WRAJ Internet Radio
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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 WRAJ Internet Radio Homepage in September 2006 |
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| URL | http://www.wrajradio.com |
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| Commercial? | mixed |
| Type of site | entertainment |
| Owner | Jenthony Enterprises, Inc. |
| Created by | Anthony Zaragoza |
WRAJ Internet Radio is an internet radio station originating from the Long Island/New York region. The station plays popular adult contemporary music from the 70s, 80s, 90s, and today. WRAJ Internet Radio complies with the DMCA of 1998, and is licensed with ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC. The station's ratings are usually at the top when it comes to Long Island and New York internet radio stations.
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[edit] Station History
WRAJ Internet Radio's project name was originally AZ (internet) Radio, standing for Anthony Zaragoza Internet Radio, because of issues with employees of the station, the final name was released as WRAJ Internet Radio in summer of 2002.
On January 2nd, 2003, WRAJ Internet Radio was released on the Live365 internet radio network, playing dance music. Then with the demands from listeners and friends of Zaragoza, he released wrajradio.com on April 4, 2003 making the site the official website of WRAJ Internet Radio. And in June 2003, WRAJ Internet Radio took a genre change to adult contemporary from the dance format.
In November 2003, WRAJ Internet Radio releases its annual Holiday Music Station, where holiday music is inserted into the station's playlist without taking its yearly music out of play, except for Christmas day or weekend. Because of the demands from the listerners, WRAJ Internet Radio repeated this in 2004 and 2005. For 2006, Zaragoza is planning to start the holiday music earlier than the previous years He is planning to launch the holiday music the Friday before Thanksgiving instead of after Thanksgiving, which Clear Channel's New York adult contemporary station WLTW did last year which made the biggest market share for the station. However, the staff members were not happy with the announcement, Zaragoza said that this date push is a go. On September 29, 2006, it was announced that the Non-Stop Holiday Music will be expanding to 12 days, unlike 2 days, for the station's first 'The 12 Days of Non-Stop Holiday Music!'
On November 15, 2003, WRAJ Internet Radio began broadcasting in Mp3PRO, which is a codec to make the bitrate double of the original source (such 64k will sound like 128k.). Not all players are not compatiable with the codec that was by RCA, instead listeners will hear the original quality. Live shows were not presented in Mp3PRO until summer 2004.
In June 2004, WRAJ Internet Radio released a new logo that is still used today. Using WRAJ Internet Radio's rainbow line, the WRAJ are in different transparent colors with Internet Radio in standard black target beneath it. And in the back of the logo, which is not often used in print ads, is a purple circle with a blue outline.
Later in June 2004, there were major firings as Zaragoza fired most of the WRAJ Internet Radio team or suspended for six months as one employee believes that the station should be a union employer. According to the station's employement/volunteer applications, it states that the employees of the station should not be unionized or any type of union form. That one employee also had foul language on-air and was fired in the middle of the broadcast; he even called Zaragoza a dictator. A similar situation (besides the foul language on-air) happened on Long Island in the early 1990's at Cablevision's News 12 networks.
In April 2005, WRAJ Internet Radio released its "No Repeat Workday" rule, promising listeners that they will never hear the same song twice from 9AM-5PM (8 hours) (in all time zones). While competing the FM stations across the world including Long Island's WALK-FM, WRAJ Internet Radio is the one of the first stations to feature the rule everyday besides every week day. In early 2006, WRAJ Internet Radio expanded the No Repeat Workday to 15 hours (using the times 6AM - 9PM in all time zones) making the station one of the longest No Repeat Workday Station in the country. According to the No Repeat Workday homepage on wrajradio.com, WRAJ Internet Radio is trying to make the No Repeat Workday 24 hours but they announced it might not happen due to software difficulties.
In August 2005, there was a major shakeup at the WRAJ Internet Radio offices. Jenthony Enterprises, Inc., which is a family company of Zaragoza that started in early 2004, purchased WRAJ Internet Radio for nearly a million dollars for the station and website. With the new ownership of WRAJ Internet Radio, Jenthony Enterprises, Inc. forced the station to leave the Live365 radio network by quarter 2 of 2006 and made WRAJ Internet Radio release new voice overs, jingles, and promotional ideas.
