Please talk to me about my White Rose archives?

[benburch]

Hey, folks!

As most of you know, I run the White Rose Society Liberal/Progressive talk radio audio archives at http://www.WhiteRoseSociety.org

I am currently having to re-examine what I am doing with White Rose, and I need your feedback.

It has been a year now that I have been doing White Rose as my full time job, and it is time to make some decisions;

Should I continue White Rose?

Is White Rose valuable to people?

If it is valuable, how can I get people to donate enough money that I can actually live on the proceeds? (I am going further in debt every day, and cannot go on much longer.)

And, how can I get more people to use the service? I spend small (to me) fortune on servers and bandwidth and software (I pay for my software!) and hardware to make all this run, and I could server ten times the number of people who use the service. How do I get people to use what I am giving away for free???

I would really appreciate your comments, and even if you have no comment, kick this posting so I know that it is at least being read?

Thanks so much!

Your friend,

-Ben

[mike_c]

1. personally, I find the political talk radio format obnoxious...

...whether right wing obnoxious or left wing obnoxious, so I have no use for a talk radio archive. Sorry.

My sense is that services like you're providing have to be labors of love, with little expectation that they'll ever become paying enterprises.

[mattclearing]

78. Agreed. There's nothing more annoying than the sound of angry

people essentially agreeing with me. :)

[TheDebbieDee]

2. Hi, Ben......

I've visited your site a few times, but, as I've only been working for a few weeks after a really long layoff, it will be some time before I can donate money.

Maybe you could keep just the last 6 months to current airings in the archives - that would save you some bandwidth, wouldn't it?

Also, I think Sam Seder from Majority Report will be becoming really popular in the near future, at least, that's my hope. He made some repuke poodle jump through hoops in a debate on CNN the other day.

Anyway, I hope I will be able to contribute soon, to your site and to DU.

[DELUSIONAL]

3. set up a pay-pal or charge -- download X number

of programs for X amount?

I wonder if people have to pay a small fee they would realize the value of the service you offer?

Once I get DSL or a faster wireless connection I plan to use White Rose more often so that I can listen to my favorite programs -- when I have the time. And I wouldn't mind paying a fee for this service.

[Tace]

4. Dear Ben -- I Feel That It's A Matter Of Marketing

Top sites are getting $50/1000 page impressions (visitors/day, not hits). So, even 100,000 page impressions/week would gross you $5000/week -- enough to cover costs, pay yourself and and one or two others an OK salary and expand.

I've been holding back on the marketing of the World News Trust site because we're still in a prototype stage, and I don't feel that we're ready for prime time. However, I'd like to discuss possibilities with you. Let's e-mail one another. I've got to go to a school function for one of my kids in a little while, but I'll be back later today.

I don't listen to talk radio much either, but I'm interested in providing a real-time news service, including internet radio and TV. Cheers, Francis Goodwin

[electropop]

17. Simple: Google or Yahoo ads.

They're pretty easy to hook into, and they attempt to match your site's content. Then you just collect the checks. My wife's got 'em on her site and it's a decent deal. Not $5,000/week, but it pays for the server & bandwidth.

[benburch]

28. I'll look into it.

I had google ads on my site at one time, but somebody who likes the site decided to "improve" my revenues by doing lots of clicks, and google pulled my account.

I'll check into the yahoo ads.

[benburch]

32. How would you go about marketing a site like mine?

Nothing I have tried really works.

[MissWaverly]

40. Ben, I don't use your site, because I have satellite radio

but I go on a site that is pretty wacky, the first page is graphics and headlines and
if you want to listen you have to pay a subsciption fee, that gives you a log on and a password that takes you to the mp-3 listings, they put up a month's worth at one time and add about 10 a week. It works for them.

[EFerrari]

5. Hey, Ben.

Will Durst is going on AAR here locally with Willie Brown! I hope you find a way to keep WRS going because I rarely have time to listen to people when they're actually on.

