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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#467886" vlink="#96607D" style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:none'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:none'> tech-vi@groups.io <tech-vi@groups.io> <b>On Behalf Of </b>David Goldfield via groups.io<br><b>Sent:</b> Monday, August 17, 2026 10:57 AM<br><b>To:</b> Tech-VI Announcement List <tech-vi@groups.io><br><b>Subject:</b> [Tech-VI] Jonathan Mosen's Reflections on Mushroom FM's ten Years of Four Decades of Magic Mushroom Memories and His Internet Radio Career<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><a href="https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1585433566710730&id=100057323055938">Original Source</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><h2 style='margin:0in;background:white'><span class=x193iq5w><span style='font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Mushroom FM's Post</span></span><span style='font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#1C1E21'><o:p></o:p></span></h2><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>August 16, 2026 at 12:42PM: <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Ten years ago, Mushroom FM made the biggest and best decision in its history.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>We stopped trying to be all things to all people. We decided that when you tuned to Mushroom FM, you should have a pretty good idea what sort of music you were going to hear and, just as importantly, what sort of radio station you were going to hear.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>And so began the format that has defined us ever since: music from the 1950s through the 1980s.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Four decades of magic Mushroom memories.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>It feels so much a part of Mushroom FM now that it is difficult to remember just how significant, and controversial, that decision was. I got a good deal of grief for it when we announced it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>It wasn\u2019t simply a format change.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Frankly, it was a decision about whether Mushroom FM still had a reason to exist, and there were plenty of people predicting that with this change, our days were surely numbered.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>I am heartened by how much of an appetite there seems to be at the moment for blindness history, so I thought I would chronicle this important change. To explain why it mattered so much, we need to go back considerably further than ten years.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>On New Year\u2019s Eve 1998, I was supposed to be working on my Master of Public Policy thesis.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>My family had gone away so I could have the house to myself and get some serious work done. Naturally, I did what any diligent postgraduate student would do.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>I started playing with Internet radio.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>During a break from my thesis, I read on a Winamp mailing list about something new called SHOUTcast. For the first time, here was a relatively simple framework that allowed ordinary people to run live audio streams over the Internet.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Within half an hour, I had a test stream running of the low-power FM station I was operating at the time.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>The thesis break had become rather longer than planned.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>But I knew immediately that SHOUTcast was a game changer. One particularly important feature for a blind broadcaster was that Winamp could send the music directly to the SHOUTcast server while leaving the sound card available for a screen reader. That removed a significant technical obstacle.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Almost immediately, I started thinking bigger.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>I came up with the Hear Today Network. The idea was to create an Internet radio station run by blind people around the world. It wouldn\u2019t simply be a collection of unrelated streams. We would have common jingles, common promotional material, a coherent sound, and ways for listeners to interact with broadcasters through email and instant messaging.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Bandwidth was incredibly expensive compared with today, and I couldn\u2019t find anyone willing to sponsor enough of it to make the idea viable. But some test broadcasts showed that there was real enthusiasm for the concept.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>I didn\u2019t know it at the time, but the basic idea behind Hear Today would keep resurfacing throughout my broadcasting life.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Things moved quickly.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>My own Internet station, MBSFM, led to Blind Line, an international talk programme specifically about blindness. That in turn brought me into contact with the American Council of the Blind.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>By the end of 1999, I had been hired to establish and manage ACB Radio.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>At exactly 0 UTC on 1 December 1999, broadcasting from a spare bedroom in Wellington, New Zealand, I pushed the button and ACB Radio was born.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>The technical specifications sound almost comical today: 16 kilobits per second, 11 kilohertz, mono. We chose that deliberately because many blind people were still using dial-up Internet connections. Audio quality was secondary to making sure people could actually get connected.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>And connect they did.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>They were hearing conversations that simply weren\u2019t happening anywhere else. Blind people were discussing technology, employment, discrimination, politics, advocacy and everyday life with other blind people around the world.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Before podcasts.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Before social media.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Before smartphones.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>It really did feel extraordinary.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>There was a genuine novelty element to it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Today, hearing someone broadcast live from another country is utterly routine. Back then, the fact that a blind person in New Zealand could broadcast to another blind person in the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia or anywhere else with an Internet connection felt revolutionary.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>And for blind people in particular, something significant was happening.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>We weren\u2019t merely consuming media.