Earlier today, I was thinking again about my debate between whether to continue Friday Night Trivia on TalkShoe or Skype, when a voice in the back of my mind asked me, “Why can’t you use both?” I thought about this for a bit, and looked back upon the two most recent episodes, recorded on TalkShoe; I was called in to TalkShoe through Skype, as has become my usual routine, and had Katie, a co-host from Marble Operator, conferenced in to the call.

The situation I had is the future of Trivia: as far as Skype was concerned, TalkShoe was just another single participant in a conference call, meaning there were three “people” involved (Katie, TalkShoe, and myself). Katie and I, on Skype, could hear everyone on TalkShoe, and everyone on TalkShoe could hear the two of us on Skype. The only possible problem is that, as there are two different services involved, some see one text chat, and others see the other; those on Skype can only see the TalkShoe chat if they have the pro client loaded, but there’s no way for the TalkShoe participants to see the Skype chat. That minor problem aside, we’re all effectively on the same call.

There are several advantages of combining the services for Trivia recordings. First, no one has to abandon the service they prefer. If you are used to using TalkShoe, and prefer either that chat interface, that audio quality, or the joys of using a SIP client to call in, then there’s no need to change to Skype. Likewise, if you prefer the chat interface of Skype, the ease of joining a Skype conference call, or the audio quality, or don’t like using SIP clients, then there’s no need of putting up with TalkShoe.

Another advantage of combining the services is more for the actual podcast itself. With Skype, I have MP3 Skype Recorder to record episodes; it’s what I use for Marble Operator, it’s what Ian, Dave, and I use for Cultdom Commentaries. By combining the two services, I’ll have two recordings going on, though I’ll be posting the Skype local recording to the podcast feed.

Going forward, nothing much is changing with Trivia. If you want to join on TalkShoe, then join on TalkShoe. If you want to join on Skype, then join on Skype. Either way, you’ll be on the same conference call. My preference will be to Skype, though.

While the Skype experiment for trivia may have failed, another idea I’ve tried has succeeded, and is still ongoing: Radio Free Caemlyn is now live on the air as a 24/7 Internet radio station.

This has been something I’ve wanted to do ever since I started Radio Free Caemlyn as a podcast. The name of the podcast was inspired by the naming trend for pirate radio stations, that being “Radio Free [something]”. (A common misconception about RFC is that I named it after a well-known Doctor Who podcast, but that is not the case. My naming trend was all about pirate radio stations). I wanted to do some sort of 24/7 broadcast, where I would stream random content, mostly from the podcast archives, and occasionally be able to jump on the mic and talk into the darkness, into the silence, on the off-chance that someone out there might hear my words, that my words might stick with them. I liked that idea, but I had no easy, affordable way of making that happen. I played around with Shoutcast, but that was tricky to get working (and I think might be going away soon, what with the shutdown of WinAmp). Eventually I became a fan of the Phone Losers of America, and learned how Brad had his audio setup configured. However, I needed an easier way of managing a station.

A while ago I learned of a site called Mixlr. It’s a site where you can easily stream with no time limits, as far as I know. The app is simple to use, as well. So I decided to try it out.

Friday, 10 January, 2014 was the day one broadcast of Radio Free Caemlyn. Before leaving for work, I set up a playlist of material to play through the day, and started the first track. I played a mix of Phone Losers prank calls and Friday Night Trivia episodes, interspersed with random music. This broadcast continued with no problems.

The original plan was to also stream that week’s episode of Friday Night Trivia live over Mixlr, but I was finding there was some audio feedback over the Skype call from how I had my audio setup configured. I’ll have to find a better solution. However, once I had edited together the final cut of that week’s trivia episode, I broadcast that over the air, starting around midnight. My friend and co-host from Marble Operator, Erica, listened in for a while.

I then planned the first overnight broadcast for Radio Free Caemlyn, and included Boards of Canada tracks, and some episodes of Quiet, Please, a radio show from the late ’40s.

Another nice feature of Mixlr is that, if I want to jump on the air and talk, all I need do is unmute my microphone. I can also stream Skype calls. It’s quite a nice setup.

So there we go: Radio Free Caemlyn is now an online radio station in addition to being a podcast. I’m really rather excited about this.

