When I was thirteen I used to listen to a black and white transistor radio tucked under my pillow. One night I found a Chicago station and heard
The CBS Radio Mystery Theater hosted by E.G. Marshall.
Just like that I was hooked. I fell in love with radio dramas and wanted to hear more.
Popular for its time, CBSRMT was a modern program aired by CBS during the late 70s and early 80s and produced by Himan Brown. It was an attempt to recapture the magic of Old Time Radio. When we moved from Illinois I always made it a point to find a station that aired this program so I could continue listening, and I would often ask my grandparents what they remembered of OTR.
As an adult I discovered real OTR, old time radio, and its fans. I began to collect and research these old programs and listen to them whenever I could. As a professional writer I saw the intrinsic value of these radio shows beyond their nostalgic worth. I knew I could learn a lot from these programs on how to write a tight cohesive story, and I did.
I had fun running the station for two years, but it got difficult to maintain. We don’t have the best Internet around so I always had to worry whether we were streaming or not. Sometimes the electricity went off at night, a regular occurrance here in Dallas. So I had to restart the computer and more often than not go into the server and restart that.
It got too difficult to maintain. I was always worried I wasn’t providing the promised service I wanted to provide. Sure, the Internet station was free for listeners, but even so that shouldn’t mean they had to put up with spotty service.
I think we did well given the fact a lot of people said they liked it and enjoyed it, but the service didn’t live up to my standards.These were because of things outside my control (Internet, electricity, servers down) but that didn’t mean I wasn’t concerned and bothered by it.
So, the Internet station is off the air. I am going to miss it. I am not going to miss worrying whether we would stay on the air when a thunderstorm came through or why the computer shut down during the night or why everything appeared to be working correctly but we couldn’t connect to the server.
So we are off the air and the website and the servers are shut down. But the memories will remain. 😦
Hoover's Corner 
So sorry to hear. I know you were really excited about the whole project. 😦
I am going to miss it, that’s for sure. But it’s the right decision.
I know. Maybe you’ll be able to start it up again in the future?
I suppose it’s not outside the realm of possibility. But it’s not something I see myself getting back into soon. I enjoyed it a lot and had fun. I just couldn’t stop being bothered and worried when something went wrong and we weren’t streaming, even though no one ever complained.
I think you should try it again, but later on. See if you can find a site that streams. Actually, check out this site.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/
I thought about posting a video blog here, actually. I might do that.
That would be a good idea. 🙂
We have a lot in common. We are about the same age. Im 49. I helped build the infrastructure for Allen with my uncle’s engineering firm 79-82. ’79 was back when Allen had the only Walmart in Texas! I also have some talent for writing, but I have not been able to pursue that.
I am a board licensed small business owner in Tyler. I have been listening for about two years. (I thought it was close to three, but I can’t remember for sure.) I have been collecting OTR since childhood, and like you also listened to CBSMT when it originally aired. I also listened to shortwave radio a lot as a kid. My fiancé and I have been listening to your station on TuneIn together since last August, almost every night. I have to sign out front now, but we will miss Theater 13. (If there any mistakes in this message it is because I’m using Siri on my smart phone, both are which are making this message an awkward endeavor.)
Thank you very much for your kind words. Like you, I won’t stop listening to OTR. I love that stuff and I am very grateful you enjoyed it so much. 🙂
Kenneth, I wrote during the summer regarding your decision to stop streaming and how much I would miss your station. Dealing with my own stream 24/7 I needed an escape valve when I went to bed and your stream gave me that luxury. A thought for the future, I use a cloud service as a back up if I lose internet or electricity or whatever crap interrupts my stream, the service I used is set to take over if my local server stops streaming…Just a thought in case you got bit by the bug again but didn’t want to deal with the potential hassle. In your case, hypothetically, you could upload your files to the cloud and use that as your primary and only streaming methodology. Your computer at home is taken out of the equation…
Kevin Anthony
That sounds pretty good. I will definitely think about it. Thank you for your kind words.