Rooville Radio
Rooville Radio was a production I did for about 6 months on Yahoo Chat. I tended to broadcast in the Toronto Locals Chat room, on yahoo voice chat.
I used my room as a studio, and actually broadcasted from the foot of my bed. The photo shows the main broadcast computer (both monitors) and some of my equipment. And yes the CART machines still worked!
Yahell chat was an interesting experience back then. Much if it was like the wild west, and clique rooms like the ones I frequented had to defend themselves against harassment and spammers. In order to do this, we had programs which would DDOS unwanted people, by spamming them with a lot of messages.
Also, yahoo chat made it so that a key had to remain pressed in order to activate voice chat. Of course there would be a software method to bypass that, but being the technician I am, I decided to modify a keyboard. I attached a switch to short out the specific points needed to fake a key press by the activation key. Broadcasting was as simple as flipping the switch.
I also had another switch which was located beside my mixer, which would activate the on-air light (which was a flashing red strobe) and power up the CB Radio transmitter in order to broadcast the signal over the air.
The studio was even equipped with a 2 line phone hybrid, for taking phone calls and putting them on the air. The phone hybrid has its roots as being the first phone hybrid that was used for CFRB Radio in Toronto. It was a hacked speaker phone device made by Bell Canada. I typically did not use the phone very often, but when I did, it was in a manner uncommon for most teenagers.
I had a Studder reel-to-reel which was often used to record logs of my broadcasts. However I also used to play historical recordings from it, and from time to time used it as a delay / reverb when I would sing... And yes, I could sing at one point. Until I fucked up my voice trying to imitate Staind.
You also see my secondary computer in the above photo, which was often the computer used to 'moderate' the chat room. I also had a halon fire extinguisher positioned above the reel-to-reel. And yes... Splice tape.
All in all, it was an interesting if not geeky part of my life. Most people my age were going to college, getting drunk and stoned... Me? I was broadcasting from my bedroom, and flirting with chicks online. Hmm...