:kick:

[sojourner]

6. hey ben!

i have used the archives and i White Rose is very useful to those who want to be able to tune into talk radio -- i hate it when i miss mike malloy!

donating - gulp! - i have been really struggling this last few months so no extra to kick your way. literally. cuz i do donate when i can as i realize that you are a real person with real financial needs, just like me.

anyway, here's your kick AND nomination!

[MadisonProgressive]

7. I never really looked at your site until now

You have a lot of archives that I would like to listen to, particularly Malloy, which I don't get to listen to that often. I'm checking it out now, thanks!

[benburch]

29. You're welcome!

Please enjoy it!

[Lerkfish]

8. K&R

I will comment in a separate post.

[Just Me]

9. Sorry to hear about the tough knocks, there, Ben.

Tace seems to have some good advice for you. Moreover, if this venture serves as your sole source of income, perhaps, you might consider toning it down to a part-time commitment in order to save yourself and your service/venture.

Best wishes to you, Ben. :hug:

[benburch]

33. Yes...

Problem is that when I am doing a full time job there is nobody to fix the streaming issues that occur virtually every day here. When I am working the quality goes WAY down.

I'd stop being poor though. I have no trouble finding $40 an hour consulting gigs when I am doing what I do. (Before Shrub got this country, I was commanding $100 an hour...)

[Yollam]

10. I think it's a valuable service

But I wouldn't keep hosting the mp3's of the various shows into perpetuity.

I'd keep about a month's worth up, then keep a smaller stash of the best shows from past months and years, which you could be your faves, plus the top three most downloaded shows of each month or something like that.

Just an idea. Airamericaradioplace.com also provides mp3s - their strong point is that their mp3s have no commercials. Your strong suit is that your mp3s are up and ready soon after the show airs, they take up to a day to get them up.

Good luck with the fundraising, I donated once but am too broke right now.

Have you approached advertisers? Ads wouldn't bug me at all...

[Zen Democrat]

11. I always download Malloy when I've missed his show.

There nowhere on the web that I can find same-day downloads of programming. Ben, I love White Rose and will be donating AFTER Christmas. Thanks for what you do.

[dutchdemocrat]

12. Branch into Television

a la Crooks and Liars.

People want visuals too and they are doing very, very well.

[ohio_liberal]

41. I think that's the way to go

It's a lot of work and probably requires some new hardware. But I think it would drive people to the site, especially during campaigns. People want to see their candidates on TV.

Is Crooks & Liars just one guy?

[dutchdemocrat]

43. No,

I think it's a couple of guys. Now people send stuff in.

You can do it with TIVO or - like me - I have cable streaming on my PC using German technology.

Called PCTV

http://www.pinnaclesys.com/publicsite/uk/Products/Consumer+Products/PCTV/PCTV/PCTV+RAVE.htm

Works great. Need a big hard drive though.

And you have to hang around and tape as well as comb what other people are releasing and disseminating on the net.

[ohio_liberal]

68. Wow, that is extremely cool

I have an old HP Writer to capture and upload video. This is much much cheaper, looks easier to use too.

[LSK]

13. it is extremely valuable to me as i download Malloy the next day

And listen to his show at work.

[Al-CIAda]

14. .

[Armstead]

15. A great site -- Don't know how to make it pay though

It's a valuable service and a very impresive site, in terms of the obvious work you put into it.

I use it at times to download shows, and always appreciate it.

But I admit, with guilt, that I can't afford to donate. I think part of the problem with the Internet is that it offers a lot of venues, but it's difficult to financially support it all. There are so many worthwhile sites and shows on the net -- both non-profit and commercial services -- that one wants to donate to. But can't support all of it, especially when one's own finances are limited. So one has to eitehr dole out or buy services selectively, and try to spread it around over time.

(It's the same reason I had to let my star at DU lapse for a while. I'm going to donate to DU shortly when I get a little ahead.)

