We are now CLOSED

G'day,

The title has probably got you wondering "What on Earth is going on?" and maybe "Why are they closed?" and then "Are they coming back?"

Here's the full explanation of what has been going on lately

Since the passing of Birfs in late October last year, Barfs has been doing the 7pm slot Mondays through to Thursdays unassisted, at the same time I've been doing my usual 9pm slot through to Midnight on those nights as well, with the exception of Thursdays due to working commitments

As usual, we took our Christmas/New Year break and gave some thought as to what we should do with the room, do we close or do we keep going. Barfs was always saying that he would continue on, I even checked with him on occasions that he was still happy with the current arrangement, he was always there, and mostly early, then would walk the dogs and have dinner at some point

However, in the middle of June this year, Paltalk decided to force an upgrade of it's software. On that night, I wasn't given the option to continue using the software I was on, it HAD to be upgraded, according to Paltalk. I knew this could (and it did) cause trouble for Barfs, he didn't turn up that night

I did email him to see what the situation was, apparently the Paltalk software that was being updated didn't seem to work on his machine, which is unusual as every other update has worked (in the end) despite some trouble here and there. But he kept saying he was "working on it"

In all honesty, it sounds like he's still using Windows XP and Paltalk have finally cracked down on it and won't make his version work until he upgrades to something like Windows 7 or higher. Having said that, there are previous versions of Paltalk online, but again, Paltalk FORCES an upgrade. It's also worth noting that as of the middle of January 2020, support of Windows 7 updates will cease

So far, Barfs hasn't been seen online since before the upgrade was rolled out. I've been filling in during July and August when I've finally emailed him again to announce that it's time for the room to close

The simple reason for this was, a lack of people coming in, lack of support in the room each night and basically doing everything myself. I've noted in the past with my other radio role (in Seymour, Victoria) that a very well set up Festival with big names and heaps of local acts, held at a racecourse in Kilmore, hardly got 50 people attending. The statement was made the following day that if people don't support these festivals, they'll never come back

At the moment, based on Barfs' technicalities, we had no other option than to officially close after the shift was done on Wednesday 28th of August 2019. There wasn't any fanfare, because as usual, nobody was in the room to listen, that's pretty much how it's been since the middle of June

So with this in mind, I've made the executive decision to close the room, meaning I now have more free time to catch up on other things

Of course, this doesn't mean that someone later down the track who has the enthusiasm couldn't reopen the room, if they have the support and new ideas to get something going, then why not, but that will obviously be in the future.

For now, we're closed, and we thank everyone for listening for the past 2 decades. From our early years as Vic FM to our present day name of Radio MBBH, we've had fun and I know the rest of the team did along the way also. We must remember though, that we have also aged by around 20 years in that time, so our priorities have changed since starting the room, we have become more busier these days, therefore it's only a sensible thing to do, which means we have more time to do other things

Thank you, and we'll catch you online