Major Changes at Pumpkin FM

Just a quick update regarding the ongoing development of the Pumpkin FM, old time radio network.

Microsoft’s recent price increase for Windows Server licences has forced me to re-evaluate other potential, less costly solutions. The play-out software we currently use is Windows based. We operate four different Windows cloud servers to play-out our programmes, all requiring a licence each.

For the past few weeks I have been testing an open-source solution called AzuraCast which runs under Linux. It is a community developed open source solution, so free of charge and maintained by volunteers. I currently have two test servers using AzuraCast under the Linux (Ubuntu) operating system. Linux is a far more reliable and robust platform than Windows and does not attract any monthly fees.

Although AzuraCast does not have all the bells and whistles of our current software, it is fully capable of providing the play-out service we require. I must admit, it is very hands on and took a while to get my head around, but can do the job. For those of you that are technically minded, it uses Liquidsoap. Liquidsoap is a powerful and flexible programming language for describing audio and video streams. I have had to write myriads of scripts to get it to do what I want, but have had help from the AzuraCast community, which was great.

I have been meaning to update schedules for quite a while and I feel now is the time to do that whilst I migrate station play-out to the new system.

In the next few weeks the following changes will happen:-

• American Comedy Gold (Schedules will be updated)
• Apple Pie Radio (new channel) will replace Venture Radio and showcase the very best of all genre’s of American OTR
• BritCom 1 brand new schedule will showcase the very best of older classic British radio comedy shows like ISIRTA, IRIHAC, Dad’s Army, the Goon Show, Navy Lark, beyond Our Ken, Round the Horne, Clitheroe Kid etc
• BritCom 2 Brand new schedule will showcase more recent comedy shows like Claire in the Community, Cabin Pressure, Fags, Mags & Bags, After Henry etc
• BritCom 3 Brand new schedule will showcase audio from Classic British TV comedy shows and panel games like The Unbelievable Truth, News Quiz, Just a Minute etc
• BritCom 4 (new channel) Will take over from BritCom 3 playing the best of the rest, shows that are too few in number to warrant their own time-slots
• Radio Britannia (new channel) replaces Radio England with a brand new schedule of the very best of British classic radio from comedy, crime, sci-fi, drama, factual and much more…
• Crime Incorporated (Brand New Schedule)
• Strange Radio (Brand New Schedule)
• 1940s Radio (Home Service) (Brand New Schedule)
• 1940s Radio (Light Programme) (new channel) replaces Malvern Radio JRS
• Malvern Radio International (Updated play-list)

I will be adding many newly acquired series and replacing poor sound quality shows with versions I have restored. I am working on scheduling to prevent shows ending before they are finished.

Not blowing my own trumpet, but the above is a huge amount of work. I envisage it will be completed within the next few weeks so watch this space. How you listen at the moment will not be affected. The stream coordinates will remain the same.

If you have any requests or ideas I would love to hear from you. You can use the contact form below.

Please do not send requests for shows to be removed, moans or groans 🙂 Maybe you don’t like certain programs but others do. I am trying to keep it balanced.

So please, send any constructive ideas or requests. I will keep them in mind. Sorry I do not have the time to answer these messages personally, but will take into consideration all  constructive requests where possible.