It's a dilemma. You could charge for access, but that would limit the exposure poeple have to the ideas on the shows if they can't get them otehrwise.

Maybe if you got a little more aggressive about seeling advertising or participatingin ad pools. Or on the otehr end, looking for some kind of underwriting mixed with individual donations.

Another idea might be to join forces with similar websites.

Dunno, but I do hope you can figure out a way to keep going, as it is a needed and appreciated service. And hpefully I'll be in a position at some point reasonable soon to make a small donation.

[GrpCaptMandrake]

16. K&R

[walldude]

19. K&R

I make occasional use of the archives Ben, not enough to donate on a regular basis though. Hate to see the site go down though, maybe some advertisements would help. I know alot of people complaign about ads but running the site at a loss is not good....

[The Witch]

18. Rec'd. I'd contribute. Maybe in terms of suggestions

you can make it a little more straightforward to get to the various pages/archives (I recall getting to Randi archives being somewhat roundabout) and break up the mp3s by segment so they're not so big? I'll probably be overruled by the rest of DU, tho ;) )

[FreedomAngel82]

20. I really like the place

If I want to listen to a show from AAR I go to AARPlace but sometimes they don't have stuff up as quick as you do. So I think you're valuable. Do you think though you can add more progressive hosts? Maybe the guy Lionel? If not than it's okay but I do like your site and I think it's a great service.

[troubleinwinter]

21. A tiny idea....

I think it might be of a bit of help to draw more visitors to the site (hopefully more visitors = more donations) if you put the WRS GRAPHIC in your signature. The small lettering in sigs is mostly overlooked I think, and many are not aware of WRS.

[benburch]

31. I'll look into that!

Thanks!

You know I am not a graphic artist AT ALL. I have approximately zero artistic talent.

[troubleinwinter]

36. PM me!

[nashville_brook]

22. it's the same problem all media is having right now

there's 3 options. charge for content. charge for demographic reach (ads). or sell product.

i don't think it's a situation where you'd want to charge for content. i think you might do better to seek partnerships to help with the bandwidth issue and work on associated products to sell to your visitors. do trades with the shows you are hosting to drive traffic to the product offerings.

products might include schwag, like t-shirts thru cafe press. publishing, like "best of" collections of the shows on CD. there's the buzzflash approach of offering books thru the site at a markup for "donation."

it's not easy.

do you have stats on traffic that could attract paying advertisers? what's this Liberal Advertisers thing on the bottom of DU's ad column? is that something you could plug into?

seems like you're at a place where White Rose either needs to grow or it will suffer. i know the exhaustion of doing stuff like this for little money. at some point you look at it as a 'finished' product or decide to build on the foundation. either way, it's a transformation that's ahead.

[EFerrari]

23. kick

[EFerrari]

24. Ben, how would I sign up to send you a few dollars a month?

We never have much all at the same time, but I could do a small monthly deal.

Do you have a set up?

[benburch]

30. Yes!

http://www.WhiteRoseSociety.org/Donate.html

[Surya Gayatri]

25. Please find some way

to keep your site up on the web, Ben. I've found it to be a wonderful resource for access to a wide range of progressive radio hosts that I could never hear otherwise (as an expatriot living abroad). I'm currently unemployed, but will donate when I can. Thanks for all of your admirable work. SG

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[NJCher]

26. charge a nominal amount per show plus some ads

I think you've been given some good advice and lots of interesting ideas here.

Lots of people will be getting iPods and mp3 players for Xmas; hope you can hold on 'til then.

I haven't used the site much but I certainly will donate when I start using it, probably more in January when I have semester break




Cher

[benburch]

37. I have looked into micropayments...

There are some issues;

1. I have permission to give away these recordings, but no permission to charge for them, with the exception of Thom Hartmann who gets paid significant royalties for the material.

