Welcome to what might as well be RadioDiscussions version 10.0.
Over the past 27 years (nearly 2/3 of my life) these boards have been a constant. I was a young, naive teenager when I launched the Mid-Atlantic Radio Board from my college dorm room in the fall of 1997. Through that board, I would meet Doug Fleming and Tanim Hussain and we would launch Radio-Info.com in 1999 to host a growing network of regional radio boards that would pop-up. The site would continue to grow and evolve (and be barred from many station studios) over the next six years. During that time, both Doug and Tanim would move on to other pursuits and I continued to run the site
In 2005, Doug Fleming died tragically while biking in the desert outside of his home in Reno at the age of 27 and the following year his parents would stage a hostile takeover of the site, while attempting to rewrite its history in his behalf. I would launch RadioInsight within hours as a competing discussion site, but without the board history and the early motivation due to having to deal with the loss of one of my closest friends (I was told I was the last person to speak to Doug as we had one of our four hour phone calls the night before) and now the loss of what had become my life's work with no explanation ever given as to why they basically stole the site out from under me (Doug's father was a high powered attorney, and I was working in a restaurant so I had no ability to fight). While the boards would be run by their anonymous "Managing Board Editor", I would eventually pivot RadioInsight into what is now the most widely read radio industry news publication.
The Flemings would eventually break up Radio-Info, selling the domain name to Talkers Magazine and relaunching the boards under the RadioDiscussions name in 2012. Ownership of the site would pass to Streamline Publishing, who own Radio Ink and RBR, but they would soon shut the site down. That would lead to Frank Berry acquiring the site and running it for the past decade. Following Frank's passing, @DavidEduardo would help facilitate the transfer of the site back to me.
When the history of Radio-Info/RadioDiscussions is written, there should now be five "founders" considered. Doug, Tanim, and I are the original founders of Radio-Info, but Frank and David resurrected the site from the dead and erased the scars brought on in the middle by operators using the boards to advance their business and personal agendas rather than for the passion for the medium. We're all here because we love radio and want to see it thrive for a long time. And with David, @fybush, @Huff, @Michi, and others assisting, I believe the team we have here will be able to do so.
Now for what's next...
You see a new logo at the top. The typeface is the same one as the original Radio-Info logo. The color scheme now matches Tanim's "Valley of the Sun Media" Phoenix area board, which is what was merged with my "Mid-Atlantic Radio Board" to form Radio-Info some 25 years ago. The previous logo here was a holdover from the Streamline days. This is my way of honoring the origination of the site, while the RadioDiscussions brand will remain to honor Frank.
Over the past few weeks, we have begun a consolidation of the board structure, much of which dates back to the early 2000s and just was added onto creating multiple boards serving the same purpose and others that have dwindles in usage as the industry consolidates. There will soon be a little more pruning of boards that serve little purpose existing as a stand-alone topic, but we will also begin adding some new ones.
I also will be looking at ways to modernize the site to bring in some social features. We're not a community without all of you contributing and while I know many do not like change, I do believe with collaboration we will ensure these changes are best for growing the site and hopefully radio as a whole...
If you have any questions or ideas, feel free to private message me anytime.
-Lance Venta
Chief Operator
RadioDiscussions
Over the past 27 years (nearly 2/3 of my life) these boards have been a constant. I was a young, naive teenager when I launched the Mid-Atlantic Radio Board from my college dorm room in the fall of 1997. Through that board, I would meet Doug Fleming and Tanim Hussain and we would launch Radio-Info.com in 1999 to host a growing network of regional radio boards that would pop-up. The site would continue to grow and evolve (and be barred from many station studios) over the next six years. During that time, both Doug and Tanim would move on to other pursuits and I continued to run the site
In 2005, Doug Fleming died tragically while biking in the desert outside of his home in Reno at the age of 27 and the following year his parents would stage a hostile takeover of the site, while attempting to rewrite its history in his behalf. I would launch RadioInsight within hours as a competing discussion site, but without the board history and the early motivation due to having to deal with the loss of one of my closest friends (I was told I was the last person to speak to Doug as we had one of our four hour phone calls the night before) and now the loss of what had become my life's work with no explanation ever given as to why they basically stole the site out from under me (Doug's father was a high powered attorney, and I was working in a restaurant so I had no ability to fight). While the boards would be run by their anonymous "Managing Board Editor", I would eventually pivot RadioInsight into what is now the most widely read radio industry news publication.
The Flemings would eventually break up Radio-Info, selling the domain name to Talkers Magazine and relaunching the boards under the RadioDiscussions name in 2012. Ownership of the site would pass to Streamline Publishing, who own Radio Ink and RBR, but they would soon shut the site down. That would lead to Frank Berry acquiring the site and running it for the past decade. Following Frank's passing, @DavidEduardo would help facilitate the transfer of the site back to me.
When the history of Radio-Info/RadioDiscussions is written, there should now be five "founders" considered. Doug, Tanim, and I are the original founders of Radio-Info, but Frank and David resurrected the site from the dead and erased the scars brought on in the middle by operators using the boards to advance their business and personal agendas rather than for the passion for the medium. We're all here because we love radio and want to see it thrive for a long time. And with David, @fybush, @Huff, @Michi, and others assisting, I believe the team we have here will be able to do so.
Now for what's next...
You see a new logo at the top. The typeface is the same one as the original Radio-Info logo. The color scheme now matches Tanim's "Valley of the Sun Media" Phoenix area board, which is what was merged with my "Mid-Atlantic Radio Board" to form Radio-Info some 25 years ago. The previous logo here was a holdover from the Streamline days. This is my way of honoring the origination of the site, while the RadioDiscussions brand will remain to honor Frank.
Over the past few weeks, we have begun a consolidation of the board structure, much of which dates back to the early 2000s and just was added onto creating multiple boards serving the same purpose and others that have dwindles in usage as the industry consolidates. There will soon be a little more pruning of boards that serve little purpose existing as a stand-alone topic, but we will also begin adding some new ones.
I also will be looking at ways to modernize the site to bring in some social features. We're not a community without all of you contributing and while I know many do not like change, I do believe with collaboration we will ensure these changes are best for growing the site and hopefully radio as a whole...
If you have any questions or ideas, feel free to private message me anytime.
-Lance Venta
Chief Operator
RadioDiscussions