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>We were making it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>We were presenting current affairs programmes. We were interviewing major figures in the blindness field. We were broadcasting conventions. We were reviewing technology. And increasingly, we were making music radio.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>ACB Radio eventually expanded into multiple streams, and one of those was ACB Radio Interactive. In many ways, Interactive finally fulfilled my original Hear Today vision: blind broadcasters from around the world, each bringing their personality, musical knowledge and life experience to the microphone.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>But I was adamant that it couldn\u2019t simply be a server where a succession of people turned up, did their show and disappeared again.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>A radio station needs a personality.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>It needs glue.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>So ACB Radio Interactive put enormous emphasis on the relationship between broadcaster and listener. Presenters checked email during their shows, read messages on air, took requests and signed into MSN Instant Messenger so listeners could have an immediate conversation with the person behind the microphone.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>On Blind Line, BuddyPhone, affectionately, and sometimes not so affectionately, known to us as \u201cBuggyPhone\u201d meant people no longer had to pay for an international telephone call to New Zealand to take part. A computer, a microphone and an Internet connection were enough.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>These things seem mundane now.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>At the time, they were transformative.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Sighted people listened too. And why not?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Much of what we produced was simply good radio that happened to be produced by blind people. When I eventually left ACB Radio in 2003, I reflected on the fact that much of our programming had appealed to a wide audience and, in doing so, had helped change some sighted listeners\u2019 perceptions of blindness.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>By then, the operation had grown to more than 60 volunteers in nine countries.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>There is something powerful about changing perceptions not by lecturing people about what blind people can do, but simply by doing something well.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Then along came the Mushroom<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>I left ACB Radio in 2003, but I never really lost the Internet radio bug.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>The Mosen Explosion, whose name dates back to 2002 when my old Sunday Smorgasbord moved away from Sunday and therefore urgently required a less ridiculous name, remained an important outlet for me.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Then, in 2010, Mushroom FM happened almost by accident.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>I was setting up my own server because I wanted somewhere to host the Mosen Explosion. I wasn\u2019t setting out to build another international Internet radio station.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>But as word got around about what I was doing, people started asking whether they could join me.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>One thing led to another, as things have an irritating habit of doing, and Mushroom FM was born.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>By then, Twitter had transformed the way a radio station could interact with its audience.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>In the ACB Radio days, we had BuddyPhone, email, MSN Messenger and chat rooms. Now we could have an ongoing public conversation with listeners before, during and after a show.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Mushroom FM embraced social media enthusiastically, and in those early days we generated a considerable amount of excitement around the station. We were using social media in ways that similar projects had not.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>It was tremendous fun.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>But technology doesn\u2019t stand still.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>And neither should a radio station.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>There was a time when the very fact that blind people were broadcasting globally was unusual.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>By 2016, thankfully, that was no longer true.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>There were plenty of places where you could hear blind people broadcasting. Streaming technology had become much easier to obtain and use.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>That was progress.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>At the same time, the way everyone consumed audio had changed dramatically.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Music streaming services had put millions of songs into people\u2019s pockets. If you wanted to hear a particular song, you no longer had to wait for a radio station to play it. If you didn\u2019t like what you were hearing, you could skip it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Podcasts meant you could hear spoken-word content whenever you wanted and, if you wished, at whatever speed you wanted.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>In the message I sent to the Mushroom FM team in 2016, I acknowledged that fundamental shift. People had access to vast music libraries and could consume content entirely on their own terms.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>That raised an uncomfortable question.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>What was Mushroom FM for?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Being able to stream audio over the Internet was no longer enough.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Being a station featuring blind broadcasters was no longer enough.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>And increasingly, Mushroom FM itself didn\u2019t have a satisfactory answer.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>We had lost our way.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>At the time, Mushroom FM\u2019s music format was all over the place.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Depending on when you tuned in, you might hear one decade, another genre, something completely different an hour later, then something else after that.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>There was plenty of good material in there.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>That wasn\u2019t the problem.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>The problem was that there was no compelling reason to make Mushroom FM a habit.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>We had also been very open about accepting broadcasters. In many cases, if someone wanted to do a show and could get themselves on the air competently, we found them a slot.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Often that meant someone doing one live show a week. Maybe two.