Hello, I am a happily married entrepreneur who had a very rough 2025. After successfully dealing with two hospital scares due to congestive heart failure and sepsis, our summer ended with our being displaced due to a residential fire. We have housing once again, but I am trying to build back up and improve the two ventures I nearly lost that I devoted a lot of passion toward for many years.

Since 2011 and 2014, respectively, I have run two internet radio stations called The Retro Attic and Awfully Awesome Eighties. I have extensive knowledge of oldies music, the history of classic MTV, and over 40 years of experience with record collecting. I have a loyal group of listeners who appreciate my eclectic playlists with occasional soundbites and vintage jingles. You won't get the same tired 50 classics over and over with my stations! You have to play the big hits, but with my stations, you will hear an obvious love for the lesser-known hits, minor charters, and non-charting regional 45s. The Retro Attic concentrates on the 50s through the 70s, and Awfully Awesome Eighties concentrates on the 80s and early 90s (mainly those tunes that kept the 80s spirit alive). You can check my work out at either https://retroatticrareoldiesradio.com or https://awfullyawesomeeighties.com. I have a DJ alter ego that was inspired by the singers of the 70s top 40 hits "Alone Again Naturally" and "Shake It."

FYI: These stations are legally licensed through Live 365. Artists are getting their royalties! I take these ventures very seriously and would really like to see them become full-time ventures.

My current servers are hosted by a third party; they're going on ten years old and are showing their age. The company's data centers are outdated, so they are prone to network congestion and buffering issues. A three-hour buffering episode earlier this week told me that it's time to upgrade. I have only been broadcasting at 128 kbps, which turns off some audiophiles who want high-quality streaming with no audio artifacts. My listeners don't deserve to deal with an uncertain stream every day. It's time to get out of the Stone Age and be the internet radio equivalent of Tidal and QoBuz! But since my family is financially starting over from scratch, I am turning to my listeners for help in getting an upgrade and moving to "the big leagues."

I'm looking to get two premium servers that broadcast in 320 kbps quality, that have iOS and Android apps, that have Alexa skills, that have tons of concurrent listener capabilities, and that have 300 GB of storage (roughly the equivalent of 70 to 75k tracks). I'm looking to come up with a grand for each server; this will be enough to cover the first six months of the new and improved broadcasts. In the meantime, I will be getting a store set up with various swag items (mugs, caps, t-shirts, water bottles, Marty McFly life preservers, Nehru Jackets, etc. - yes, I'm kidding on the last two); eventually, the store and other regular donations should take care of the monthly server costs. I am also looking for a few contributions so I can hire a designer for some cooler logos than what are on my webpages.

I have some people already interested who have said they want nothing in return. I can let you know that if you make a decent contribution to this cause, I would be willing to put together half-hour request blocks for you, or somewhere down the road (Manilow reference unintended), I could send a t-shirt or a mug your way.

I thank you in advance for your help! Feel free to get in touch if you need more information, if you want to chat about oldies music, or if you just want to hear some long-forgotten sounds. I'm hoping that later this year, these stations will really be something to talk about (Raitt reference intended)!