Live Streams Help Replace Public Performances; Big Heavy World Lends Resources to Sustain Cultural Activity Safely
Discount Face Tattoos performing at the Monkey House, August 2019.
Volunteer-Run Music Office / Radio Station Fills Music Performance Void with Live Streams
Community-run technology used to safely mend social isolation
Venues are shutting down and people are isolating, but we can still share live music thanks to technology. Anybody that wants to help us coordinate live streams and broadcasts from the studio at Big Heavy World, please let us know, and in our skeleton crew kinda way, without a public gathering, we can make small concerts happen that everyone can tune into from home. Same goes for anyone who feels like sharing thoughts, spoken word, theater or conversation. And if you want to be a DJ and carry your own weekly slot forward, that's an option, too. Make radio by the people, for the people, with a little joy and a lot of caring about each other.
UPDATE WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25: Beginning today at 5 p.m., Vermonters may leave their homes "only for essential reasons critical to health and safety." This includes buying groceries and medicine, medical appointments and outdoor exercise. Businesses deemed essential may remain open, including healthcare operations, grocery stores, pharmacies, hardware stores, gas stations, and news media. To adapt to this new public safety protocol, Big Heavy World invites Vermont-based artists to please let us know when you will be live streaming performances and if you would like us to broadcast your stream over the air on 105.9FM The Radiator in Burlington. Our volunteer crew will do its best to get as many live streams as possible to our audience.
BURLINGTON March 15, 2020 — As the public has responded to the coronavirus pandemic with social distancing, including the cancelation or postponement of most performing arts programming, the technology and broadcast infrastructure of Vermont’s independent, volunteer-staffed music office is being deployed to help repair this absence.
Big Heavy World, with a mission of preserving and promoting original Vermont-made music, operates 105.9FM The Radiator, a community radio station based in the South End Arts District of Burlington. The radio station is programmed by local hosts and has both traditional radio broadcast and streaming infrastructure. This broadcast and streaming ability is now being used to help artists with canceled performances continue to reach audiences in a safe, remote way.
The option to have access to a microphone and reach the Big Heavy World and Radiator audiences extends to artists and community members who would like to share their work or conversation. Weekly broadcast slots also continue to be available to community members who would like to host one or two-hour programs of their own design. The invitation extends to creatives in all art forms including music, poetry, theater, comedy, spoken word, and concerned and caring members of the public in general.
Live streams of performers are being scheduled into the times between regularly scheduled DJs. These live broadcasts and streams are being engineered by a skeleton crew of volunteers who are dedicated to making best use of the broadcast station as a public resource. The performances are not attended by members of the public or personnel who do not play a necessary role.
The radio broadcasts can be heard on 105.9FM in the Burlington area.
Live video will stream via the Big Heavy World YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/bigheavyworldvideo and via FaceBook Live at https://www.facebook.com/bigheavyworld/.
To access streaming audio, visit https://bigheavyworld.com/live-stream-intro or copy the address — http://stream.theradiator.org:8000/womm-lp_fm_128 — into a music player application (like iTunes) with the ‘open stream’ function. A free iPhone app is available in the Apple App Store at https://apps.apple.com/us/app/the-radiator/id385611512. The TuneIn radio aggregator app is available in the App Store at https://apps.apple.com/us/app/tunein-radio/id418987775 and in the Google Play store (for Android) at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=tunein.player.
Information about these live streaming events will be available at bigheavyworld.com. The first is Monday, March 16, 10:15pm, with Discount Face Tattoos, https://discountfacetattoosvt.bandcamp.com, a band that was scheduled for a live music series that was canceled.
Artists whose scheduled performances have been affected by precautionary cancelations due to the pandemic are invited to contact info@bigheavyworld.com. Some of the times available for streamed performances include Mondays 6-10pm; Tuesdays, 6-8pm and at 10pm; Wednesdays 4pm-5:30pm, Thursdays 10pm-Midnight; and Friday 6-10pm. Several Radiator DJs have invited that their shows be preempted for live-streamed concerts.
Musicians in Central Vermont are encouraged to reach out as well to contact engineer, musician and studio owner Tod Moses, who will be live streaming artists from Boarding Gate Studios in Northfield to the Big Heavy World / Radiator network of signals and social media. Tod can be reached through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tod.moses
Musicians in the Waterbury area may reach out to Kane Sweeney of Woodsman Studio, also prepared to stream into The Radiator broadcast. Email Kane at woodsmanmusicgroup@gmail.com.
Volunteer crew members prepared to engineer these live broadcasts and streams include James Lockridge, Tod Moses, Hudson Gray, Kane Sweeney, and Raf Soto with technical support from Bob Colquhoun and additional support from Kyle Rose and Eric Smith. Other volunteers have offered to help and will be trained to engineer as well.
James Lockridge, Executive Director of Big Heavy World said, "Technology is helping us maintain the bonds that enrich us and sustain our spirits through the arts. Vermonters are showing once again how natural it is to work together — safely and innovatively — in the face of a threat to our wellbeing and way of life. Beyond this platform for sharing, we must also rise to face the economic hardship faced by Vermont's performers and related industries and reaffirm their value to us as a people and the identity of our state."
Contact: James Lockridge, Executive Director, Big Heavy World, jim@bigheavyworld.com; (802) 373-2890; bigheavyworld.com.
Info for Artists:
This live streaming project is meant to be a helpful response to the coronavirus pandemic that stays within the boundaries of appropriate public health practices. It’s very important to have these things in mind:
Please do not request a live stream if you have any symptoms of illness.
Please do not request a live stream if you or anyone you’ve been in contact with has demonstrated respiratory symptoms.
Do not bring any friends or audience members with you to the studio.
Members of only one band at a time will be in the studio.
To the extent that it is possible, keep six feet of space between you and others in the studio.
Only original songs may be performed (to comply with the streaming platform policies.)
A log of all studio visitors, including contact information, will be kept.
The Big Heavy World space has a backline available. Our gear: The Big Heavy World space has two electric guitars: A Fender Squier Mini Stratocaster which is a 20 fret, ¾ size scale guitar from about 2013; the other is an Ibanez AXS32, a 22 fret solid body guitar from 2003-2005. There’s an Ibanez GSR200 electric bass; a Yamaha FG-200 acoustic guitar; and a Yamaha YPT 220 keyboard. The in-house drum kit is a CB 4 piece with two Zildjian cymbals and a snare drum with a Remo head. There’s also various amps: A Peavey KB60 amp, a Line 6 Spider II HD75 amp, and a Yorkville 400B Bass amp. We use two room mics to capture audio for the stream: A Sterling Audio and SE X1-A. Big Heavy World sends special thanks to TJ Maynard of Ghastly Sound, John Carter, and the City of Burlington for their contributions of gear that help make this project possible.
These additional guidelines apply in Norwich:
If the act is using drums, they will need to be a three piece, due to the social distancing guidelines of 6 ft. Tod can accommodate four-piece acts without drums.
Singers must bring their own vocal mics.