Hoboken Rock City - The Official Blog Of DJ Mike C.

It pains me terribly to do this, put the Hoboken Rock City Podcast is back on hiatus, now indefinitely.

Many of you are aware that I am a full-time employee of a major record label. I guess you all are now. Regardless of what I might personally think about the RIAA's policies and attitudes toward legal grey areas like podcasting, MP3 blogs, and P2P sharing—and keeping in mind that any opinions I express here about those issues (and anything else) are solely mine and have nothing to do with my employer (who I have never actually mentioned anywhere on this site anyway, and by the way I really like my job)—I have been doing this above-board all along. I have received permission to use the tracks I played in each podcast from either the record labels or the artists themselves.

The legalities of podcasting music have not yet been sorted out, but in the meantime the best way to cover one's ass is to do this sort of outreach and get permissions. In the process of doing that, I have made some pleasant new contacts and acquaintances, corresponded with some artists I admire, and been turned on to some new music along the way. All that is awesome, but it takes time, and that's what I am lacking right now.

I hope the day comes soon when I can just fall out of bed and do a show without having to worry about clearing all the tracks with the owners of the respective master tapes; no such permissions are required on terrestrial radio. Until I can operate in a way that at least somewhat resembles regular radio, then, I just don't have the time or the resources to put into making any new podcasts right now. If there were no limits on what I could play, I could easily do a show every week and fill it with cool new stuff and classic faves. But that's not the case right now.

So, sorry. All I can say is wait and see, and I hope it's not too long until I'm doing a show again. In the meantime, this website and this blog live on. I'm still gigging and doing everything else I've been doing, just minus the show, for now anyway. And if anyone wants to, oh, I don't know, organize a letter-writing campaign to get me a show on Jersey City's own WFMU, well, gee, who am I to stand in anyone's way?