If you've ever been hurt by your main squeeze, deceived by your best friend, or down to your last dime and ready to call it quits, Albert King has the solution if you have the time to listen. - Deanie Parker, "Born Under A Bad Sign" liner notes, 1967
I regret to inform you that Weenie Juke Radio will be closing down at the end of this month. Weenie Juke has been 'on the wire' (mostly) for almost 10 years. Our current licensing entity, Loud City announced earlier this month that they were shutting down by the end of the month. While Loud City has also announced that they are trying to negotiate for someone to continue the operation, I've decided to take this opportunity, regardless of the negotiated outcome, to close the Juke.
Many factors weigh in this decision. The various licensing entities and the creation of the DCMA make it difficult for hobbyist radio operators to follow the many, rules. These rules are really aimed at the large operators and in large part take the fun out of it for the small operator.
While we have some intense interest in Weenie Juke from a few of our die hard fans, in general, there is not much listening traffic on Weenie Juke. I think this is due to a large number of sources where old country blues can either be obtained or listened to. I'm continually amazed at the number of country blues tunes on youtube for example. Pandora, Spotify and other custom stations now carry country blues.
We do plan on "moth balling" the Juke in the event that circumstances change (as we did previously for about a year, while waiting for the licensing situation to shake out) and the Juke will be passed on to whomever or whatever (if anyone) may want to continue the site when the Steering Committee has grown too old and grouchy.
The Juke has been fun - many people have supported and contributed to the Juke in many ways, but I'd like to especially thank Rivers for his technical work on the great set of Juke web pages and of course Richard, who was the delightful and humorous voice of Weenie Juke. Sad as it may be, let's all raise our glasses and bid a fond farewell!
Weenie Juke has been a great resource and it will be sad to see it go. That said, if the regulators make it impossible to be fun for those that run it, I can thoroughly understand the decision to pull it. Thanks for making it available for the number of years it's been online.
Too bad, sorry to see it go. The Juke was a great resource to hear songs that I did not have a copy of several years ago. But yes, there is so much country blues content online now.
What a drag! I've lately been in a sort of artist search mode on YouTube and the likes, but I was hoping to be able to return to the Juke after a while.
Thank you guys for all the great work you've done with the Juke. I think it, along with this forum, has been the most valuable tool in my remote country blues education!
Bummer- I had to voluntarily give up the daily Juke a while back so it wouldn't be completely banned due to bandwidth issues- I could listen during the off hours.
I'm gonna miss all the Country Blues knowledge I gleaned from the Weenie Juke, I guess I'll have to search for another source.
AND..... thanks to everybody who contributed to the great selection of music that was featured.
Wow that's terrible, understandable, but terrible. I was actually listening to it more recently. While there is a lot of stuff on youtube it can't be used as a real radio type stream. And where else can one find the depth of programing knowledge that we have here? Maybe we can find some university that wants to take it on. Lets poke around for options. Perhaps we could just rename all the songs and use made up names for the artists?
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My loathings are simple: stupidity, oppression, crime, cruelty, soft music. Vladimir Nabokov (1899 - 1977)
I'm sad to see the Juke go, and bitter about the reasons it has to go. I suspect many stations that play small, independent artists will be disappearing. When not just a station but a whole licensing entity decides to throw in the towel thanks to pressure from entities like SoundExchange and the RIAA, then the corporate pablum peddlers are winning. This is what they wanted all along, and as Slack notes, they have made it difficult for any small operator to meet their demands.
I suppose some of the internet radio traffic will go to services like Spotify, which has a pretty poor royalties model from what I understand. Not sure what the answer really is, but part of it surely should have been to allow space for small operators without requiring the ridiculous hoops one must jump through just to exist.
The music business is truly a mess. But so is everything else these days, so no shock here.
I'm sorry to see the Juke go, but it's understandable, given how difficult the modern mess has made things--things that should be easy and simple. Imagine that you couldn't let your friends listen to your record collection unless you filled out the required paperwork and coughed up dough for every spin of a platter. In essence, that's what it amounts to for the small outfits like WC.
Thanks to Slack, Rivers and the everyone else who made the Juke the quality source for all things Country Blues over the years. It will be missed.
« Last Edit: February 25, 2014, 07:23:58 AM by Stuart »
I echo all that has been said and would just like to add my thanks to all concerned for their excellent work on the Juke.
Agreed. Thanks Slack, Rivers, Richard, et. al.
I'd just like to add that hearing artists I'd never really connected with come up randomly on the Juke gradually brought me around to appreciating them - Leadbelly, Blind Lemon, The Mississippi Sheiks among others. And with appreciation came purchases, so the Juke was a sales tool, too. I realize it's sales of artists the "industry" doesn't care about, and on a level small enough that the industry doesn't care about that, either. But multiply me by the dozens of Juke listeners, and you've got... something the industry doesn't care about.
With the end of the Juke and the probable demise of Roots & Rhythm, I'm feeling a bit depressed right about now.
Slack, do you know the date and time we'll stop broadcasting? I'd like to raise a parting glass at the appropriate moment.
" oh bugger. The doobry's fallen off the juke player. Well that's done it. Bloody computers. Awful isn't it. Well bye anyway. As the actress said to the bishop".
So sorry that it has to be this way, but understandable. THANK YOU for all you've done to keep the Juke going -- and I'm going to hope that maybe it can come out of mothballs some day!
Very sad indeed - the Juke was a great resource for all blues fans. Having said that I do understand the reasons - many thanks for the chance to listen guys.
Here is hoping it can be resurrected at some point in the future !!
We'll go out with this fitting tribute - suggested by Uncle Bud.
I Will Do My Last Singing - Rev Gary Davis at Newport Farewell Daddy Blues - Ma Rainey Fare Thee Well - Joe Callicott Bye Bye Blues - Tommy Johnson I Shall Not Be Moved - Charley Patton
We here at O'Muck Enterprises INC. Regret the passing of our dearly beloved Juke. Good luck on your journey through the solar system and beyond Juke content! And much gratitude to all those who worked to make it work.
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My loathings are simple: stupidity, oppression, crime, cruelty, soft music. Vladimir Nabokov (1899 - 1977)
Apologies for not chipping in due to being immersed in a new project. Thanks for all the nice comments. It was great fun to be involved in the recent upgrades. I was highly sceptical of the juke concept at the beginning. Luckily Slack and co overruled my objections.
On a brighter note, the key word here is 'mothballed'. If conditions change in the future such that we can consider cranking up the juke again, in whatever form, we will certainly start discussing.
Very sad to hear this, I used to listen to it when I could and it's a great loss as it was withoud a shred of doubt the greatest radio channel on planet earth, there was nothing even remotely as good. Here there is on 2 hour show a week and I cant even get reception for it, also it is way to blues/rock oriented and country blues classics may get played once every dozen or so weeks. Weenie Juke had no competition, it stood out like a young Elle McPherson wearing a bikini in a sea of shaggy bearded coalminers in the outback.
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I met a woman she was a pigmeat some Big fat mouth, I followed her home She pulled a gun and broke my jaw Didnt leave me hard on, I didnt get sore