Funny. In April of 2014, I wrote on this site that “we are just days away” from the relaunch of the HossTheBoss.com internet radio stream.
That never happened. (Largely because Live365 ended up having to hastily change its entire business model as a result of music royalty legislation, and that meant I had to change my plans pretty drastically, too. So drastically, in fact, that I’m basically still back at Square One.)
Hoss’s Story
Back in 2006 – 2012, this URL was where you could find my quirky, unprofessional, and mildly popular stream of independent musicians from all over the US and the world
I started the stream after signing off of my last “real radio” DJ show one Friday, assuring listeners I’d be back with more craziness on Monday, and being greated by the station owner with a request for my keys to be building on the way out. The owner never really explained why he fired me. But the last paycheck he gave me ended up bouncing (but he quickly replaced it with cash when I called him), so I think it has more to do with the fact that he couldn’t afford to keep paying my $8/hour part-time salary (for his afternoon drive jock!).
Yeah, this guy wasn’t even the worst of the doozies I picked to work for in the radio business over the years.
Such is life.
Fortunately, before all this happened, I’d already started this site — an independent venture completely unrelated to the station — as a compliment to my show. So, folks were already used to logging on to hear replays of the musician interviews I did on the show and to see my daily updated live music listings from all over South Texas. (I think that’s another reason I got fired. Some of my listings on the site were for clubs that had turned the station manager down for advertising sales. I think the owner didn’t really like my giving them free listings (or maybe he thought they were paying me instead of him, which they weren’t. Who knows?))
So, when I posted about my firing Friday evening, my email inbox filled up quickly that weekend with folks wanting to help add a stream to this site.
Several local big spenders (or, as it turned out, big talkers) said they’d hook me up with whatever funds I needed to get the thing going. I pulled out some of the old equipment I’d collected over the years, asked my wife if we could use the spare bedroom for the studio, and started broadcasting, on a very tiny shoestring, about a week later.
As I say, the money guys never came through (and, did you see the above note about how much I got paid at my last gig. I sure as heck didn’t have any spare capital to invest), so I ended up sorta stuck. I’d taken on this project, but wasn’t sure how I could turn it into a livelihood — without the promised money, anyway. As they always say, it takes money to make money!
I wrote several business plans and shopped them around to even more money guys, all of whom very optimistically gave me squat.
So, finally, in an interest of making a living (not to mention finding time to take care of my elderly, mentally-ill father), I put the site on hold in 2012. In hindsight, I can’t believe it lasted six dang years!
I promised to come back “soon.”
And, well, soon isn’t here yet.
Alas, all in God’s timing.
While we wait for God I’ve done a lot of soul searching about the time I spent in the radio business (roughly 1988 – 2006, off and on). And, over these last five years, I’ve managed to finally to realize the reason I never made it in that “industry.”
I’d been following my own path, not God’s.
My quest for a non-radio livelihood has ended up bringing me to tiny Sweeny, Texas (the town where my wife’s family lives and my mother grew up) where I commute daily 30 miles to teach English and yearbook and coach cross country and tennis at a Christian school in Lake Jackson.
It’s seems kinda weird (not just to me) for this once-wild former DJ to say teaching at a Christian school is his dream job.
But that’s the way it is. I guess you can say, I finally found Him.
Alas, I submit that God may have more in store for Hoss just yet. I’m just waiting on His guidance.
See when I started the stream on this site, I resisted the “conventional” approach to radio. I refused to play the same music as everyone else in the business.
Instead, I took to email, MySpace, ReverbNation, and the local live music joints (not all just bars, by the way. I found a LOT of great musicians in coffee shops and churches) to ask great “independent” bands to send me their stuff for the station.
And boy did they.
I still have thousands of great CDs from bands most of my friends have never heard of. But, once folks DO hear them, they often end up becoming even more mad than me that these songs and singers just can’t seem to “find an audience” in today’s music world.
I still have that anger in me.
But, since God rightly points out that anger is not of Him, I have to keep it in check.
And what better way to do that than by giving it all back to Him, just as He asks.
God is healing my anger at a world in which many great, talented folks — who were once regulars on HossTheBoss.com’s stream — are still struggling daily to make a living with their music (and some of them, like ole’ Hoss, have even put their gifts on hold).
And His main way of healing is to promise me that, in His time, Hoss will make a triumphant return on this site — the steady stream of smart, well produced, passionate independent tunes that once was the hallmark of this site will reign again.
But this time God will be the focus.
I’m not saying all music on the new HossTheBoss.com stream will be “Christian,” so to speak. I’m not even going to promise that there won’t be a little cussin’ and beer drinking in some of the songs.
But I am going to promise that He will be in charge. And we’ll get it going again when He says its time.
Gor the moment, I hear God just urging me to be patient. “Don, keep on shelling out for the web domain and hosting every year, and keep logging on to keep the hackers out of the site. Do that, and we’ll be moving again before you know it.”
While you’re waiting, ya’ll check out my blog (on many topics) at DonCudd.com. I’m sure I’ll mention HossTheBoss.com over there a time or two in the coming days. Ya’ll just stay tuned! And I’d appreciate any prayers (or other support) you care to offer for this blessed cause.
Love ya’ll,
Don Cudd — aka Hoss
Sweeny, Texas
January 2, 2018