HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US!

FOUR YEARS? Simply amazing!

What started as an idea on a long car ride has lasted. RJ (aka The Techie Gnome) was merely curious to see if he could really put a radio station on the internet. I wanted to play the songs of The Magnificent Men, Class Act featuring Rita, Class of 60 Somethin' and a few others for the world to enjoy. Somehow, we got to this.

I remember how cool it was to have 12 hours, then 24 hours of converted mp3 files. "Bubba, we can do an entire day with no repeats!". Along the way FNST Radio has grown that play list to over 2,000 songs. We haven't done it alone, however. You, our listeners and friends, have made suggestions, turned us onto new talent and reminded us of artists we'd long forgotten. This truly has been a group effort.

There are two people who deserve special mention: Ginger Oldham and Dave Bupp. Both have spread the word about FNST to people all over the world. How many of you reading this or listening to the station would have known about it if it wasn't for Ginger's promotional effort? Dave has told me stories about the artists, shared his memories and pointed me toward books that have become indispensable in finding songs as well as keeping facts straight. Both these wonderful people have, also, opened their personal record collections so that we can share them with you. For all of this and most importantly for being great friends, I thank them.

Today's show is special. There are few "hits" in the traditional sense. What it does have is lots of songs by friends and people I admire. I hope you enjoy it.

To our worldwide listeners, thank you for being part of this undertaking. I can't tell you how neat it is to check the listener logs and see isp's from Australia, India, Europe, South America and Africa as well as the US and Canada. Soul Music really is a universal language.

Y'all keep listening and I promise to keep doing this as long as possible.

"Until next week. Take care of yourselves and each other."