Introducing Squish, A New Online Alt-Rock Station from Me
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 11:26AM
I'm most grateful to Astral Radio for giving me my own online radio station. After months of planning, this work-in-progress received a soft launch this week. It's called Squish.
Squish aspires to be the best alt-rock station you've ever heard with a mix of music that includes everything from the familiar and classic to the coolest and newest indie stuff. In fact, music discovery is a big part of Squish's mandate.
Here's what's going on.
I was approached by Astral to helm Squish last spring. Putting something like this together is a HUGE issue, not least of which is the acquiring the necessary licensing for all the songs. (It's not as simple as buying a download or ripping a CD. Trust me.)
But we're almost--almost--there.
The station is by no means in its final form. The sound and music mix is still being shaped. There's production, imaging, techincal improvements, segments from me and a lot more music that needs to be added to the system. But it's at least at the stage where it's time to take everything out for a shakedown cruise.
The cool thing about a station like this is that there are no content rules, no worries about bad language and no endless repetition of the same five songs. There's freedom to choose music from all corners of the alt-rock universe. And there are no commercials.
This kind of radio is still in its infancy, so there's a lot of blind guesswork going into what you, the music fan, really want from a such a service. As the adjustments continue, I hope you'll give things a listen and offer suggestions, critiques and feedback.
Ultimately, the programming of Squish is 100% my responsibility, so if you send me a note, you're sending it to the guy in charge. What can we do together to create an absolutely AWESOME alt-rock station?
Seriously. I want to know. My direct email address is alan@alancross.ca
To access Squish 24/7/365, go here and then click on the graphic that looks like this.
After that, look for the Squish graphic down and to the right. Hit "play" and you're in. I hope you enjoy Squish.
Reader Comments (20)
Excellent! Glad to have access to your programming experience. Now all we need is to have this available on mobile phones via an app of some kind!
agree a mobile app is needed or to be able to access with tune in radio can't wait to check it out thanks
Awesome! I hope this is accessible via my Sonos system :)
Loving it so far!
Excellent. Good for you Alan!
Now, Internet at my current job is stupidly block and I can't stream any music and I can't never watch the video on this site. I've just been offered a new job a few days ago and I was debating the idea with myself since it would be a big change of career. But now, I think this as just tilt the balance in favor of change!
Best news i've heard today! I agree we need a method for listening on the go (ie an app, satellite radio or tune in radio).
now get back on old fashioned radio doing a morning show too :-)
Awesome song mix so far. I understand it's a very early preview, but two must-have features going forward:
1. Display the artist and song title currently playing. Currently it's just a straight-up stream, I'm really hoping song/artist information is implemented sooner rather than later.
2. Access from a mobile device (phone/tablet). I know this was mentioned by nearly every other commenter, but it's supremely important so I'm mentioning it again.
I'm sure in the future you'll be able to bring in some mainstays from "traditional" radio (e.g. top X / countdown segment, listener requests etc) but for now the two things listed above are paramount.
Congrats on the new station. Will "The Secret History of Rock" episodes be played on this station?
I managed to get a few hours' worth of listening in today. Nothing that made me want to click away to any of the alt-rock stations that I nearly always stream online (I refuse to listen to local radio when I am at an online computer). I am sure that more ways of accessing the stream are forthcoming. In the meantime, is there a way to set up a link directly to the Squish stream? I would rather not have to go through Virgin Radio Toronto's website, if that is at all possible. Perhaps Squish will get its own web page, too. All in time. In the meantime, thank you Alan.
Seconded about being able to add it to TuneIn Radio. I listen to streams via that app on my iPad during the workday - would hate to have to stream this via the Virgin site every time.
Great idea - I only listen to internet radio, and I would tune into this regularly.
Good to see!
Though it would be good to hit a site other than Virgin - the loud talking ad made me shut the window before even finding your station :/
Excited to listen to the new station.....but you HAVE to change the name....Squish???........not a fan at all. Such an awkward name
I get the feeling that, even though the feed is through Astral, Squish is not subject to the usual over-the-air CanCon rules. Nothing against Canadian artists, but now we find out which ones get played based purely on merit.
Why not do it on terrestrial radio? Terrestrial radio needs an "alternative" station more than the web does. There's thousands of these types of stations online. Let's get SQUISH on the radio that people commute with everyday (102.1 SQUISH FM-TORONTO'S ALTERNATIVE MIX). Then it's true innovation. FREE FM in London, ONTARIO is innovative for its mixing in of deep cuts, and unknown artists. If they can do it there, they can do it for The GTA and The Golden Horseshoe. Get SQUISH FM to the terrestrial dial. I know it's not easy, but I believe it can be done.
Congrats Alan!
First, thanks for all the input. Initial response has been very, very encouraging. That's good.
-A mobile app? I sure hope so. There are a few things to work out first, though.
-Squsih on terrestrial radio? A distinct possibility...eventually. Leave it with me.
-TuneIn radio? Excellent idea. Again, leave it with me.
-I'd like to add "Secret History" to the mix and it'll probably happen--but it has more to do with the ability to license songs than anything else. (You would not BELIEVE the hassle involved in licensing songs for a venture like this. We have to go through each individual label and all tracks have to be specially meta-tagged. If only it was as simply as ripping a CD or buying the track from iTunes...)
Please keep listening and keep the comments coming. And tell your friends, okay?
you have been in effect choosing my music for me for years, i am real glad you keep doing what your doing and this is AWESOME .. you are the best music geek EVER ! thanks Alan !
I don't know everything you have on there but I would love to see all these wonderful artists in your listing:
-linkin park
-three days grace
-skillet
-breaking benjamin
-billy talent
-simple plan
evanescence
thanks for this wonderful stream. I've been looking for something like this for ages now!