2. Micropayments require account setup and lots of things that make a barrier to getting to the material. Most causal users would just go away in disgust.

3. Many people do not have credit cards, or are too poor to pay anything. I want to serve them too.

Ideally, what I want is everybody who uses the site to chip in $1 a month. With about 3000 regular users, this would pay for the site and keep my bills paid.

[NJCher]

46. $1 a month is very reasonable

I see what you mean about the micropayments.

I would have no qualms whatsoever about paying that amount ($12). I am trying to think of ways to get people to sign up for that en masse.

Secondly, it is too bad AA doesn't sub-contract with you. This would solve a lot of problems for them and you, too. Wonder if there is anyone who reads on this board who could act as liaison and get things to the table.

I also totally agree with the posters who suggest that cutting back the programs to a 60-day holding only might be a good way to cut back on expenses.




Cher

[rman]

27. White Rose is one of the main audio archives

as far as i am concerned.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

34. If it wasn't for it. I could not listen to Malloy during the daytime.

I used to contribute money until my wife wa slaid off. Now that she has a job I'm planning on continuing with my support (it's not much that I can afford).

[benburch]

38. See, this is why I don't want to REQUIRE payment.

And please, please do NOT give what you cannot afford! What I want is for people who have discretionary money to give small monthly donations; The equivalent of a couple of doughnuts or a coffee from each of the 3000 regular users would be more than sufficient.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

67. Now I can and will. BTW have I mentioned yet today how much.........

Keep it up, peace.

[lildreamer316]

35. We need to find a way to

market it to other liberal blogs and websites. This would also be a good time for me and you to push the idea (alread suggested to Skinner but then we both got involved in other things)of DU voting on one or two liberal websites/blogs of the month; then these would be prominently featured on one of the main pages of DU. THAT would probably increase traffic to valuable sites such as yours.i'm going to re-write this proposal and give it its own thread; but back to the original first point...how can we figure out a way to get you featured on more liberal sites/blogs?

[LSK]

39. have you talked to Mike Malloy or anyone at AAR about funding?

What about a link exchange system or some sort?

[benburch]

42. I have tried to get AAR to contract with me for literally years.

And I have not had any luck whatsoever.

They plan their own archives, and have planned their own archives for YEARS, but have not as yet done it.

I offered to do comprehensive daily archives of all of their content and feed them substantial royalties without them having to do more than give me a reliable feed such as affiliate stations get, and I could give them complete archives in about one month's lead time...

I wish I knew why they won't take me up on the offer!

Every month they delay putting up archives is a month's revenue they will never regain.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

69. That's not cool at all. n/t

[LincolnMcGrath]

44. Question? Does it cost MORE to keep very old archives.

Would it be cheaper to keep them available only for say 60 days?

[MadisonProgressive]

45. I just paypaled you Ben

[Swamp Rat]

47. kick and recommended

[proud patriot]

48. It's a great service Ben

:D
I'm proud to be a $2 a month subscriber

I hope ideas come flying :hug:

[nadinbrzezinski]

49. Ben first thing

LOOK INTO LINUX and LINUX open source software. It will be transparent to the user but you will save a fortune.

Trust me, I am running a game company on a shoe string ok... and my options for layout were, Quark Express, 1100 a copy, Frame Maker, 799 or ... Open Office, 40 bucks for the how to book for version one and did not even get the book for version two. Now dutifully waiting for Scribus for WIN... and I fear I will wait a while for that one... but that is my first recommendation

The second, make this a subcription service. Yes people should expect a freebie or two, as trials, but after that... you are not running a charity.

Hope this helps

[EFerrari]

51. I agree. I couldn't afford much but would be willing

to subscribe. We live simply in order to be able to spend on the things that really matter to us.

WhiteRose really matters. :)

[nadinbrzezinski]

52. I cannot afford it right now

so I just don't use it... otherwise I need to give money we don't have right now...

