HatchetRadio Transformation ’24

  So it’s not very often that we open up Pandoras box on HatchetRadio and let you guys in, but we have been having a lot of talks lately with people within the backside of the network, and I wanted to also let you guys in on a few sneak peaks that we are bringing your way. So dynamically I wanted to put a huge Post out there for everyone to read and understand because there’s been some rumors & chaos that are swirling about as we are returning, and I want to put the smoke down on any rumors before they spread like wild fire. So please bear with a lot of the things that are fixing to be said because they are always asked questions, and I try to be as open and honest with you guys as possible about the past, the present, and the future, but the issue always goes to our past because we do love our past staff of DJ’s.

                So the parts that are going to be hardest for most staff members to understand is why we are removing podcasts, shuffling about our library, and going through our content with a lot of serious looks. The explanation is very simple. So last night in our discussions amongst admins, & senior staff members we took a look at the past 20 years of our history. We’ve been blessed to bring you guys what we have for so very long. But over the years we also have grown, and developed into different people, but we have always supported all the music around us that has come from the indie scene, the underground scene, the dark. We’ve captivated millions of fans, and so many followers over the years because of the standing legacy that was created in 2003 when 4 really close friends spent a weekend on the internet programming and building.

We Fast Forward 2 decades later, and we surveyed the landscape, and honestly I am for paying homage and hats off where they are due, but some of the things that were the foundational blocks in the beginning were long ago. I pondered this after a sharp, brisk conversation today, and then had a talk with one of my best friends & co-owners of the network DeadBilly about the situation that had transpired, and we discussed a couple of things and it really had me thinking about now. The Future. So I want to say this, and I mean zero disrespect to anyone out there. Our mission over the next few years is a transformative one. We are geared, primed, and ready to hit the tracks on what we were planning to do from the blueprints we’ve freshly written up.

So I will open up a few tidbits of history, so that there’s zero talk of why we are moving forward with this. We had around 125+ staff members over the past 20 years come and go. Many of them, went into the professional world, and became amazing people, absolute awesome parents, contributed to society on a level that was above & beyond where most people would be proud of them, myself included. Some disappeared into the wild, never to be seen from again, some with good cause. My days running the station I was young, arrogant, driven, and had purpose, and I damaged a lot of friendships. I have openly welcomed conversation with MANY of the past staff members because as I’ve gotten older I have become a man who shows humility, and actively listens to people’s concerns.

The hard facts are when you are in what we have done for so very long even when you were as inexperienced as I was wearing so many different hats around the station, I had good support. I had great DJ’s. The best. Period. I couldn’t have asked for a better staff, or talent, or management, or networking admins, chatroom admins, chat staff, street team. We had everything covered when we grand opened, and even more as we grew. I was so very proud and have been so very proud of people, and I don’t mean for any statements to be colluded with backhanded ones, because that is NOT the case of this. But the facts are, and even those who helped run along side me will tell you, at our prime, we were capable of absolutely just tearing into cyberspace at mach speeds  with everyone involved one after another. Those were fun, imaginable times. Every year I get thanked by a few handfuls of staff, people who’s lives this place made a big impact, the people who surrounded it, and have given it a lot of love over the years. That’s the part that I loved the most and remember the most. Not any of the bad conversations.

The next part was on the horizon anyways, after we did some verification earlier today. I explained in an earlier statement that there was some things we have to do to ensure that we are capable of keeping the integrity of our former staff intact. We love them, and any time & material they have donated to us has been handled with the utmost care within the scopes of what they have wished for, and of course the almighty Hard Drive. We ask staff we don’t often remain in touch with from time to time if it is ok that we display their work they have done for us and submitted to us so that we can keep it on display & in rotation. Most of them we rarely have to ask, because we have kept good relationships with most of our staff, but there are staff again whom we do not have contact with for various personal or business related reasons(conflicts of interest). So we have to keep up with them, and if a conversation cannot be had about the related material, we assume that it’s a no.

