Those of you that watch twitter, may have noticed some discussion break out as a result of Damon and Liam's suggestion to make NHB great again. Their comment was an obvious reference to Trump's whole make America great again slogan. This immediately brought to mind the idea to parody the call for unity in this country by calling for unity among the stations. And then the shit hit the fan.
See, I think its pretty damned stupid that there exists 2 NHB streams. There's really no reason that we need 2 streams with the same name. But, it's due to stupid circumstance that we ended up here, and further stupidity that no one really wants to do anything to try and remedy it. After years of drama between Damon and the staff of NHB Radio, Damon walked and abandoned his station. In my opinion, when he walked away from it, he abandoned the name as well, leaving it with the station. So I was quite offended when he decided to bring his show back, he decided to do it in a manner that brought up a competing stream up against us, using the name we had all been using for years along with him, and were still using, that he had abandoned. Yes, it is true that he had been using the name for his show for years, and still felt ownership and claim to that name. But that doesn't make it right to reuse a name you left behind with someone else. Once could say he made a mistake leaving the name, and that he regretted it, but that was his mistake he made. And instead of dealing with it in a mature manner and discussing the matter with those of us still using that name, he came after us, and even went right up against my time slot. Something which may have been unintentional, but the whole thing came off like a total dick move.
But, I digress.
At the end of the day, despite the huge disagreements that exist between Damon and I on how NHB should have been run, how the name should be treated, and how we should deal with the ridiculous existence of 2 NHB streams, we're good friends and get along great. So at the end of the day, I really don't care all that much. I'd like to see this division/redundancy end one way or another, but whatever. So the streams continue to co-exist, and we've been allowed to stream on their NHB show stream. And perhaps all is well enough. But the thing is, I still believe in the things Damon once believed in. Damon and Liam are doing great things with their show, and I enjoy calling in from time to time, or hearing from them, and we exist on the same stream because we're connected in some way, because we are friends. And so it seems we've started on a path to be a part of a whole. They may try to describe it as letting us use their show stream to piggy back off of their listeners. But that's not how I see it at all. I see it as joining forces with them in a way. Kind of like the start of the NHB Network, before things got messy. But Damon and Liam seem to be too fixated on where the network got to eventually, instead of where it got to before things got a little out of control.
Anyways, at this point, where are we? The NHB network consist of myself, Dune, Vamp, and another show called outlaw radio, using a server run by Rico that runs rarely updated automation. Pointing to automation as an example of whats wrong with our network is a common topic. But that is something I have no control over. I have nothing against Rico, he's been keeping NHB running for years as a free service. But the way it's been maintained is a big part of the problem. Since it's free, it means things get done when Rico has time for it. And access to these things are very limited. Over the years, I typically had many ideas to try and fix automation, freshen it up a bit, and make something new out of it. Every time I brought up any of these ideas, it turned into a fucking battle with no one backing me up. This is a maddening situation to be in, especially when you have a bitchy owner like Damon that's always running his mouth about how awful things are, how no one never does anything, despite him having no idea or direction himself on how the network should be run. I can't tell you how many times Damon would pull this crap, usually very publicly, making us look rather bad and dysfunctional, and I responded by trying to help with whatever it was he was dissatisfied by, only to have him not back me at all, or help me with any of this. This ultimately resulted in a situation where I told off everyone, and basically stated I was having no more of this and wouldn't be doing a damn thing for the station, including connecting to their stream for my show, unless they took some action towards the things I had been screaming for for all these years. This resulted in Rico firing me from the station, and Damon not backing me up at all.
Given the years of drama any attempt to make the network great again, I basically decided right then and there that any return to the network would be about my show only, and I'd have no more thoughts or attempts on contributing any to the network as a whole as far as automation or management goes. And I've been much happier for that.
Now, to be fair, Damon wasn't exactly in a position to do much. But, he was responsible for the position he got himself into in the network. He relied too much on other people to maintain things, and allowed it to get to a point where it was an impossible thing to maintain without those people, and refused to do anything to get himself out of that situation. He never went to Rico to talk of desires to be able to be more involved in station maintenance, or to move in a direction of having more staff be able to do more things. He basically resigned himself to being owned by Rico. Nothing against Rico, he was offering a free service. But it got us in a situation where we had very little control, and Damon would bitch about it, blame everyone about it, and then do nothing to help others help him.
This is the history and feelings that lives with me when it comes to the network.
But the thing you have to see is, I endured through all this drama, and even came back to NHB every time after some separation, because NHB, the network, does mean something to me. It's become a part of me. I've put a lot of time and work into creating shows that were a part of the network, being a part of the staff of the network, and trying to make some great things come of all of that. So, we might have an outdated automation. We might have an idle talklist. We might have a smaller staff. We might have less shows, and lower listener numbers. But listener counts and automation bits were never the stuff that made NHB great to me in the first place. It was the people and friendships that made NHB great. That to me is the real NHB. Damon, Liam, Dune, me, Vamp, Rye, Andrew, Bob Stein, that other Bob that Dune's show is named for, Sloan, Zane, Producer Bill, Lisa, no, not that Lisa, Trey Dogg, Neighbor Dyke, the Rite Aid Hippy Chick....ok, maybe I went too far......people have come and gone, some onto other things and are still around on the internet, others you don't hear from as often. Point is, NHB isn't a stream, NHB isn't a network, NHB isn't a show, it's far more than that, it's people. And maybe Damon wants to take his show name, and treat it like that's all it is, just a show name. But it came to be something much bigger than that. NHB is more than a show. Heck, for me, I could even say NHB is a way of life.
So yes, our automation is stale and our counts are low. But NHB is something I live for, and bust my ass for. So, when Damon and his disciples speak words to the effect that the network is dead, or on life support, or needs to be put out of it's misery, you're putting down a huge part of me. You're putting down what I've put a good chunk of my life into, what I live for, what I am. And when you say to someone, you can't do that, you shouldn't do that, you should just give up and quit, what do you say in response to that? Oh, ok, and roll over and die? No, that's when you say, fuck you, NHB lives, and NHB will live forever, and you can't have it from my cold, dead hands.
So, the point is, to Damon, to the long time followers of Damon, and/or the other shows that have been a part of the great internet radio experiment that is No Holds Barred, next time before you think of a stale automation system with low listener counts and come up with words of a dismissive nature about that, think about what you're really talking about. You're talking about something many of us poured our lives into, and live, and breath. You're talking about our blood, sweat and tears. So I don't want to hear any more about this NHB should die bullshit! You're talking about something that is a way of life for some of us. Maybe some changes should be made. I'd love to see a situation in which we have a relevant automation that represents all of NHB, the current show, and the continuing network shows, and a unified force of all that is the real NHB.
But, whatever will be, one thing is for sure. NHB is going nowhere, not as long as I have anything to say about it. So take your naysaying, and stuff it, because LONG LIVE NHB!!!!!!!!
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