So in October 2005, WRAJ Internet Radio created a new branding package, with new voice overs and jingles. The new station voice overs were done by Pat Matthews, who has a radio station called Beatles-A-Rama and has done radio and TV commercials. The amazing jingle package on WRAJ Internet Radio with over 15 cuts including music beds and holiday jingles were branded from Clear Channel's WASH-FM and produced by TM Century.
Early morning on December 9, 2005, WRAJ Internet Radio studios and offices in Bohemia were forced to evacuate after carbon monoxide detectors were going off. Within hours, it turned out to be the 10 year old carbon monoxide system which lost power, although there were no power outages reported, and the batteries were not inserted correctly to the individual detectors; the next day a new carbon monoxide system was installed to prevent the probelm again. WRAJ Internet Radio continued to broadcast during the evacuation procedure. [1]
In February 2006, WRAJ Internet Radio left the Live365 radio network and used SHOUTcast technology using Loudcity as their licensor. WRAJ Internet Radio used Fusion Radio Chicago (or known as The Pure Mix) as their hosting provider from their headquarters in Chicago; radio stations like Mak Radio and soon Beatles-A-Rama; both friends of WRAJ Internet Radio's manager, use the same provider. During this process of making people going to wrajradio.com to listen instead of Live365.com, WRAJ Internet Radio used great promotional ideas on the station such as the No More Live365 promo with lines like "no more registering, no more logging in, no pre-roll ads, no more drop outs (this was added with the network failure of Live365 back in July 2005), and no more Live365!" The promo worked for the station, and wrajradio.com users grew since Zaragoza believed "Live365 was stealing my traffic from my website." During the process, it seemed listeners ignored the death playing promos and didn't listen to the new stream. Shortly after the new arrival of the new streaming service, WRAJ Internet Radio re-released its WRAJ Internet Radio Player, which was released in 2003 and Live365 forced WRAJ Internet Radio to discontinue the player in 2004.
In September 2006, WRAJ Internet Radio released new plans for a new system to be up for broadcasting the station. There was also announcements that the station studio will undergo changes, the studio will split into the broadcasting division and the interactive (website) division. "This is because the website is getting to popular," said Zaragoza. It was also announced that the Mp3PRO codec that WRAJ Internet Radio used since November 2003 will be dumped sometime in 2007. The reason for the codec not be used any more is because the codec is no longer supported by RCA, the company in charge of Mp3PRO. The company never released the codec coding to any developers. WRAJ Internet Radio also mentioned that they will be broadcasting in Acc+, which is currently being supported by SRS Labs and is supported in Windows Media Player.
On October 11, 2006, Zaragoza announced that WRAJ Internet Radio's parent company will allow a internship program that will be starting in 2007. WRAJ Internet Radio will be the first and only internet radio station network that will have a internship program, announced by Jenthony Enterprises, Inc. However, the internship program is planning to be invitation only and the Jenthony Enterprises, Inc. employees and staff must already know the student personally before being selected. Jenthony announced that they will be accepting five students each academic semester (fall, spring, and summer), the requirements for the internship program is that students must be older than sixteen years old and must be receiving an academic credit.
Currently, WRAJ Internet Radio is installing a Emergency Alert System device to carry the alert system onto the station stream (which is planning to be done manually/remotely when an alert comes). WRAJ Internet Radio will be the first internet radio station in the nation to carry the emergency alert system. WRAJ Internet Radio is also planning to filter out local alerts since the station can be heard nationwide. WRAJ Internet Radio currently has a prototype device for the Emergency Alert System which will be tested in the next few months while a final device will be installed by 2007.
WRAJ Internet Radio is still broadcasting today from their headquarters on Long Island and in San Francisco ; the first internet radiostation to have two offices across the country. WRAJ Internet Radio is considered as Long Island's Internet Radio Station.