The station will almost always be broadcasting, with a random chance, esp. in the evenings and at night, for me to be live on the air, so tune in, follow the channel, give me hearts. Listen to the shenanigans.

The time has finally come, I’m going to record episodes of Radio Free Caemlyn’s Friday Night Trivia exclusively on Skype. This comes soon six weeks ahead of Friday Night Trivia’s fourth anniversary.

Up until now, we’ve recorded episodes on TalkShoe, a site where you can host live calls and upload pre-recorded episodes. The site is reliable enough, but for at least a year now I’ve been wanting to move trivia off of there for several reasons, including such things as making it easier to join the show, having better audio quality on recordings, and a less problematic interface.

One notable problem with TalkShoe has always been how difficult it tends to be to join the call. Unless you call in with a phone, you have to install and configure third-party software, such as X Lite, or Blink, or Ekiga, and the configuration instructions for each of those are different and tend to be confusing to explain to a new participant. You need to know the TalkShoe SIP address (66.212.134.192), and whether or not to include “123@” before that SIP address. You need to know the show ID, which obviously differs for every call series on TalkShoe (Radio Free Caemlyn’s is 72402, Marble Operator’s is 112081, Cultdom Collective’s is 5421, Media Outsiders’ is 81865, and so on). You need to know what code to enter after that, to enter under a screen-name or as a guest. It takes a long time to explain all of this, and tends to hold up the pre-show discussions for new participants. I needed something easier, something less confusing.

Over the past year or so I’ve considered several alternatives to TalkShoe. I’ve looked at Google+ hangouts, but who uses Google+? I’ve looked at Skype, and it seems the most reasonable alternative. The call-in instructions with Skype are comparatively simple: you need only add me as a Skype contact, or search “Radio Free Caemlyn” as a Skype contact (oddly enough, there turned out to already be a Skype handle of “radiofreecaemlyn” belonging, presumably, to someone in Japan, so the precise handle to search for is “live:radiofreecaemlyn” on Skype). If you’re going to join the call on Skype, you’re already using the one bit of software you need; you don’t need to download, install, and configure some third-party software.

I would’ve made the switch to Skype a while ago, but there were several factors halting me. First, there were people like Ken who call in to TalkShoe via their cell phone. Would moving to Skype exclude them from being able to join the show? It turns out that that isn’t a problem, as Skype offers the ability to purchase a phone number that someone can call to connect to you on Skype. This means that, if anyone wants to join Trivia and they don’t want to use a computer, all they need do is call the number that I have set up for Skype. I’ll see that call and add them to the conference call. Simple as that. The only difference for people like Ken is that they’re calling a different phone number. After realizing this, I have now obtained a Skype Number, and have included it in a new bumper recording.

That was the main problem, what if people don’t use Skype? There is now the call-in number. However, Skype is ubiquitous nowadays, and is simple to configure.

The only issue I’ve noticed is that people calling in on the phone will not have a text chat to consult. This is a relatively minor issue, though.

Anyway, it’s a change to the show I’ve wanted to make for a long while and am finally doing.

As of tonight, being 13 June, 2013, I am officially announcing that I’m retiring The RaT Project podcast.

I began The RaT Project back in mid-2005, when podcasting was still in its infancy. Podcasting was a thing I was reading about on some blogs, a new idea, a niche hobby. People could record short bits of audio of themselves and others talking about whatever, and post those as episodes online. As someone with a life-long interest in audio recording, radio broadcasts, and things of the like, this was something that intrigued me. Leo Laporte had just recently begun his own podcast, originally called Revenge of the Screen Savers, but eventually renamed to This Week in Tech, or TWiT. On that, Leo would talk about this emerging medium known as podcasting, and of its possibilities, and how easy it was for one to do their own podcast.

I was living in a dorm room, a residential hall, at University, a student still early in his college years. I was listening to some various podcasts I was finding online, most done by unknowns just playing with the idea of podcasting. There were some more well-known podcasts I would listen to, including TWiT and Daily Source Code (that latter hosted by Adam Curry, known at the time as the “Podfather”).