Hell running a business still in the red, ok it is first year and we are not putting that much money in anyway but...

[EFerrari]

53. Ha! Try being a writer married to a comedian.

LOL!

No, my friend, don't try it.

We really do cut everything down the bone. Even gave up the car (and we can, living in a city with a muni system) so we could contribute a few bucks here and there.

I'd really like to see Ben make a go of this, in whatever way it is workable. It's a wonderful resource.

:)

[nadinbrzezinski]

54. Maybe then we can commiserate with each other

bout them months at times that it takes to get rejections from major publishers becuase they don't publish anything critical any more...

;-)

Yep, my major frustration and why I am using my game to release them frustrations

[EFerrari]

55. Sure! I got a lovely rejection last week.

Best one yet. I was honored.

:rofl:

On the other hand, we just did a first run through of a one man show we're writing today.

I wouldn't trade this for anything. Is that right? Yep, I wouldn't.

:party:

[nadinbrzezinski]

58. I submited a short

to one of the major sci fi trades that ahem, took on the religious nuts by the proverbial balls... I got that rejection, even though it was set in another world, far, far away... in oh seven days. That was a record...

[EFerrari]

59. Wow. They must have really liked it to reject it so quickly!

I've just gone into meditation mode about this whole deal.

We are circus people. We have no health insurance nor any pension plan.

Feh.

[Liberal In Texas]

50. I suspect you are going to have to find a different business plan.

If you are not willing to have this as a hobby, then you have to figure out how to make it a paying business.

(I know, I'm stating the obvious.)

I think your service is quite valuable as a resource; I always know it is there if I want to do a little research, or catch a program I really wanted to listen to.

I must admit I have never donated, not because I haven't felt I would like to, but it's the old economic problem. I suspect many of your fans are in this position. Plus, even if all of us got really good jobs and could donate $100/mo., it still might not be enough to get you in the black.

Making your archives for pay is (as you've stated) problematic. It probably wouldn't work anyway.

Therefore, advertising seems to be the only way to bring in a dependable revenue stream and make this a business and not a hobby.

Personally, I wouldn't care if you had wall-to-wall ads, as long as I can still navigate the site. Nobody likes pop-ups, but most of us use those blockers anyway.

Just my 2 cents, capitalism still works (I think. As I had to drive to Waco, Tx today to do a job. Ugh.)

Ben, I wish you well on figuring out a new and better "business model" for you.

[Liberal In Texas]

56. Responding to my own reply, I will be sending you a token donation

as well as to our friend Guy and DU at the end of this month, if the "late-paying" people I contract with pay the promised $ they owe ME! And they owe me a bunch right now.

Just a little X-mas present for all of us.

Again, I hope you can figure it out.

-L

[benburch]

84. Thanks!

And I suspect you are right about needing a different business plan.

[garybeck]

57. are you charging the radio broadcasters?

I would ask them for some bucks. they are getting a lot of exposure for your service.

[KharmaTrain]

60. Surely Ye Jest...

Many of these stations are probably looking for ways to charge Ben for putting them on his site.

From one who worked many years in radio, cheap is not only a way of life, it's rewarded.

[EFerrari]

70. Most radio stations seem to be run

as if sugar is being rationed. lol

[KharmaTrain]

72. If You Only Knew...LOL

I used to joke about a boss paraphrazing Mike Ditka's slam at George Halas when he offered Ditka a real lowball contract: "The man throws nickles around like manhole covers". My corollary was this owner threw around nickles like the damn sanitation department. At the time, we had a staff of 20 full-time and another 20 part-time people staffing the place 24/7. Today, the owner, amazingly is still there, but he now only has 4 employees...one is an engineer/computer geek, the other sells and does (cooks) the books...everything else is done by computers, satellites and brokerage. He was going to sell when the prices were high, but got very greedy and now when the market is stagnant and starting to decline, he's stuck with depreciating properties. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

:rofl:

:hi:

[EFerrari]

73. Omigod!

LOL! Doug has a lot of buddies in radio and on the road often has to go in in the wee hours of the morning to do interviews. We usually take coffee and doughnuts in to them.

