Hello! It’s Jonathan here. I hope you had a joyous Christmas.
As you may know, every year, I host a live broadcast to celebrate the end of the current year and the arrival of a new one, which comes first to New Zealand. I’ll be doing that once again this year at 9 PM on new year’s eve in New Zealand, which equates to 3 AM Eastern, and 8 AM in the UK on the morning of 31 December. This year though, it’s even more special.
On that day, it will be 25 years ago that I hosted my first live Internet broadcast, using a brand new technology called SHOUTcast. When getting the server configured and successfully streaming my first song, “All you Need is Love” by the Beatles, I had no idea that that broadcast was the start of a journey that would change every aspect of my life.
It’s hard for me to total up the thousands of hours of radio I have done over the last 25 years. I’ve had the pleasure of working with a great many people, and helped many to get started in the field of Internet broadcasting. It has been an honour to have founded MBSFM, ACB radio, The Minx, the Mosen Channel and of course Mushroom Fm, and to broadcast on others including Big Planet Radio, Shellworld Radio and The Legend.
From hosting Blind Line, the first ever global call-in show exclusively for the blind community, to starting main Menu, the first global blindness tech show that allowed end-users to create grass roots tech demos for the blind community long before podcasting was a thing, there has been plenty of new ground broken.
It’s been a privilege to be a part of many special events, countdowns, lockdowns and benefit concerts, as well as just doing regular shows that have connected me with some awesome listeners, some of whom have been listening since the very beginning.
You can hear some reflections on my Internet radio career in the biographical series “In the Arena, the Jonathan Mosen Story” produced with Glen Gordon in 2019. It’s available as a podcast from all the podcast apps, and for download at https://mosen.org/InTheArena/
I also produced an eBook chronicling the founding and first few years of ACB Radio, available at https://mosen.org/mosen-consulting-ebook-on-air-online-founding-and-dire...
A quarter of a century is something to celebrate, so while keeping the party going, this year I’ll be sharing some memories via old promos, jingles and snippets from the last 25 years.
This would have all been utterly pointless if it weren’t for the listeners. So, if you have any reflections on the memories we’ve made together over the last 25 years, I would love to get them. You can write them down in an email to Jonathan at MushroomFm.com. If you’d rather, you can record an audio clip and send it to that email address as well. You can also leave a message on our listener line in the United States, (864(606-6736. I look forward to hearing your memories. When people talk with me about shows I’ve done, they often remind me of things that have stayed in their memory that I have long forgotten about.
See you for this special show at 3 AM Eastern, 8 AM UK on 31 December.