[edit] Program History
- The Afternoon Show - January 2003 - Present
- The Evening Talk Show - January 2003 - December 2003
- An Evening with Jim and Ant - July 2003 - Present
- The World Hitlist - April 2004 - July 2004
- Lazy Hours - April 2004 - June 2004
- Eight O'Clock 80s - April 2004 - August 2004
- Limelight Radio Show - November 2004 - December 2004
- On The Horizon - November 2004 - Present
- Nerd Night - June 2005 - Present
- Graduation Celebration - May 2005 - July 2005
- The Afternoon Show Late Edition - July 2005 - Present
- 80s Meltdown - June 2006 - Present
- Music Highway - June 2006 - Present
- Colorado Wave - June 2006 - Present
- The Steve and Carmelo Show - October 2006
- AZ Tech Talk - March 2004 - November 2004, October 2006 - Present
- Indie Traffic Jam - October 2006 - Present
- Regina and Lisa - October 2006 - Present
[edit] Logos
 The logo used from January 2003 to June 2004. |
 The present logo used since 2004. |
[edit] Program Stories
[edit] Anthony Leaving the Afternoon Show
In late 2004 on the WRAJ Internet Radio website, there was an announcement posted that Zaragoza was going to stop The Afternoon Show in July 2005 (the announcement page no longer exists but is available by Wayback Web Archieve [2]). After the announcement, a long time listener of the show, who was Zaragoza's classmate, started a petition that was signed by over 300 people to keep The Afternoon Show alive, mostly signed by Zaragoza's classmates and listeners. After receiving the signatures and names, Zaragoza decided to continue to broadcast the Afternoon Show.
[edit] WRAJ Internet Radio Leaving Long Island
In late 2005, Zaragoza has mentioned on air (not on the website) that WRAJ Internet Radio is planning to move off of Long Island by 2012. Zaragoza mentioned that WRAJ Internet Radio's future home could be Florida, Pennsylvania or California. Zaragoza explained that high prices to live on Long Island is to blame and a severe risk of a major hurricane hitting Long Island in the next few years that some people believe another Hurricane Katrina might occur if a category 3 or higher hurricane hits Long Island. In September 2005, WRAJ Internet Radio started a series (which is spinning off again in Fall 2006) on its debate show called "Long Island vs. The Hurricane." In September 2006, it was announced that WRAJ Internet Radio would be leaving Long Island by 2012. [3]
[edit] Website History
WRAJ Internet Radio's website actually began as a personal Yahoo! Geocities since late 2001. wrajradio.com started in April 2003, which Anthony's "Big Blue" theme was released shortly, the theme was removed later in the year since the design and layout was done poorly. On the top of the page was the logo in the bright blue space with a simple rainbow line fading to a yellow line with beams of light. The 'rainbow line' became famous for the station and was used on the set for the station.
In November 2003, WRAJ Internet Radio released a new version of what was becoming popular website, wrajradio.com, to Anthony Zaragoza's "The Tower" which is still used on the website today. The original design had the logo on the top left of the page with clouds on the top part of the screen. On the left side, is the navigation panel, where the clouds fade into a light gray color for the navigation links. The title of the page is below the clouds on top of the page, where it has a green background with the 'rainbow' and 'yellow' line underneath. Also in the redesign process, a phpbb messageboard was installed and a new guestbook system.
In June 2004, WRAJ Internet Radio changed their logo, meaning it was time to redesign the website. Instead of designing a new website, the skin of "The Tower" was changed into a horizon of an ocean instead of clouds. The looks and navigation panel remain the same in this process.
In Summer 2005, Zaragoza's "The Tower" design for wrajradio.com became so popular, other internet radio stations are starting to change their website design to "The Tower." In October 2005, Beatles-A-Rama; an internet radio station playing classic/oldies, official website for the station was the second website that used "The Tower." WFTU-AM, a college radio station on Long Island, will be the next radio station to be using "The Tower" design.
On September 27, 2006, WRAJ Internet Radio opened up the new website AZ Tech Talk.com, which is actually a new section on wrajradio.com that contains technology news, such as video games, computers, and the latest devices. AZ Tech Talk was a section on the site and a show on WRAJ Internet Radio back in 2004, however it was cancelled due to lack of support. Now, the current AZ Tech Talk will have a weekly show/podcast that will be aired on WRAJ Internet Radio and is being syndicated on WFTU-AM, the show will be on-demand on the new Podcast Center on wrajradio.com that will open in October.
