02/16/2025
I wanted to give an update. As I mentioned in now-deleted posts, I had originally planned to shut down WIWS completely at the beginning of the year. My wife encouraged me to keep the stream going for a while, but I decided to cancel the Patreon—by that point, about 75% of the supporters were friends and family who didn’t actually listen, and it didn’t feel right to keep taking their money.
Since then, we’ve changed the music selection a few times, and a few of you still tune in to see what we’re up to. I really appreciate that. Honestly, I’m not sure if there’s a bigger goal anymore beyond scratching my AM radio itch, but for now, we’re still here.
We’ve been running country oldies for about a month, and I plan to keep it that way for the foreseeable future. However, Calvin is no longer part of the station—he was hired talent, and now that we’re covering costs out of pocket, I can’t bring in outside voicers anymore.
That brings me to the long-standing issue with WIWS: repetition. Some of you just want to hear the music and don’t mind the same voicers and jingles, but over the years, the numbers have shown that many listeners get burned out after a few days and don’t come back. Even though the actual playback is dynamic, hearing Calvin (or Ray) repeat the same jokes and statements makes it feel fully pre-recorded, which causes people to tune out. And, well, it is pre-recorded—but it isn’t, if that makes sense.
I don’t know if there’s a real solution, especially since live programming isn’t in the cards. For now, I’ve scaled Ray’s presence down to simple, generic voicers, since those seem to feel less repetitive. But I know that also takes away a lot of the “this feels like real radio!” charm, since the magic of WIWS came from the sponsor mentions and local cues.
Some have suggested AI. The AI Ray (which is just me) actually sounds pretty good, but I have zero time to write content, and ChatGPT’s output tends to be stiff, repetitive, and full of generic phrases like, “We’ve got you covered with classic country,” which Ray would never say. If anyone wants to volunteer to write Robot Ray scripts, I’d gladly take them!
Anyway, that’s where things stand. Tune in if you’d like!
live365: https://live365.com/station/WIWS-a02808
Apple/iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/wiws-radio/id1630120494
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wiwsradio.app
Echo: "Alexa enable live three sixty five" and then, "Alexa play station double you eye double you ess radio."