:rofl:

[KharmaTrain]

76. I Know Those Coffee And Donuts

my favorite story is coming into a small suburban station...sometime late 1990...6am Sunday morning. I was there to engineer a Hunting and Fishing show hosted by the self-annointed Johnny Carson of Bass fisherman. Bleary-eyed (as usual) I walked in and sure enough sitting in the break room was Ted Nugent...snarfing donuts and sucking down coffee like he was chugging beer. Somehow someone had hooked up Nuge with Bass-Ass (that's my nickname for him...LOL)...Nugent had just played with Damn Yankees the night before (and probably was speeding his ass off) and was sitting in a decrepid radio studio ready to talk bow hunting.

The show was a classic...sadly I wasn't able to roll tape. The highlight was when Bass-Ass opened the phone lines. The station ran a delay, but who was gonna ever call in to swear about the best way to bait? Anyway, in the studio is Nugent, Bass-Ass and his co-host...an elderly man who just happened to be a multi-millionaire and paid for Bass-Ass's radio time. We open up the phone lines and the lines go crazy...everyone wants to say hello to the "Motor City Madman". One caller asked Nugent if he ever took his wife on his hunting trips...Nugent replied "Now you don't leave your poon-tang at home". Everyone in the studio lost it...including yours truly...Bass-Ass (a Vietnam Vet) had the look of death on his face, frantically motioning me to hit the "dump" button. I pretended...and kept on laughing. Bass-Ass's co-host was totally lost...he saw us laughing and his buddy white as a ghost...after a bambi in the headlights moment he started laughing with the rest of us. After the show, someone explained to him what the word meant...and it still took 3 tries.

:rofl:

[benburch]

89. In my fantasies we buy a station like that.

And make the RWers regret that they ever sold it.

[KharmaTrain]

91. This Guy Was/Is A Right Winger...LOL

I saw some financials on this place not long ago...he was barely paying to keep the lights on in the place :rofl:

20 years ago, when I worked for the moron, he was billing over $1 mil a year in advertising revenues, had a private plane and built a McMansion.

I'll be happy when the long-running radio financing ponzi schemes start exploding and imploding...as they're about to do...then pick up the pieces.

Cheers...

[benburch]

87. You are exactly right.

Many radio networks seem to be living under the delusion that there is HUGE MONEY in archiving.

There isn't, but I am convinced that it is possible to have a revenue stream from it that makes streaming and archiving self-supporting.

And I am doing this NOT because I see a path to riches but because it simply was not being done before I did it!

[Kellanved]

61. Personally, I don't like the name

It don't want an in-depth discussion here, I am sure you have your good reasons.

It is simply that the name draws up a parallel with the Scholl group, which were active in the middle of WW2 and who paid with their lives. Using that for a political website in a democratic country doesn'T seem right.

[rman]

71. That's the very reason why i like the name of the site.

The name of the site doesn't merely "draw up a parallel" with the Scholl group - it is intentional.
The Scholl group paid with their lives while fighting an information war for democracy. You might not be familiar with the sentiments of many DU-ers wrt America's democracy.

[Kellanved]

74. Yes, I am aware of that

I think it is one thing to call the political enemy a Nazi; it is bad style/wrong/pointless, but that's not the issue here.
My problem is assuming the name of a group of resistance martyrs. It is more than a statement about the other side; it is adding a gravity and a historic comparison that is essentially without basis, a illusion of grandeur.
Nothing against a Scholl fan-club, but using the deeds of the Scholl siblings in everyday political struggles equals selling them under their worth.

[rman]

75. I'd hardly call what we have now "-everyday- political struggles"

I think there is enough of a basis to warrant the comparison.