Then on October 3, 2006, WRAJ Internet Radio opened up the new podcast section on the site, which took nearly 3 months to develop the new network. The first podcast was the first episode of AZ Tech Talk, which is a weekly technology talk show on the station. WRAJ Internet Radio was criticized by many other radio stations for not having a podcast feed on the website since 2004.
Currently, a new community portal called "myWRAJ" is expected to release by October 31, 2006. It is planning to act like a social networking website like MySpace so listeners can easily communicate to the WRAJ Internet Radio staff or to other listeners. The portal is planning to replace the phpbb messageboard that is currently on the website.
Today, wrajradio.com still continues with features such as syndicated news from MusicDish, weather, its Annual Orlando Tour, photo gallery, and more.
[edit] Going High-Definition
On October 18, 2006, Jenthony Enterprises, Inc. announced that wrajradio.com is soon going to be in high-definition, the site will be one of the first few websites to be going in a HD-format. When released sometime early 2007, visitors who visit the site in 1080 interlacted and progressive lines (1920 x 1080 pixels resolution) the visitors will have different content with high-definition graphics. Although most of the graphics on the site are already in high-def, the different version will have a more wider view and larger text sizes. This will work both on HD computer monitors (with DVI cables) and high-definition television. The site can already be viewed on a HD Television through a variety of Video Cards and through Windows Media Center. Also with the announcement, Jenthony also announced that there will be a new version of the site for the PlayStation Portable and the Nintendo DS web browsers which will have smaller graphics. Visitors with a standard monitor (or television), the viewer will still be able to view the site in the condition it is currently in.
[edit] The Common Crashes
[edit] Live365's Blackout
In summer 2005, crashes started to became a common thing for the station which caused a 75% drop of listeners dynamically in July 2005 alone. The blame of the crashes was by the network trouble at the headquarters of Live365, Inc., in Foster City, California. Ever since, WRAJ Internet Radio and other Live365 stations had so many problems that still exists today, which made many internet radio stations to leave Live365. Since WRAJ Internet Radio broadcasts live from Long Island instead of broadcasting with Live365's software, WRAJ Internet Radio had many connection problems to the site making the listeners disconnect from the station each time WRAJ loses connection. According to a Live365 employee that Anthony asked during the "Live365 Community Summit" in May 2005, the problem was bandwidth because of the Live365 logo being displayed in Windows Media Player 10 each time a user launches Windows Media Player. There was also another problem with Live365 in July 2005 after stations lost their stored music data at Live365's server; although WRAJ Internet Radio was not affected (except for the pre-roll sounds) it took nearly a few days for Live365 to recover the data that was backed up weeks ago. During fall of 2005, WRAJ Internet Radio started to make plans to leave Live365 and left in February 2006 because of the network trouble which seems to be common at Live365 when WRAJ Internet Radio left. WRAJ Internet Radio lost over thousands of dollars in 2005 in advertising and in donations because of the crashes by Live365.
[edit] Site Blackouts
In late 2005 through early 2006, there were common blackouts on WRAJ Internet Radio station's website. The biggest and longest one was in April 2006, when Anthony was on assignment in Orlando for the station's Orlando Tour. After the site being down for several days, WRAJ Internet Radio crew took logs moments before the site went down. After the 2-week investigation, the music guide was to blame; which the song information is posted on the site at the beginning of each song through a web protocol called File Transfer Protocol. Also, WRAJ Internet Radio offered free months advertising to its customers during the blackouts. Weeks after the investigation in June 2006, the music guide is now generated by another server that is hosted by the same company that WRAJ Internet Radio's stream is hosted by in Chicago, Illinois.
[edit] WRAJ Internet Radio in the Media
[edit] A Stalker
In August 2003 through September 2003, a Texas man started sending inappropriate e-mails and mailed to some of the staff members and some of the messages were threat letters. He criticized that the owner of the station (Zaragoza) shouldn't make WRAJ Internet Radio corporate (or a money-revenue business); as discussed through an online forum. He was later arrested for stalking another radio DJ outside of his state. Several television stations in Texas interviewed (via telephone) Zaragoza of the ordeal that WRAJ Internet Radio went through.
