General
Q. What is America’s Debate Radio (ADRadio)?
A. In a nutshell, America’s Debate Radio will be a live, Internet-based, call-in, political talk show.

Q. When will ADRadio start?
A. Our original intent was to start in conjunction with AD’s third birthday, but sometime in September or October seems more reasonable due to equipment problems and the general slowness that comes with living in the South.

Q. Will ADRadio be broadcast live?
A. Yes. ADRadio will be streamed live using Shoutcast.

Q. What day and time will ADRadio be on?
A. It will be on weekly, most likely on the weekend in the evening to start. Times have not been finalized, but will be as the launch approaches.

Q. Why are you doing this?
A. We think it will be fun. We have this strange notion that AD members have something to say. Beside that, most call-in talk shows are host driven. The opinions of the hosts drive the types of calls that are allowed on the air and the subject matter of the show. That will not be the case for ADRadio. We want the callers to determine the dynamic of each show.

Listening
Q. What will I need to listen to ADRadio?
A. Most modern media players should be able to connect to our stream. Players such as Winamp, Windows Media Player, and RealPlayer should work fine. Winamp is the recommended player.

Q. How many people will be able to listen to ADRadio at once?
A. Initially, the server will support 25 simultaneous listeners in glorious, crystal-clear 32kbps mono audio. We will increase the number of simultaneous listeners as necessary.

Q. If I miss the live broadcast, will I still be able to listen?
A. Yes! Members will be able to download archived MP3 files of ADRadio from the previous two weeks and listen to them when they want. Sponsors will have access to the full archive.

Q. Will there be a podcast?
A. Yes, we will setup a podcast.

Q. What is a podcast?
A. A podcast is another way to receive the show. Special podcast software allows you to automatically download ADRadio whenever a new show is posted. This makes it easy to transfer the show to your MP3 player and listen at your leisure.

Calling
Q. Will I be able to call ADRadio?
A. Yes! We already have our phone system in place, more or less.

Q. Is it a toll-free call?
A. Yes, it is a toll free call. However, if you have unlimited minutes and want to save us some money, you can call the regular number as well.

Q. What is the phone number?
A. The toll free number is 888-DEBATE-5. The regular phone number is 912.342.2345.

Q. If I call now, will you answer?
A. No, we will not answer.

Q. Can I leave a message?
A. Yes! Feel free to leave a message with the friendly Norwegian voicemail lady. Make sure that you say lots of nice things about AD so we can use it in our promotional material!

Q. I’m broke. Is there any way to call for free?
A. Yes! You may use Skype to call the show. Our Skype name is americasdebate. Please make sure you use a microphone and headphones to call or else you will experience an echo.

Q. Will the calls be screened?
A. No. There will be no call screener. Callers will be placed directly on the air.

Q. How are you going to stop profanity and enforce the rules?
A. We’re not. There will be clear warnings on the pages that link to the broadcast, and notices within the broadcast itself that will make the listeners aware that there is a chance they may hear profanity in the broadcast.

Q. If I swear, will you hang up on me?
A. Probably.

Q. Will I have to give my real name when I call?
A. No, but it would be nice if you at least gave your member name. If you don’t tell us what to call you, we can just make up something.

Q. Do I have to be a member to call?
A. Nope. Anyone can call.

Q. How will you decide which calls to take?
A. Calls will be answered on a first-come, first-served basis. We can only hold one line at a time, so if your call is answered, you are next. If you get a busy signal, you are not.

Q. Do I have to turn the volume down on my computer when I call?
A. Of course you do! Otherwise, you will experience a major echo, and will probably sound very confused to other listeners.

Miscellaneous
Q. I have an idea for ADRadio. Who should I send it to?
A. You can send it to radio AT americasdebate DOT com, or PM it to Mike or Jaime.

Q. I’m the complaining type. Can I complain to the FCC about the show, even though it hasn’t started yet?
A. Yes, but they have no authority over Internet radio.

Q. Can I advertise on ADRadio?
A. Sure, if you want. Send an email to radio AT americasdebate DOT com and we can work something out.

Helping
Q. Is there anything I can do to help?
A. Yes! Well, maybe. A broadcast like this takes a lot of equipment. Right now, we are in need of the following:

• A bottom-end computer (1ghz or better) to handle the task of sending the broadcast to the streaming server and processing the caller audio and music segments.
• Newer PCI soundcards. We need lots of them to do this right.
• Instrument cables (mono).

If you have any of this stuff sitting around collecting dust and would like to donate it to ADRadio, we would appreciate it, and will cover the cost of shipping it to us.

Q. Is there anything I can do to help besides sending my old equipment?
A. Maybe! We are in need of voiceover talent. If you do voiceovers and would like to volunteer your services, we would be grateful. Additionally, if you enjoy creating politically based comedy bits, we would be appreciative to have them, and glad to use them.

Q. Can I just send cash?
A. Of course. Donations are always appreciated. You can send large paper bags filled with unmarked, non-sequential bills of mixed denomination, and also sweepstake-sized checks, to the address listed on our contact page. Or, you can just use PayPal like everyone else.
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How can I ensure that I am the first non-Admin to be broadcast on AD Radio? Is it luck of the draw? Can I pre-record? Throw me a bone here...

What an AMAZING idea! Just one question though. Who's hosting this, Mike and Jaime...or is it just unhosted and we go with the flow established by the callers?

