I've just about got enough time to pen a brief update - today, May 1st 2014, we launched our own radio stream called CrowZone Radio!
I've been working late nights sorting out all the teething problems you would expect and finally had to do a complete server re-locate last night at 1am. But it was up and running on time in the morning so all's well.

As part of the launch, we are doing tonight's "How Bizarre, Howebzar" from the home of "@AmazingArchie"!!
Archie (or AA as I put on our chatterbox) has helped me get my twitter following ("The followship") to over 100, and when we hit 100 i promised we would do the show at his place. Well tonight's the night.
Fingers crossed all the widgets work and digitals behave, I'm about to pack the studio up and trundle up the M5.

See you all at 8pm (if I'm a bit late, be patient)

Steve

If you listened in on Thursday 27 March (or listened again) - firstly; thank-you.

Secondly you may have wondered what the heck was all that stuff about Lower Mountpoint? Aren't we in Kington Langley? Is that near Kennet? It's all very confusing, but confusion is good, it keeps us on our toes.

So here's the deal. You probably noticed we've moved from GVR (or ITFM, not entirely sure about that) to Kennet Radio

Kennet Radio is based in Newbury, and we're in Wiltshire...so hearing about things in Kington Langley & Chippenahm was all a bit odd for the Berkshire listener, so we came up with a great idea.

Let's move to Cyberspace! We came up with the idea of a "Virtual Village"  - I expect it's been done before, but hey...I think it's a Hoot.

Next we came up with the name "Lower Mountpoint" - it sounds sufficiently old worldy, but links to Internet streaming (a mountpoint is what you connect to to listen to the show live). It doesn't exist in the real world (at least I couldn't find it) and we're still inventing new neighbouring villages and towns (feel free to join in via comments here). 

This way everyone is confused, and we're all happy.

I'm just trying to curb my natural enthusiasm - I can see village blogs, adverts, classifieds... the possibilities (and gossip) could be endless (we even thought about building a Minecraft version). 

Let me know if you want to be involved...there's some outlets for some creative writing here I think!

So it's been a funny old week really. If you tuned in to GVR on Thursday night you'll have noticed I wasn't there. I've decided to focus my energies with the team at Kennet radio and so Thursday was my first show on the Kennet stream.

Well it was supposed to be. If you tuned in to Kennet on Thursday you'll have noticed I wasn't there either!

After a successful day of testing on Wednesday we were bullish that everything was tickety-boo. Then the gremlins got in. I don't know how, or even where they got, but they got.

But we're chilled, I sat and listened to my show with a beer and chatted online with the folks that were trying to listen too.

Of course, sod's law says the link is working fine today, so maybe I just angered the Gods of Internet Radio.
As you can see in the photo, I'm still broadcasting from a toilet, but the satellite dish is much bigger, so hopefully all will be well on Thursday!

Disaster struck at Howebzar Inc. this morning when the computer failed to light up and shine! Of course this is after doing a whole load of recording work for our new feature I plan to run tonight. Normally I record everything to an external file, but thinking I was broadcasting from StudioHBZ I decided to save it to the HBZ PC. What a muppet!

Hopefully the GVR studio machine will be able to cope with the recording I have already, and the fancy jingles can wait until the computer is back from the menders.

So, lesson here, back everything up and don't rely on your computer!

PC was returned all bright and sparkly this week, next stop networking together for backups.

Here's wishing you all a prosperous and Happy 2014 from all at HoweBzar towers, looking forward to some more crazy mixes on the Thursday shows. 

If you enjoy the show - spread the word and let's continue to build the audience in 2014.

TTFN, Steve and the crew.

As we say goodbye to November it's time to think  about Christmas and I daresay a few more Christmas tunes will be creeping into the playlists over the next few weeks.

Please check out my "listen again" page where you can find podcasts of my Howebzar shows, including the "What's on your Ipod" sessions and tune in this Thursday (5th Dec) when my guest will be Terry Cornell with his 10 iPod favourites.

Last night, Tues 19 Nov, a little later than intended (nothing new there) the Howebzar Production Team stepped out to see Imagine Dragons at the Oasis in Swindon.
As it turns out our timing was pretty much perfect, we got the last parking space, no queue to get in, our tickets were waiting for us (thank you Oasis). In fact we were fashionably late for the support act which seemed pretty good and got a warm reception.

I wasn't sure what to expect of the gig, I guessed it would be a younger target audience, but the funny thing was it was me and Mrs.HBZ that were keen to go...we had to take the kids cos we couldn't leave them behind! Of course as the gig got closer and their friends all wanted to go, suddenly they got keen too and we turned into "SuperParents" for getting the tickets!

Nor were we the oldest, although I did feel a bit ancient when the music started and I had to resort to the earplugs...but...I suffer from Tinnitus and so I have to look after what is left of my hearing. I wouldn't wish it on anyone (always take earplugs to gigs kids).

For a contemporary band the Imagine Dragons put on a pretty authentic rock gig, with solos for the bassist, drummer and of course finishing off with a face melting guitar solo. The Oasis is a sports centre, and so the staging was basic, but the light show was good and frankly it's good to see a band just play without all the gimmicks.

Great musicianship throughout, and all the favourites played without any coyness. They even covered a Blur track (Song 2) which went down a storm with the Swindon crowd. Finishing off with a earth shattering version of "RadioActive" the band were persuaded to come back for an encore. All was well in Swindon.

Of course getting out from the last parking space was a different matter!

Way back in the balmy days of August 2013 I gave Ents24.com and the Oasis in Swindon a bit of a flaming. I am here to say I was wrong about the Oasis!

I was trying to get tickets to see Imagine Dragons at the Oasis Swindon next Tuesday, but by the time I got through to the switchboard they had all gone. 
The nice lady suggest I put my name on a waiting list and I thought "yeah, right" but did it anyway and prepared the HBZ production team for a disappointment.

Well fair play to the nice lady says I. Tonight I got a phonecall (which we nearly hung up thinking it was a marketing call!) and lo, it was the Oasis with 4 returned tickets. Happy Days...we're going to the concert.

Of course we will probably double the average age, but frankly Scarlett I don't give a damn.

(expect some ImagineDragons on this Thursday's show)

For some odd reason tonight's playlist has a definite delta Blues, Swamp rock, Louisiana feel to it.
Expect some Cajun Bayou...but of course we could go completely off track.

Try out our new "On the Air - Chat now" gizmo (top right of the home page when we're online)

singalong tonight will be Chippy Tea...words poster earlier...