[edit] Long Island Teens Hacked MySpace
In May 2006, WRAJ Internet Radio was attacked by the media as two friends of the WRAJ Internet Radio staff team were arrested in Los Angeles, California as they were threatening the social networking website, Myspace.com. [4] The two friends lived in the Bohemia area and graduated in 2005 with Anthony, Mike, and Jimmy (from the same school). Zaragoza blamed the Connetquot School District for leaking out information to the media, as the district called and asked Zaragoza if he was involved in the threat (he immediately hung up). Several media stations across the nation mentioned that WRAJ Internet Radio could have been involved. Jenthony Enterprises, Inc. attorney later proved that Jenthony Enterprises, Inc. (including WRAJ Internet Radio) and its employees were not involved and had no knowledge of the arrest. For several days, Zaragoza posted a message on the website saying that the staff team and himself were not involved and has no further comments.
[edit] Past and Present On-Air DJs
Some on-air DJs would like to keep their last name private for privacy issues.
[edit] Current On-Air DJs
- Anthony Zaragoza - September 2002 - Present
- Jimmy D. - January 2003 - Present
- Mike S. - March 2004 - Present
- Mary M. - March 2006 - Present
- Sarah K. - July 2005 - Present
- Jennifer Z. - January 2003 - Present
- Jennifer V. - March 2004 - Present
- John Anderson - November 2004 - Present
- Maria O'Connell - September 2004 - Present
- Sheena Metal - June 2006 - Present
- Ray Gauthier - June 2006 - Present
- Adrian Scott - June 2006 - Present
- Carman Allgood - June 2006 - Present
- Mark Maverick - October 2006 - Present
- Regina K. - October 2006 - Present
- Lisa L. - October 2006 - Present
[edit] Former On-Air DJs
- Angel M. - March 2005 - June 2006
- Dave Moses - March 2004 - July 2004
- Ryan B. - April 2004 - June 2004
- Brian G. - July 2003 - November 2005
- Lori F. - November 2003 - September 2004 (her voice can still be heard on the station)
- Jarmal Bates - May 2003 - July 2003
- Curtis Bates - May 2003 - July 2003
- Carmelo - October 2006
- Steve - October 2006
[edit] Management
- General Manager - Anthony Zaragoza
- Program Director - Jimmy D.
- Operations/Marketing Director - Maria O'Connell
- Artist Relations Director - Mary M.
- Sales Manager - Maria O'Connell
- Technical Director/Studio Manager - Mike S.
[edit] Trivia
- One of WRAJ Internet Radio's employees use to be an assistant traffic reporter for Long Island's WALK 97.5 FM
- Because the studio is in a basement, the studio had to be redesigned several times since launched. Because Zaragoza was allergic to mold, which was found high during floods, a temporary studio was constructed in another part of the building and is still ready to this day if another flood approaches.
- The temporary studio (known as Studio 2) is actually located in the Roadwatch (the Long Island traffic reporting room) studio, where TV monitors are placed for watching the cameras on the Long Island highways. WRAJ Internet Radio is the first radio station on Long Island to have access to the cameras in late 2002.
- All live shows and reports are recorded for later use.
- WRAJ Internet Radio's broadcasting software is Spacial Audio's SAM Broadcaster.
- WRAJ Internet Radio's webserver is located in California and the streaming server is located in Chicago.
- When WRAJ Internet Radio was broadcasting with Live365, the broadcasting server at Live365 is down the street from Yahoo!, WRAJ Internet Radio webhosting provider since April 2003.
- Zaragoza currently attends Five Towns College in Dix Hills, New York; where Maroon 5's singer and keyboardist Adam Levine and Jesse Carmichael; and Billy Joel attended.
- The Afternoon Show was originally going to be called "The Afterwork Show." It was changed a week before The Afternoon Show premiered in January 2003.
- Zaragoza once dated a girl who was a niece of Barbra Streisand.
- WRAJ Internet Radio was a featured station on Live365 for November 2005. Meanwhile that month, Zaragoza announced that WRAJ Internet Radio will be leaving Live365 by early 2006.
- Although other staff members have been on other radio stations, Zaragoza has a strict contract that forbids him to have a daily/weekly show exclusively for another radio station; such as his college radio station.