I wanted to do my own podcast, but didn’t have a microphone. I played around with various ideas, and eventually started thinking, what would happen if I plugged my headphones, ordinarily an audio out device, into the audio in port on my computer. Could my headphones somehow work as a microphone? Turns out the answer was yes; I opened Audacity, started recording, and spoke into the left earpiece. Sure enough, it acted as a microphone, albeit with remarkably poor audio quality. I recorded my thoughts at the moment, with the idea of doing an audio blog, a stream-of-conscious style of narration. I uploaded the files to a site called PutFile.com (a site that is long-since defunct), and linked to them on my blog. For a while, episodes were simply audio recordings of an accompanying text blog entry.

I needed a name for my podcast, I needed something catchy, so I looked at the screenname I was commonly known as online, that being Rand al’Thor. I had just started listening to a band from decades prior known as The Alan Parsons Project. The initials for Rand al’Thor, as had been pointed out to me on the old Shimlar game, was RaT. I took that and appended Project to it to get the name of my podcast: The RaT Project.

I needed a format, so I decided to go with my interests. Thus, The RaT Project became focused on video games, sci-fi, Doctor Who, tech, and anime and manga.

It was in 2006 that I learned of the website TalkShoe, where I could host live episodes where people could call in, all for free. I had a cheap headset, and started doing live episodes. My early attempts were as awful as you’d expect, where I had horrible audio and the entire episode was full of stuttering and off-topic, meandering dialogue. It was an early attempt, and I soon put the show on hiatus.

Eventually, I returned, when I had spent more time with the Cultdom in Audio podcast, then the Cultdom Collective, and Logan’s Run podcasts. I was a bit more competent as a podcast host, and had a better understanding of the software required. Also, I had a better headset. The RaT Project began a lengthy run as a live Saturday night show, featuring many regulars from Cultdom Collective, including Dave AC, Graeme “The2ndDoctor” Sheridan, Darth Skeptical, and Logan*. I had a news segment, then focused on the main topic of discussion for that episode.

Eventually, life happened, and I had to put an end to doing weekly live episodes. The show went on hiatus. I would eventually record a “studio” episode and upload it to the feed, but things had fallen quiet on that front.

That brings us, more or less, to now. The podcast that brought me into the medium has now officially concluded. I hope you’ve enjoyed the podcast. The back catalogue will remain. You can find it on iTunes or on TalkShoe ID 21129.

The new series of Doctor Who has begun, and Ian and Dave return for another commentary. Tune in as they talk all over the episode.

I make an appearance, albeit by proxy, at the end to give my rather long-winded thoughts on the episode.

Just a note here to say that all three podcasts are currently on indefinite hiatus. This includes The RaT Project, Marble Operator, and Radio Free Caemlyn (to an extent).

Friday Night Trivia on Radio Free Caemlyn will continue, with DaveAC running the show, and with the rotating panel of guest hosts on a weekly basis.

On this week’s episode, Rand has computer issues, and therefore cannot host, so John “Hnoj the Demon” steps in as guest host.

There’s only one thing to discuss this week, and that is Entry #68″, originally uploaded as simply “68”.

Shenanigans ensue.

It’s the first of a two-parter as Ian, Dave, and Rand tackle Tomb of the Cybermen, the Second Doctor serial that recently aired on BBC America as part of their Doctor Who Revisited series celebrating the show’s 50th anniversary.

On this episode, the trio talks all over the first two episodes of Tomb. Part Two should be posted later this week.

On the latest episode of The RaT Project, Rand takes to the mic to discuss some video game-related topics, mostly in response to the latest Sessler’s Something video on Rev3Games’ YouTube channel.

First up is Rand’s thoughts on getting older, specifically in regards to views on video games, in terms of gaming difficulty, how modern games are a different beast from “classic” video games from the Atari, NES, DOS era, and just how time consuming modern games are.

Next Rand responds to all of the talk in social media and gaming discussion about the very real possibility of Nintendo dropping out of the console making business and going the way of Sega. It would be a huge deal for that to happen, and Rand gives his thoughts on the subject.

Then there’s some Doctor Who talk. With the show returning at the end of this month, how does Rand feel about the show as it is now, and what the future of the show might hold? Listen and find out.

On the latest episode of Friday Night Trivia, Cobo4747 takes the helm for his own unique blend of trivia, centered around a mysterious theme that is up for guessing. Bonus points if anyone correctly guesses that!

The gang is almost all here on this episode; Ian “The6thDoctor” was absent, but does that mean it’s a quieter show than usual? You’ll have to listen to find out!