For those who don’t know, this month (January 2012), marks a full six years of this ‘EDGE FM’ brand of talk being on the Internet. In late-2005 and going into 2006, it was a very different time for me. I was only 19 years old at the time, I had recently started college and I wanted to major in Computer Science. After having been fascinated by radio (both music and talk), I figured I’d try my hand at podcasting. So I found myself some free webspace and cracked away at making a small website for my eventual show (I had been making websites since 2003).

So, I decided upon the name ‘EDGE FM’ for my show. Why? Well, there was no real reason. It wasn’t because I wanted the show to be edgy or hip, I just thought the name sounded cool. (TRIVIA: The original name for my show was going to be ‘FREE FM’, but after CBS Radio launched their FM talk network in late 2005 with that name, I had to nix that idea.) The next step for me was finding a cohost. I had a fair amount of friends back at that time, but none of them seemed interested in doing an Internet talk show. That was, except for one friend… someone who’s still a very good friend of mine to this day. You might know of him as Phil (or Mongoose).

Phil was interested almost immediately and we started doing shows almost immediately. We had decided early on that we wanted the show to be of a news-variety format with a humorous slant to it (sound familiar?). So each week, we would scour the Internet for stories and present them on the show as well as give our opinions and feelings on each story. Back in those days, production value was almost zero. The way we recorded each show was quite unique as well. At the time, I had an Archos AV320 media player. It was basically a harddrive with a screen. It held movie files, picture files, audio files… basically anything you could throw at it. It would play most of those files right back on the device. It was basically an iPod Touch before anyone knew what an iPod Touch would be. This media player also had a microphone on it to record audio. So that became our recording device (it recorded to MP3 or WAV).

So we realized we also needed a PLACE to do the show. This proved to be a bit tricky as neither of our houses were great places to record and it was tough to have each other over without there being much noise or distractions. So what did we do? We recorded EACH show in my car, (at the time) a 2003 Toyota Camry. We would have the windows closed to minimize noise, set the media player on my dashboard and record the show. Several episodes in, we started playing music (using my car’s CD player). It was truly an archaic way of doing things compared to the way shows are done today but I will say this. Compared to other shows at the time, we had really good sound quality for doing it the way we did. When our show was first listened to, people were shocked at how good it sounded for being recorded in a car. I’m still proud of those very early shows that we did.

Over the years, many things have changed. Phil is no longer associated with the station (it was an amicable parting) and the show grew into a station full of many other shows all under the original ‘EDGE FM’ branding. Going from a pre-recorded show to doing a live show was the biggest change, but the most exciting. There is no feeling like doing a live show with actual people listening. Having the adrenaline flow as you’re about to sign on is just a really great feeling that I think is shared among the other EDGE FM shows and their hosts.

In a weird way, I do miss the old days of doing my show with Phil. The pressures were a lot less and it was fun venturing out into a new hobby trying to find footing and experimenting with different ideas. Today, the stakes are a lot higher and there are much more people involved. While still mainly a hobby, there are times when it gets frustrating and feels like another job. My drive and determination are still around but sometimes you hit a roadblock and wonder if it’s still worth it.

After smacking myself in the face and realizing that I’ve been doing this for six years and that if I just gave up on it, I’d be disappointing a lot of people who have come to know and love this station. Not to mention the many other hosts who have shows and have the opportunity to broadcast via this station. As hard as things get, it’s the fact that people love my creation and support it make the entire thing worthwhile.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank EVERYONE who is a fellow host or a listener/fan of EDGE FM. It is each and everyone of you that honestly keeps me focused on making this station work. There have been a few times where I’ve come to letting this whole operation end abruptly due to frustation but it would be unfair to all of you. So once again, thank you.

It’s been a crazy six years and it’s wild to have seen the things that have gone down. The faces and names that have come and gone and the situations that have arisen. It really makes me curious what the next few years will bring as well. I only have one thing left to say…