Articles: Internet Radio – Pimped and Streaming – 65

Fleet FM almost didn’t happen. Twice.

The first time, Jamie Connor’s mum sent the radio transmitter he’d ordered on the internet (after watching Pump Up the Jam) back: it was so high powered she worried it’d only be a matter of time before the SAS came knocking on her door.

The second time, well… there wasn’t enough FM frequency to go around and there was the small matter of needing to find a broadcasting studio in central Auckland for little or no money.

Thankfully, Jamie kept thinking it was all totally possible and had a go despite the seemingly insurmountable hurdles. Perhaps the first good sign of things to come was that this time round his mum didn’t send the transmitter back.

Thursday, July 18 2003 and the low-power, freeform (the DJs have control over their content) Fleet FM is born. From the very start the station is totally eclectic. One hour it’s ‘death metal, black metal, thrash metal, glam metal, heavy metal’ and the next it’s ‘hell is now love: psychedelia dream noise’. Such diversity makes talking about the Fleet community difficult, because there’s really nothing that unites them other than their dedication to the station and a kind of gonzo joy in spreading the love.

Jamie says you could think of Fleet’s community like a pile of freshly cut hair: there are long bits, short bits, dark bits, highlights… all separate bits collected together in a curious pile.
Other than three changes of address, the most notable things that have happened at Fleet are its expansion into Wellington and then the world via live web streaming, and the arrival of some seriously flash new radio gear.

Jamie believes Fleet’s web-streaming expansion was inevitable, particularly given its low-power FM frequency. He notes that most radio stations – from the little to the large – have made a similar web-streaming move. Do they have to? Truth is, no one knows. As Jamie sees it though, web streaming is a little like a business card: you gain far more by having one than not.

“People are stoked with [Fleet web-streaming]. Everyone sees the future in it. Everyone is very excited about the mystery of the potential audience. They’re like, ‘Wow, in theory this makes it accessible to the world.’ Everyone is sold on the potential.”

Thus far the biggest frustrations Jamie’s encountered in web-streaming Fleet are the common culprits: internet regulations, data caps, limited bandwidth and the tortuously slow drip-feeding of technology. He says that while New Zealand’s internet radio regulations here aren’t too bad – you pay your annual $200 or so to APRA – there’s a worry New Zealand will follow in the steps of America, with huge royalties and performance regulations driving internet radio almost to extinction.

The other frustration he has is that Fleet isn’t hosted on our shores simply because, at this stage, it’s just not feasible.

Like many of Fleet’s DJs, Frank Gibson, who has a show called ‘Caboose Cuts’, agrees with Jamie that web-streaming has done great things for Fleet.

“Internet radio is fantastic, it just brings us to more people and, furthermore, it brings us in a higher quality format. With podcasts, the shows aren’t disappearing after their airing, which in addition to gaining us a new audience, also makes us do a little better because everything we do will be there in the ether… [The] biggest pro of internet radio is being able to broadcast to other countries (and the rest of New Zealand, for that matter).”

Broadcasting ‘out there’ is something Fleet DJs can now do with much more confidence given the serious ‘pimping’ the station’s had recently. Cheers Pioneer! It’s an upgrade Frank and the other Fleet DJs are thrilled about.

“The new DJ gear is basically fantastic. We’ve dealt with some pretty interesting gear over the years, pretty much held together with No. 8 fencing wire and some masking tape.”

In fact, if you wrote Fleet a school report card you’d have to give it an ‘A’ for resourcefulness. From the way the station’s funding and server in the United States has been sourced, to the fact the DJs pay to do their shows, to the use of gigs as fundraising events – as a radio station and stream, Fleet could certainly teach the others a thing or two about how to stay alive without having to sell your soul.

Pioneer CDJ800Mk2 CD Player $1799

Pioneer DJM600 Mixer  $1899

Fleet FM needed a DJ mixer and two DJ CD players that met the expectations of the 60-plus DJs from all musical spheres who do their stuff on the station every week. Luckily for them, Pioneer fronted up with this serious setup: the CDJ800Mk2 CD player and the DJM600 mixer. 

Several months down the track, the Pioneer gear is not only proving amazingly resilient to the punishment it gets on a daily basis, it’s also proving an inspiration to DJs who can now beat-match discs until the cows come home.

We’re dealing with innovative stuff here, which is geared up for a professional situation, but certainly not beyond the pocket of those would-be DJs who want to make it their at-home listening station.

So what’s special about this Pioneer DJ gear? Let’s start with the CDJ800Mk2, which has a lovely way of mimicking all the retro functions DJs love so much when they’re playing vinyl, but is totally state of the art. Here’s a CD deck that goes that little bit further, with looping facility, digital connectivity (so that it can be the centre of a digital environment), and it can even play MP3s. Oh, and its jog wheel is awesome, as is the new and improved LCD display. Basically, the CDJ800Mk2 just has too many great features to mention.

The same could be said of the DJM600 mixer, which has a sampler, BPM counter and, lest we forget, a full four channels, as well as an array of digital effects that will keep any party pumping – in fact, the effects can even be timed with the beat of the music.

Thanks Pioneer, you’ve made an extended community of music-mad DJs very happy.