If it would be true that calling another nazi is never warranted, it implies that nazism could never reoccur.

[Kellanved]

77. I don't think so

Do you honestly believe that anybody is in any danger to get sentenced to death for printing flyers or - well - having a website?

And the dangers of fascism are precisely the reason why it shouldn't be used too often. Keyword "wolf".

[nadinbrzezinski]

79. Ask Jose Padilla

that is how the fascist started in germany too... they are pushing to see how far we will tolerate this.

I assume I am on somebody's list now... I also assume that if they win... we might have this conversation at a reeducation camp, if we are lucky

[Kellanved]

80. You see, that is the problem with using comparisons

Whatever one fights at the moment, there always is the need to use brands. Not even new, original brands; no some brand for which a basic awareness already exists. The enemy is not evil enough on his own, let's call him Big McEvil (TM), or just short, Hitler. Our own actions don't get recognized by enough people, let's use Whopper of Good (TM).

And here you see why the use of the old name is wrong: if it were worthy of the name, there would be no need for recycling the old name. Any phrase would do. This culture of raiding the tombs of fallen heroes has to stop.

[nadinbrzezinski]

93. Really

remind me how history is written, and why we bother keeping a historical record then... reaching for the profesional historian's hat right at the moment....

[Kellanved]

95. Do you believe history is only there for cheap slogans?

If history is worthless to you, except as a source for inaccurate keywords, then I don't know why you are even bothering.

There are lessons to be learned from history, and we always should heed its warnings. But that will become increasingly hard to do, when all political groups use plainly incorrect terms at every opportunity. Superficial similarities are not sufficient basis for an equation, especially not when all contradicting evidence gets conveniently ignored.


They want to take the guns away. They are/She is like Hitler.
We are against the current administration. Just like the Resistance.
We are the Minutemen.
We are the new ...
...

Don't you see that there is an inflation going on? Don't you see the insult to the victims?


Finally, don't get me wrong. Such equations are cause for fun debates and the occasional good joke among people on the same side. But the hard truth is: they will never work as an instrument of communicating a position to the broader public. Actually they will always result in the exact opposite. There is no surer way to sink a cause, than basing it on a Nazi equation.

[Fenris]

81. The word fascist applies exclusively to the Italian government

Under Mussolini that existed from 1922 until 1943. On the surface, there are many similar characteristics in terms of tactics, but there are many differences in the Italian fascism and Germany's National Socialism. For example, fascism was based primarily on the idea of everything existing for the glory of the state, whereas Nazism employed the idea that the race should be glorified.

The tactics might be similar, but the ideology was quite different.

[Zuni]

82. actually, the only two constants in Nazi ideology

were the leadership principle and the racial theories. Everything else was subject to change according to Hitler's demands at the time
there was no real nazi doctrine that lasted throughout their rule aside from those two

[Fenris]

86. Yep.

:hi:

[benburch]

88. And I think Mussolini *is* a better comparison for Bush.

But the White Rose is still the inspiration for what I do, and that is not going to change.

[rman]

94. "tactics might be similar" - indeed, in practice the two are very similar

Not much of a surprise really since both are form of despotism, in other words; lack of democracy.
If that is not an over-arching principal, i don't know what is. Despots lead not by means of transparency, but by means of deception, seduction, intimidation, violence etc. How exactly those manifest is not a principal matter.

[benburch]

83. First, relatives of the Scholls have endorsed my work...

Second, I think that we are no longer a Democracy here in the United States. That ended in December 2000 with the Supreme Court decision in Bush v Gore, and the nonsense with electronic voting machines has made it obvious that this will never be a Democracy again unless we can spread the truth.

Finally, I believe that Bush is literally a fascist. I take no liberties there whatsoever. And he is as evil and capable of evil deeds as any fascist.

The parallels with the Fascists of the 30s and 40s cannot be more clear to me.

