Music costs a lot of money. There’s nothing worse than buying a record, bringing it home and realizing you bought something you’ll never be able to use. As to my motivation behind what I can or can't use, I try to think about a combination of what my listeners and I would both like (since listeners are, after all what radio is all about). I like to keep track of what people tell me they like, and of course what makes people groan. I try my best to be open to feedback on my sets. Even on nights when I don’t have many listeners, I make a conscious attempt to cater to what they enjoy.

Going record shopping for me is like buying a new fridge. When I do go shopping, I know I’m only going to buy one track at a time. I will listen to every possible one until I find the one that I absolutely love the most. In some cases this can take what seems like forever, but in the end it’s worth it. Dropping the right new record at the right time and seeing all those aim windows light up is one of the greatest feelings an internet broadcaster can experience. This technique is crucial if you don’t have much of a budget for vinyl shopping. Music costs a lot of money. There’s nothing worse than buying a record, bringing it home and realizing you bought something you’ll never be able to use. As to my motivation behind what I can or can't use, I try to think about a combination of what my listeners and I would both like (since listeners are, after all what radio is all about). I like to keep track of what people tell me they like, and of course what makes people groan. I try my best to be open to feedback on my sets. Even on nights when I don’t have many listeners, I make a conscious attempt to cater to what they enjoy.

This, I’ve told people in the past, but I do not make too much of an effort to include Christian artists in my sets. Music is music. It’s all from God and it’s all beautiful no matter what; so I don't judge artists when picking music for my show. If you look at my top 20’s or my set lists it’s easy to see that, yes, I do play some Christian music. The Christian music that I play I would play even if it weren’t made by a Christian and the reason is because it’s just plain good music.

As far as constructing my sets goes, I always start with progressive no matter what because from progressive you can always build up, but with melodic you can’t always build down. I feel that if you’ve got a nice groove going with the progressive it’s easy to raise the energy from there. However, once you’re deep into a set of melodic, going back “down” to progressive disrupts the energy of the mix. Not only does this go for trance, but hard dance as well (hard trance/hard house). For all styles, that I occasionally spin, I like to build from the softer or less intense stuff into the harder stuff that will really get people moving (whether it’s house, techno, breaks, etc.).

As most of you do know now from the article, I host an online radio show every Saturday night on cyberwisdom.org. Yes, it is a lot more difficult than having a “physical” audience. Like I said before, I do my best to base my sets on what the listeners want. Without having a live audience that I can see and hear, it’s impossible to tell what they like without an IM or e-mail from them. I try not to let these things get me down though, because I do get those IM’s and e-mails that are key to the show’s success. If you ever have the chance to do an online mix show, take it.  You read last month’s article about making money, didn’t you?  Even if you’re not making money, it’s exposure.  For more information on my show, you can check out cyberwisdom.org