Wow! That was a pretty nasty day for The Device. Yes, we ended being down pretty much all afternoon while I tinkered with the server's settings and did a full operating restore in an effort to fix the bandwidth problems that had been dogging the broadcast for the past few days. All seems to be better at the moment, but I am still monitoring the situation very closely... we have saying - "don't count your chickens before they are hatched", and I am not about to do that! Anyway, aplogies for the broadcast interruption. All regular services are also now back on line, with the exception of Streamer... that one might take a bit longer. With luck, though, you should be hearing a better broadcast (no buffering) than we'd been having the past few days.

Please accept my apologies for the brief server outage and loss of signal this afternoon. We are not sure what caused this yet, but we are monitoring the situation. We know a lot of folks were tuned in at the time, so once again, sorry for the interruption of your listening pleasure.

Have you been wondering what's been keeping me so quiet lately? Yeah, I've gotta apologise for there having been no Freakout Party this month, but I've been kind of tied up with technical stuff over the past month - as you can see!
So here it is... the ALL NEW Psychoactive Aural Device, in glorious three-dimensional colour for your enjoyment and edification.

As you can see, the changes go way beyond the cosmetic. Most importantly, we have now upgraded our Shoutcast stream from 32k to a higher-bandwidth 56k - hopefully, giving a better experience for the majority of our listerners. The Streamer application has been downgraded to be dial-up friendly, at 32k.



Secondly, we now have a new webhost and a new URL: www.progressiverockradio.com

Please bookmark this. If you were redirected here from www.britdude.com please be aware that the old url will expire on March 20th.

Unfortunately, problems with our move to the new webhost and development of a new site made it impossible for us to transfer our database, so members will need to re-register for access to our full range of services. Once you have registered here, please check your email to verify your membership.

Once registered, you will notice that we have an expanded range of services. You may now browse the 13,000+ songs in The Psychoactive Vaults and make live requests, which will play, subject to certain legal restrictions that web radio stations have to abide by, and subject to whether there are any shows or playlists queued up ahead of your request.

In addition, I am pleased to announce the return of The Forum. The old forum didn't see too much activity, which is why I deleted it, but I've since realized that it was a necessary resource for any listener who wanted to talk about the music or simply ask a question of the DJs. It's a more simplified version of the old forum, so please use it whenever you have a question or comment etc. And of course, always be respectful of your fellow listeners.

I've also added a new chat room, and you can see from the front page if anyone is in chat. To enter, click on the chat link in the chatroom box. You will need to register separately for chatroom access.

Also, I've added a reviews section at which I will add a few music reviews that I've written in the past. Anyone who is a member is invited (and encouraged!) to make a submission.

Finally, we will be working over the coming months to make our programming more focussed, and perhaps to add further services. Let us know what YOU want via the forum. It's your station too.

Well, that's it for now. Things are far from complete, and the site is still in "Beta", so please forward you suggestions/comments/bug reports to me, either directly, or by making a comment at the bottom of this article.

Thanks for joining us here, and lets make 2006 a banner year for The Device!

Throughout February, and commencing on Friday, February 3rd at 6am-ish, we will playing the Progressive Rock A-Z. Tune in on Friday, and you will be listening to a solid 12 hours of artists beginning with the letter 'A', Saturday will be 'B' and so on.

We are running this little bit of fun in conjunction with the good folks at The Progressive Music Society, Yahoo group. Drop in and say Hi to them, and join the discussions at The Progressive Music Society