There have, over the years, been two incarnations of Mushroom Escape. There was a gap of several years between these two incarnations, and Escape 2.0 would be celebrating its third birthday in just a few days.
Instead, we're excited to launch Mushroom Escape 3.0. This time, the gap between 2.0 and 3.0 will only be a few seconds.
For the last three years, Mushroom Escape has been running on a commercial cloud-based platform, which accepted my hand-picked program selections and automated their broadcasting. The service worked well for us over the years, for the most part, but we decided recently that we have outgrown this commercial approach and were ready to take the whole thing in-house. For the last few weeks, I have been planning the new system, attempting to keep things logically and straightforwardly organized, and the new Mushroom Escape has been in testing for the last five days. We believe it is ready to go public.
So on Sunday, May 30, at 12:00 Midnight, Mushroom Escape 2.0 will have left the air, and Mushroom Escape 3.0 will be entertaining you with our usual Sunday schedule.
What will change for you? You may have noticed that there was considerable changing of volumes from program to program to promo to instrumental. Having to adjust the volume all the time makes for a less than ideal listening experience, especially if you just want to set your dial to Escape and have it on as you go about your day. Mushroom Escape 3.0 takes care of this for you, and the volume throughout the day will remain nice and even. You may also notice smoother transitions. This last is a work in progress and will only get better as the station continues.
What won't change? The great programming won't change, and the many ways to listen to the station won't change. Shows will be hand-picked and programmed with love, just as they always have been.
So please be advised that the Mushroom Escape stream will be down for a short time after the last Saturday movie has played and before Sherlock Holmes makes an entrance at midnight. We don't anticipate things being down for longer than thirty seconds to a minute. In closing, I want to thank Jonathan for his many contributions to this project. I hope you'll decide that your patience with me has been rewarded.
So happy birthday, Mushroom Escape. Thank you to everyone who makes the station part of their days, and we hope to be broadcasting for a long time to come.