[nicknameless]

62. K&R

[BlueEyedSon]

63. Drop the AAR archives, they are done well by Air America Place

Less disk, less bandwidth for you. Concentrate on your niche.

redesign the site, have a blog portion (if you want those charts and commentary) and get the archive links (your main content) closer to the top

create a community (let listeners post comments for show episodes, for example)

Let users RATE show episodes (stars, numerically), so others can pick recent top rated ones to listen to.

[OnionPatch]

64. Well, I use it

I LOVE your website. I subscribe to the Thom Hartmann archives and download a program several times a month. I listen live almost daily. I've contributed 20 bucks here and there. Guess I'm due again. :) Wish I could afford to give more and I wish I could give you some advice. Is it possible to get ads for your site onto some other liberal websites or do you already do that? That probably cost some bucks too. Do you ask the programs to mention your site on the air as a source for archives? I'm pretty clueless about it all. I hope someone else has some good advice for you because I love your site and I'll really miss it if you stop. But I want to say thanks for what you do. Good luck.

[Tinksrival]

65. Hi Ben

My son downloads automatically to his ipod daily to White Rose so he has something for his commute. I know he depends on it.
He has never been a DU poster and found White Rose though DailyKos I think. If I can get an ipod for myself I would do the same.
I would rather do that then get satellite radio.

[Senator]

66. Suggestions >>

Hi Ben.

First, your radio archive is extremely valuable.

It's just that it's not all that valuable in a commercial sense. Which is not to say that its (limited commercial) value cannot be sufficiently exploited to keep you and it afloat. But as others above have said, the way to do this is to expand beyond "charitable" donations for maintenance.

Now, since you only have permission to archive the shows, quite naturally you'd be reluctant to "profit" from them directly (in fact you may well be explicitly restricted). But that only means you can't engage in a commercial venture with the material. You'd have to discuss it with the copyright owners, but there's no reason you can't use some of the material, or charge for access, as a "premium" for "membership" in the organization - whose purpose is to house the archive, not make a profit.

The idea of creating "best of" highlight offerings seems to be a good one. You might even do it regularly (yearly/monthly) and provide it as a "benefit of membership." It could even be in the form of an "audio newsletter," which is a common product of non-profits.

I would also suggest that you look into getting permission to market the archive to media outlets, as a research database. You can be explicit that you offer no rebroadcast rights, just the information as aired. Media companies and even individuals are often very quick to lay out money for compiled information (lexus-nexis, newspaper archives). Anything to help them stay in their chairs to find things out.

Something that would help in such an effort, and that I think would help in general, would be to separate out the archive from the "society" in your web presence. You can still leave the society page as is, but register a new domain name specific to the archive. Something like leftyradio.org or libradio.org (both available). This is just basic marketing clarity.

As far as micropayment access, I've seen your objections above and agree. But you might consider some less-than-draconian options in that direction. Perhaps giving full, free access for only a limited period of time, then requiring micropayments. You can also just keep recent shows free and only "provide membership access" for older material.

A consultation with an attorney specializing in non-profits could be quite useful. Just keep in mind that even paying yourself as custodian of the archive is not a commercial, profit-making venture and so not necessarily restricted by copyright law.

Hope this helps.

--
www.january6th.org

[benburch]

85. Thanks so much, everybody!

All valuable comments, and I'm digesting them now.

[Poiuyt]

90. I love listening to your programs but I never go far back into the

archives. I have never listened to any program more than a few days old. I don't know how much you spend keeping all the older programs.

[B Calm]

92. Ben you do a great service, and I only have one suggestion,

I'm not sure how time consuming it would be for you, but if you edited out the commercials, the downloads would be easier to listen to and much faster to download.

[spooked]

96. WOW! I can't believe I had never seen your site before!

It's awesome!

As far as funding, maybe you could get a Democratic organization to "sponsor" you and get traffic to their site too...

[Hekate]

97. Kick

:kick:

Hekate