Either way, 's going places, great job Mike and Jaime!

CP

This sure will be an interesting direction to take, great idea!

I don't have spare audio cables to donate, but I can recommend the relatively inexpensive and noise-free Mogami Silver Series, available at several online music stores and in four or five different lengths.

There's nothing more frustrating than having one junk cable messing up the sound, while all the others are doing fine. It's that old weakest link in the chain thing.

Anyway, this ought to be a hoot!

Advertising time? how about renting a time slot of a minute or so for one of those
"this is what I think about this...." broadcasts that you hear on regular radio. Can you put in podcasts like that into the program? I might buy time for that if its availible.

"This has been Christopher with a CSD minute....Wake UP America!"

Heh. You already know this, Amlord, but for everyone else-- we're thinking about setting up a system where members can call the number when the show is not on, and leave a message that will be put on the air. There is nothing I foresee that would hold us back from doing this, so expect us to solicit calls at some point in the relatively near future!

About being the first non-admin to be broadcast... how much is a plane ticket to Savannah from Ohio?

Yeah, Jaime and I will be playing host, or trying to at least. The goal isn't to make it a show about us and our opinions, though-- we really want to take call after call and let you guys steer the show.


Right now, we're testing with some instrument cables taken from my guitar setup that were purchased in 1993, and a lot of Radio Shack connectors! I'll check out those cables.

You don't by chance know where I can get supplies to build my own cables, do you? I find that I'm converting from 1/8" instrument cable to RCA a lot, and I know those adapters add noise and suck tone. I've got the basic soldering skills that would be required-- just no source on the parts.

We're trying to do it right, with decent equipment. So far, we'll be using an Alesis mixer, a Behringer compressor, and an M-Audio sound card. We have a couple of CAD mics that we'll be using, and they sound pretty nice.


You wouldn't need to buy time to get your opinion out! Member contributions will always be welcome-- that is the whole point of the show. Anything in the 1-5 minute range would probably work, I would think.

You could record them how you wanted. You could use a mic w/ your PC and save it as a wav/mp3 file, or you could call skype with your PC (better sound than a telephone), or you could just call on the phone and leave a message. We're flexible.


This is going to be a lot of fun!

Mike

Hey Mike,

Bulk Mogami and other brands of wire & connectors from:

Markertek

Electronic City

Redco

Gigcables

May the wind always be at your signal's back.

Markertek has a best price policy. Who knows, that might even be true. Haven't delved into making my own audio cables due to not needing a whole lot of them, so these outfits are just from my creative way of searching search engines.

I bet calls to local recording or AV studios would be a good source of advice on where the best deals are.

Ah, the acrid fragrance of solder flux -- brings me back

Thanks AuthorMusician!

I have only had time to check out Markertek. How have I missed this place? I've been researching broadcasting equipment for months!

I'll check out the other places soon. Thanks again!

Mike

I've uploaded my "AD Radio Checklist" to radio.americasdebate.net. You can use it to track the progress made towards the launch of AD Radio, which should be coming soon!

As you can tell, a lot of progress has been made, but launch is still a bit off. We're going to try to knock off the items on the checklist as fast as possible and get AD Radio off the ground.

Once AD Radio officially launches, that same page will become the official AD Radio homepage.

If you have any questions or comments, or think you can help, please let me know!



Mike

I've updated the FAQ with the toll free number, and updated the checklist with information about our second phone line. We are now setup to host live, member-to-member debate.

More to come soon!

Mike

I am really looking forward to this Mike and Jaime. I am willing to help, but you should know, I have been told I have "a face for radio" and "a voice for silent movies". I am also a techno-idiot when it comes the the internet, and I am frequently broke, but there must be someway I can help out.........hey......what's with the broom?

Mike, What kind of cables do you need. RCA audio cables (red / white)? Or something else? Also what lengths.

So, I know Mike and Jaime are hosting the show, but have you considered other shows, like maybe Amlord and Cube Jockey, sort of AD's more reasonable (and entertaining) version of Hanity and Colmes? Perhaps the Christopher Rant hour, AD's version of O'Reilly with a real attitude? , etc?

Ok, one liners ARE against the rules, I know, but I'm really looking forward to this This is exciting stuff.

Doc

Mike has recently set up the system so we can take two callers on the air at once. I think this should set us up to have some good debates and discussions.

We can't emphasis enough that we want this to be caller driven. If you want to create a piece to be played on air, we would most likely play it (barring profanity, recording quality, etc.) as Mike mentioned in his earlier post here. Please don't be shy - send us your ideas.

Last night, Jaime and I finished reviewing the music we plan on using during the show.

We've pulled most of the music from GarageBand.com to avoid paying the ridiculously high royalties required to use commercialized music.

We culled through 522 songs, and came up with about 111 songs that are usable. What a chore!

Why so much music for a talk show?

Well, initially we will only have 25 slots available for live listening, and so we plan on turning the stream server on an hour before the show starts. That way, everyone can line up to make sure they are able to listen. We figured that you would much rather listen to music than dead air.

Of course, if we hear a lot of complaints from people who wanted to listen live but found that the server was full, we will purchase more slots for the following broadcast.

We also plan on using some music for the introduction, as well as for the occasional break.

I have updated the AD Radio Checklist to reflect this.

We're moving along pretty well on the Checklist, and should be knocking out a lot more stuff this week.

Not too long now, I hope!

Mike