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Multiply that across a collection of presenters, each doing different styles of music at different times, and you had a schedule that was virtually impossible for the average listener to keep in their head.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Who was on Tuesday afternoon?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>What happened Thursday evening?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Was that show weekly?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Was that person on at this time yesterday?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>There were some loyal listeners who kept track of all this, of course.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>But you cannot build a large regular audience on the assumption that everyone is studying your programme schedule.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Great radio becomes part of someone\u2019s routine.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>People turn it on while making breakfast.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>They listen while working.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>They put it on in the car.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>It accompanies them through the afternoon.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>They don\u2019t necessarily think, \u201cAt 2 PM on Wednesdays, person X has a show I enjoy.\u201d<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>They think, \u201cI\u2019ll put Mushroom FM on.\u201d<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>We weren\u2019t giving enough people a reason to do that.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>I described the station at the time as \u201ctoo fragmented, trying to be too many things to too many people.\u201d<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Listener behaviour was backing that up.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Our new format changed all of that.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>The programmes performing particularly well gave us a clue.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>The Mosen Explosion, with its older music and substantial helping of chat, was doing well. So was the Snowman. The show called Only the 80s was also strong. Our 1950s programming was performing well too.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>There was a pattern there if we were prepared to see it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>But adopting the new format did more than solve a music-programming problem.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>It raised the bar.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Instead of Mushroom FM being a platform where a collection of people happened to do individual programmes, we became much more emphatically a radio station.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>One station.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>One identifiable format.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>One consistent sound.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Individual presenters still had plenty of freedom to bring their own personality and musical tastes to what they did. That is essential. But they were doing it within an identity listeners could understand.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>If there was no presenter on air, the Mushroom Pot delivered the same basic promise.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>The result was that Mushroom FM could become part of someone\u2019s day rather than merely being the place where a particular programme happened to live.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>That distinction is fundamental.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>This part of the story is easier to tell ten years later than it was to live through.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>At that point, I had assumed full responsibility for funding Mushroom FM.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>I had to decide whether I believed in the station enough to keep putting money, time and energy into it, particularly since I was making my living as a consultant at the time. That meant that it wasn\u2019t just the financial cost I had to think about. There was an opportunity cost. If I was investing time in Mushroom FM, it was time I couldn\u2019t use to do something that paid the bills.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>And if I was going to keep investing time and money, I had to be prepared to change it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>That can be surprisingly difficult.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>When you create something, you accumulate history.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>People have invested their time in it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Broadcasters have shows they care about.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Listeners have favourites.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Over the years, we made decisions for perfectly understandable reasons.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Changing course can feel like repudiating what came before.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>But nostalgia is not a strategy.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Sometimes respecting what you have built means being willing to change it so it can remain relevant.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>So I made the call.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Mushroom FM would transition to a station playing music from the 1950s through the 1980s. So, I guess in that sense, nostalgia was indeed the strategy. We became a station defined primarily by an era, giving us enormous freedom within those four decades.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>That distinction was important.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>The format could encompass rock and roll, soul, Motown, pop, country, disco, new wave, singer-songwriters, novelty records, huge hits, forgotten gems and songs you hadn\u2019t heard for years but somehow still knew every word of.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>When no presenter was on the air, the Mushroom Pot would provide a broad mix from all four decades.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Most importantly, when someone tuned to Mushroom FM, they would know what they were going to get.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>In my message to the team, I wrote that I wanted Mushroom FM to be \u201crelevant to more than a tiny handful of people.\u201d I believed a consistent 50s-through-80s format gave us our best chance of growing, and it was the basis on which I was prepared to continue investing in the station.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Ten years later, history is a testament to the rightness of that decision.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Over time, the description became part of our identity.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Four decades of magic Mushroom memories.