Baddog, SexyShelly and Amanda. All the rest of us did was call in and lend give someone to talk to and play off of. All we did was support, but it did cement the family in a way that all of us would never imagine.

With all of the network stuff on the site continuing it was only a matter of time before we created our own network. For no other purpose than to piss off those that were running networks. When the Redneck Radio Network started it boasted two shows that were featured on NowLive. Brotherly Love and the Dog House with Baddog. Wakeup Call with Broken and Smokin joined the ranks as featured in July, 2008. That gave the “network” three featured shows. No other network could boast that. But in fact we were really a network. We were just a group of friends having poking fun at other people and having fun doing it.

All this time things on NowLive really started going south. One of the premier acts on the site left to join another site. Ester Goldberg and “That’s Estertainment” could be looked at as the clash of the rednecks with Hollywood. This was because that “skinny little bama bitch,” Meroll and that “fat mutha fucka,” brokenpole, along with C-roll would be found in virtually every That’s Estertainment complaining about the smell of wolf pussy. Baddog may not have been on the callers list a lot. But he was definitely in the chat stirring up the pot.

While Ester had left on her own terms, others were forced to leave because of finances. Such shows and Morning Wood (later Goober and the Viking) and Buttafuco and Nads were soon off the air. Replaced by shows that wanted to do nothing more than make the mouths of young pre-pubescent males’ water by shaking breasts on cam. Oh the site traffic went up. NowLive became the T&A network.

Not that the Redneck Radio Network didn’t have some fun with it. We had picked up another family member along the way. A gay pervert named Jessie Odell. So let’s see…you take on part Michigan redneck blend together with one big fat ass Mississippi redneck then stir in two-parts bama redneck and put in that touch of gay and what do you have? I have no idea but it is funny as hell. It was Jessie that had fun with a caller on night who called another show on NowLive and somehow got connected to the Dog House. By the time we were done some woman host on NowLive was supposed to get a picture of an erect penis in exchange for on pair of worn panties. The Forbadden Show was never more fun I can tell ya that.

Marty and C-roll created a “show within a show” by turning Brotherly Love into a cross between Judge Judy and Jerry Springer. They held the Brotherly Love Court of Public Opinion. Meroll and C-roll were the judges. Baddog was Chief Prosecutor (although the only thing I think he ever prosecuted was a beer). Myself? I became the “Drunk Bailiff.” Thus started one of the greatest lines in all of internet radio history. “Bailiff, whack his pee-pee.” While the Brotherly Love Court of Public Opinion was short lived, it cemented the relationship of four people. We found we worked well together and enjoyed making each other, as well as the audience, laugh.
But with the funny side of things there was the almost constant barrage of people who would come into shows and just act like total morons. Some would actually call but most were just in the chat. We had fun with more than one of them but in the end it just became too much. So we went to the staff of NowLive for help. What we got was a heapin helpin of “ain’t you happy that we have this site for you and it’s all free you don’t have to pay.” In chorus with that was a shit load of “we are so over worked and don’t have the time to get involved with all you little squabbles you will just have to handle them yourselves.”

You can imagine where this went. Especially given the fact that the show host had no ability to ban or block anyone from the show chat and in some cases even callers. Some would even magically un-mute themselves. So what now? Call a site admin. A person who is a volunteer and is given the power to ban people from the site. Never mind the fact that most of the people that were banned were let back on by some other admin or the staff. This also brought the staff down on us for over working the admins.

Finally in a user lead revolt we got the right to ban people from our show. Things went a little smoother after that. But the end had already started. Complaints to the site staff were always met with “you are getting this platform to use for free. Why are you complaining?”
I never said much to the assholes that ran the site at the time but WE WERE THE PEOPLE BRINGING IN THE SITE TRAFFIC YOUR MORONS!!!

That is something the assholes in charge of NowLive ever considered. That the user’s…those running shows…were what was bringing people to the site. Every time you brought up problem it was like pulling the cord on one of those old toy dolls. A recording would come on and say; “you aren’t paying anything why are you complaining”.

