My Free eBook on Founding and Directing ACB Radio Now Available

Americans have just concluded thanksgiving celebrations. We have no equivalent holiday in New Zealand, but I love it. Numerous studies have shown the many mental and physical health benefits of gratitude.

To say “thank you” to everyone who was a part of a special time of frenetic innovation and fun, I’ve produced a free eBook which I’d like to give to the community.

If you’re curious about early Internet radio, and one of the catalysts for so many blind people becoming involved in it, I hope you’ll enjoy my new, free eBook. It’s called “On-air, Online”, and it chronicles my memories of founding and directing ACB Radio.

The best way for me to describe the book is to include its Introduction in this post.

As a technology buff with a history degree, it’s no wonder I’m a fan of technology history. I believe it’s important to both chronicle and celebrate where we’ve come from, and how we got here. People who create new services, or apply technology in new ways, are often too busy getting on with it at the time to realise that they’re making history. But when the work is done, there’s time to share how things happened, why things were done a particular way, and why things turned out as they did.

15 years ago to the day of this book’s publication, I got home from a fish and chip lunch in time to press the button to launch ACB Radio, the Internet radio service operated by the American Council of the Blind. It is still operational today, a real testimony to the commitment of ACB to the service, and to all who have worked on it. My congratulations to all those currently involved in ACB Radio on such a great milestone. You can feel justifiably proud.

I always intended to write an account at some point that chronicles my memories of that exciting, pioneering time in blindness and Internet streaming technology. 15 years seems like about the right time to do it. The memories aren’t too faded with the passing of time, but enough time has passed that I can reflect candidly on things. Enough distance now exists that I’m probably as objective about matters as I’m ever likely to be.

In conducting my research for this book, I’ve referred to written and audio records, but they are far from complete. There will be some omissions, and there’ll inevitably be errors. These are due to my middle-aged brain, and so much happening when I was in the thick of it.

If you remember those early days of ACB Radio as a listener, were one of the amazing team members who became household names in the online blind community, or you’re just interested in Internet broadcasting when it was much lower fidelity and far more “seat-of-the-pants” than it is now, I hope you enjoy my recollections.

“On-air, Online” also features a foreword kindly written by the person who shared all the highs and lows with me, my then wife Amanda Gough.

The book is available for free, in ePub and PDF format, from the Mosen Consulting Store.

You’re welcome to pick up some of my other offerings while there, if you feel so inclined.

Happy reading.