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>I love that phrase because it captures something this kind of music radio can do that an enormous on-demand music library cannot necessarily replicate.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>A song is rarely just a song.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>It can be the record that was playing when you met someone.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>The single you saved up to buy.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>The album you played relentlessly at university.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>The song from a school dance.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>The record your parents loved that, to your considerable surprise, you eventually discovered wasn\u2019t half bad.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>The summer hit that instantly transports you back to a particular place.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>And sometimes it is simply a cracking good song you had completely forgotten existed until Mushroom FM played it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>That is where radio can still work its particular magic.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Of course you can construct your own playlist.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>You can tell a streaming service exactly what you want.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>But sometimes the whole point is that you don\u2019t know what you want.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>You want someone else to choose.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>You want the surprise of hearing a song you would never have thought to request.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>You want a presenter who knows the music and can tell you something interesting about it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>And sometimes you just want another human being there.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>The familiar voices matter<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>That last point has become clearer and clearer to me as the years have gone by.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>People may discover Mushroom FM because of the music.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>But I know many people stay because of the people.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>The familiar voices matter.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>There is something comforting about knowing who is going to turn up.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Someone whose stories you know.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Someone whose sense of humour you understand.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Someone who has been part of the soundtrack to your day for years.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Radio is remarkably intimate that way.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>A broadcaster may have no idea what a particular listener is doing while the show is on.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Perhaps they are cooking.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Perhaps working.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Perhaps walking the dog.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Perhaps sitting alone.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Perhaps dealing with a difficult day.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Yet somehow this disembodied voice coming through a speaker can become familiar company.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>I know from the things listeners tell us that Mushroom FM provides companionship as well as entertainment.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>That means a great deal to me.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>And that brings me to the people who make all of this possible.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>One of the things I am proudest of after ten years of this format is just how remarkably stable the Mushroom FM team has been.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Many of the key people who were here when we made the change in 2016 are still here.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>I am profoundly grateful to them, and actually, a bit in awe.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>This is a volunteer project.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Nobody gets paid a cent.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>People have careers.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Families.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Responsibilities.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Things happen in life.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Yet year after year, people continue to turn up and produce extraordinarily good radio.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>We have also had remarkably little drama.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Anyone who has run a volunteer organisation, particularly one made up of creative people with microphones, may appreciate what an achievement that is.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>We get on with it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>We get the job done.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>And we are bloody good at what we do.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>I am immensely grateful to our amazing fun guys who so generously give Mushroom FM their time and enormous talent.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>They are some of the most special people you could ever hope to work with.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>They know their music.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>They understand radio.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>They bring their own personalities to what they do.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>They care about producing something worth listening to.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>And after all these years, they still care about Mushroom FM.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>You cannot buy that.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>The final reason I am happy to fully fund Mushroom FM myself is rather more selfish.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>I love doing it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>I love being behind the microphone.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>I love putting a show together.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>I love the discipline of doing radio for two hours every week day.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>I love finding some obscure musical connection that gives me an excuse to play two records I probably shouldn\u2019t put next to each other.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>I love talking with listeners.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>And I love having somewhere I can regularly unleash a little creativity.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Radio got into my blood a very long time ago.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Apparently, it has shown no inclination to leave.