Dr Jim Fox has been speaking to his namesake and 4BR Editor Iwan Fox (no relation) about his delight at the growing success of his brass band radio programme, 'AllBrassRadio.com' in the USA.
"I'm thrilled that after 16 years and some radical changes, the programme which is a labour of love for me continues to go from strength to strength,"he said.
"I started the station right after I suffered a car accident that almost took my life. It did keep me from working, so AllBrassRadio.com became a simple $9.95 per month hobby station."
Hobby station
He added: "While it's still a hobby station today — I can't by US Law call it a business because it never makes money — it's become much more complex and far reaching.
For instance, to keep the costs down, I do whatever I can myself, but occasionally I have to pay a programmer or technician to do things I simply don't have the skills for."
Donations
Jim revealed that the station runs on donations to help with the running costs. Since the beginning, $9.95 covers his webpage, royalties, website hosting and advertising.
Thanks to generous donors the station keeps moving forward, and he now estimates that it's regularly listened to by around 35,000 people per week.
"That continues to grow,"he said, "...and with it so does the play list and the listeners demands.
Being able to vote what goes on keeps a great turn-over of repertoire but also indicates what people really like.
In the early days, I believe I was getting causal listeners rather brass banders, but now you can tell that they really are looking for music they appreciate and performers they respect."
Being able to vote what goes on keeps a great turn-over of repertoire but also indicates what people really likeDr Jim Fox
Appreciate
He added: "It's great to hear something new for the first time, but also to be able to appreciate performers such as Kirsty Abbotts time and time again."
Jim says that in the he very early days his playlist was close to 1100 tracks, but over the last four years he has whittled it down to around a third of that number to enable people to access it more easily.
"I have an 'unofficial' advisory board that helps me along with that,"he says. "These are people I have great respect for and have a fine musical ear to what is good and what isn't. They help me when I have questions and decisions to make.
The ultimate goal would be to get it down to close to 300, but the success of the station means that I now get more donated CDs and some wonderful music. It's getting harder to choose but that a really good thing."
Find out more:
To find out more about AllBrassRadio.com and how you can donate to help keep it growing, go to: http://allbrassradio.com/