Now there is a sound business plan for ya…kick the people running shows in the balls and get them to leave. Will someone please explain to me how you are supposed to make money by having nothing but an AM/FM radio cast and some bullshit featured shows running on the site?
So the audio quality began to suffer. On the Dog House, a show that is interactive (for the NowLive staff that means we talk to each other) it is awful hard to do anything when you can’t hear the other people talking. Now it may sound like we complained a lot to the NowLive staff. Let me just state for the record that I was told many times that we were not the trouble we thought we were. That they wished they had others like us. Okay…so maybe not. But we complained again.

My wife, smokinbeaver54, wrote a question in an open bulletin. I chose to put mine in the form of a comment to BigDog. Listed below are the answers we got.

posted by bigdog @ 11/23/2008 7:27:38 PMYes I have got the apology and I am sorry...I am basically not involved any more...the only way you can get good audio all the time is to use flash...the issue with call in shows and audio quality is when the site traffic goes up....I am very sorry for the issues but its out of my hands since i do not pay the bills and the people that do right now are trying to find ways in this bad economy to survive...do you think hosts would pay for call-in shows? thanks

posted by bigdog @ 11/21/2008 5:32:24 PMwhat not ask for help instead of posting stupid bulletins slamming the site (not you but the other half)...I would be happy to do some tests and see why you are having such issues...if you want to set up a time and do a test...or maybe explain exactly what the issue is that would be great...its not like i ignore you right?

First…when we asked for help all we got back was that we should be thankful we didn’t have to pay that the site was free. In the top message you can see where that was going. And we were not the only ones being pinched for cash by NowLive.

I got emails from other site members that told me similar stories. I will not post these messages here out of respect for these friends. Not out of respect for NowLive, frankly I could give a shit about them. But I do not want to hurt friends that for whatever reason want to maintain access on the site. Just know that sooner or later members who want to run a call in type show will have to pay for it. Even if you pay I think the site will continue to go downhill and that is really a shame.

The other answer offered by the NowLive staff is to run what are called “flash shows”. This is a show run via webcam and microphone with not callers allowed and no podcast. Well Bigdog let me remind you of a few things that I have told you about before. The flash shows suck ass. If someone does co-host on cam the delay is terrible. Not to mention that the audio quality is NOT what you say it is. I have tried running flash shows and the audio was reported to be “shitty” by the listeners. In addition, I have been in the chat for these shows and I will state that the audio is worse than shitty.

On December 1, 2008 the Dog House with Baddog started at its normal time of 7 PM ET. But we lasted less than 15 minutes because of the audio quality on the site. Baddog decided to shut it down and immediately went to Usteam.tv and have stayed there ever since.

So one on hand I need to thank NowLive for allowing me to meet some very great people. People who I have become very close with. A couple I have even met person to person. Several have even broke bread at my table and I at theirs. A few others I hope to meet face to face in the very near future.

But I have to say that I hate the bastards for destroying something that was wonderful. A whole community of people that would support each other and help each other. For that NowLive I say a hardy FUCK ALL YA’LL.

So if you want excellent audio and video quality come over and join us on ustream.tv. Just follow the links below stop by and say howdy!!

Dog House with Baddog (M – F at 7 PM ET)
www.ustream.tv/channel/doghousewithbaddog

Redneck Radio News (Sun at 7:30 PM ET)
www.ustream.tv/channel/redneck-radio-news

Wakeup Call with Broken and Smokin (Sat 9 AM ET)
www.ustream.tv/channel/wakeup-call-with-broken-and-smokin

Sunday Mornings with Pastor Rick (Sun at 9 AM ET)
www.ustream.tv/channel/sunday-mornings-with-pastor-rick

Bible Study with Brokenpole (Sun 10:45 ET)
www.ustream.tv/channel/bible-study-with-brokenpole