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Technology has changed enormously since I first fired up SHOUTcast on New Year\u2019s Eve 1998.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>The bit rates are better, thankfully.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>The connections are faster.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>MSN Messenger has gone to the great software archive in the sky.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Nobody has to call New Zealand at international toll rates to participate in a programme, and if they did, they would find me gone.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Millions upon millions of tracks are instantly available.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Yet the things that make good radio good have proved remarkably durable.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Personality.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Curation.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Surprise.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Shared experience.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Companionship.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Consistency.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>And a clear understanding of who you are.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Perhaps that last one is the biggest lesson of this anniversary.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>For Mushroom FM, 2016 was the year we worked out who we were.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>We stopped trying to please everybody.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>We concentrated on being distinctive.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>We raised our standards.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>We made the station predictable enough to become a habit while keeping the music unpredictable enough to be interesting.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>And we built something that has endured.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>It also taught me an important lesson of leadership. Leadership is lonely sometimes. But if you feel, if you know in your gut, that a change of direction is necessary, if you know the market you serve well, then follow your heart, follow that instinct, be true to yourself, and things will work out.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>So on this tenth anniversary, I want to say an enormous thank you.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>To every broadcaster who has been part of this station, past and present, thank you for sharing your knowledge, personality and love of radio with us.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>To the people behind the scenes who have helped keep the technology working, thank you.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>To the fun guys who have been here year after year, quietly getting on with producing superb radio without asking for anything in return, you have my profound gratitude and respect.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>I could not be prouder of what we have created together.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>And above all, thank you to those of you who listen.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Some of you have been with us for an extraordinary length of time.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Some found us only recently.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>You send messages.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>You make requests.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>You tell us when we get something right.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>You occasionally tell us, with impressive clarity and vigour, when you think we have got something wrong.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>That is as it should be.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>You are part of the station too.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Thanks for listening.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809'>Thanks for being part of our story.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:0%;background:white'><span style='color:black'><a href="https://www.facebook.com/story.php?__cft__%5b0%5d=AZZWv1DnjWVjxwq_Te_a6lrCcSCCDeeJTTwXSRWaU-LbmQ7YQ408uufpREJvo9fBKEAxtwqo3OnpZlIN2WnMl_9jX68jCVe8Z84ZB_ZRa-nptSVtBC5AdBbVmDrQgSru7oRwEBxLuK95zhKvScN2zOO2JkcPBumpkbrLtzK9p5zafg&__tn__=H-R#?ibj" target="_blank"><b><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:blue;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in;mso-ligatures:none;text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=500 height=261 style='width:5.2083in;height:2.7152in' id="_x0000_i1030" src="cid:image001.jpg@01DD2E37.1A585B20" alt="Reflections on ten Years of Four Decades of Magic Mushroom Memories | Mushroom FM"></span></b></a></span><span class=MsoHyperlink><b><span style='border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in;text-decoration:none'><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:0%;background:#F0F2F5'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#1C1E21'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:#F0F2F5'><span class=x1lliihq><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#65686C;text-transform:uppercase;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in'><a href="https://www.facebook.com/story.php?__cft__%5b0%5d=AZZWv1DnjWVjxwq_Te_a6lrCcSCCDeeJTTwXSRWaU-LbmQ7YQ408uufpREJvo9fBKEAxtwqo3OnpZlIN2WnMl_9jX68jCVe8Z84ZB_ZRa-nptSVtBC5AdBbVmDrQgSru7oRwEBxLuK95zhKvScN2zOO2JkcPBumpkbrLtzK9p5zafg&__tn__=%2CmH-R#?hji" target="_blank"><span style='color:#65686C;text-decoration:none'>mushroomfm.com</span></a></span></span><span class=MsoHyperlink><b><span style='border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in;text-decoration:none'><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:#F0F2F5'><span class=html-span><b><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#080809;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in'><a href="https://www.facebook.com/story.php?__cft__%5b0%5d=AZZWv1DnjWVjxwq_Te_a6lrCcSCCDeeJTTwXSRWaU-LbmQ7YQ408uufpREJvo9fBKEAxtwqo3OnpZlIN2WnMl_9jX68jCVe8Z84ZB_ZRa-nptSVtBC5AdBbVmDrQgSru7oRwEBxLuK95zhKvScN2zOO2JkcPBumpkbrLtzK9p5zafg&__tn__=%2CmH-R#?hji" target="_blank"><span style='color:#080809;text-decoration:none'>Reflections on ten Years of Four Decades of Magic Mushroom Memories | Mushroom FM</span></a></span></b></span><span class=MsoHyperlink><b><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:blue;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in;text-decoration:none'><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p><p class=MsoNormal>David Goldfield,<span style='font-size:11.0pt;mso-ligatures:none'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal>Blindness Assistive Technology Specialist<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><a href="http://www.davidgoldfield.com/"><span style='color:#0563C1'>www.DavidGoldfield.com</span></a><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Want to receive the latest news about blindness technology in your inbox? 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