This is not the first time we have had to remove content from the website. We had several instances where former staff, artists, & others have contacted us for various reasons in their lives regarding their content and have asked us nicely & professionally to remove it, and of course without hesitation, we do every single time because we respect and cherish the wishes of the folks who supported us while we supported them. We have treated our former staff with respect to their content, and their wishes with it. We don’t ever want people to think otherwise, because it’s not right in our opinions and on a legal basis, the content belongs to them as well, since it’s their voice and we want their talent to be put on display as long as they are cool with it. Every year we have some of them check into the website, ask about certain interviews they did, and we point them out and they listen to the interview again, and it’s something satisfying to them that they get to do, and they share it with everybody.

So with that long winded explanation we are going to get into the reason surrounding it. So after some discussions with various people within our team, we did a head count, and we are almost all hands on deck as far as the staff that has ran the station since 2012. Some folks have home & family responsibilities and that’s completely what we want to hear. The last time we added someone to HatchetRadio was Buffalo Juggalos, Arizona Juggalos, & Sashadoll’s DollHouse. After that we no longer did live shows other than The Main Event Show & The Final Round which were simulcast to HatchetRadio Live which had myself, Leffy, & Muffin involved around 2012.

So with that being said, we decided after our conversation that we were no longer going to air any thing dated behind that last class of DJ’s due to the fact that we no longer have contact with the majority of the staff. I know that sounds a bit upsetting for some folks, but it was forced on us and we had no  other alternatives once it happens. It’s a respect thing, and you guys also have to respect it as well. We also removed any staff alumni off of our active staff section other than Indie Republic due to them volunteering to keep their info on our website for promotional purposes. Other staff bio’s have been removed who are no longer active again because lack of contact and the fact that we are moving forward with plans, and not to confuse any one.

The next part is going to be a bit easier to understand. In 2024 we will be reprogramming HatchetRadio’s streams. We will be working with the current staff at hand and programming streams around their live shows. This way we can put openings within our system for their shows to go live as they are scheduled. What this means is that our Event Manager will be utilized to let you folks know that there is a show each week. So let’s get down to the FAQ So I can answer the most common questions about this  transition. This way I can break the monotony of this letter up but, we have a lot of information to cover and I have quite a bit of time on my hands to cover it.

1. You said Shows, like Live Shows? How many?    Ok.. So I can answer this question very very easily if you give me a second to answer the first. Yes Live Shows. Live hosts, Live Cohosts. Live Streams. Right now I can verify 5-7 depending on availability, and a Network Talk Show featuring the network staff themselves.
2. So you are stating you are taking down the former staff, what if I want my bio up?  Easy fix, we can add your bio and anything you want to submit. If we have any of your podcasts available we will surely give them to you. What we have is on the Podcast Section. Just ask. If you see yours we’ll toss it over to you so you can keep up with your personal library.
3. What if we want to contact you about something? How do we get in touch?  Ahhh yes… HatchetShack is how you are going to be able to contact us. We still have JuggaloIRC but due to technological advances. It’s more of an antique remnant of “Why is this still here? Who allowed it?” The answer is DeadBilly, Stewy, & DeadBilly once again. But Billy wanted to transform his network, so with some boosts we opened HatchetShack as the official replacement for JuggaloIRC. So you can surely join hit us up in the welcome channel, we’ll get your membership role set up and we’ll get you going.
4. Who are the current active Staff?    Without leaking anything special, Sinista1, Sayjin Tyler, Trazor, Leffy, Sashadoll, DeadBilly, & myself. Officially Speaking, Arthane has stepped away from HatchetRadio as it was announced tonight for the work season. His return will be epic. That kind of covers who we have outside. Inside we can’t talk about it. It’s in the bag.
5. What if I want to come back? I used to work for HatchetRadio!            So this question is kind of loaded for any staff member to approach without first having a conversation with the other staff. There’s a lot to assess, and honestly we’re just doing this for fun and not anything serious and to have a portal to promote our personal brands if we would like. So there’s a ton of variables there, and one of them may even be with past experience and I know people change but we kind like to keep it low key so it’s a discussion that will be back and forth if there’s interest on both sides. There are some people personally that we will absolutely not work with, that discussion has been had.
6. Where can we find old staff?       We are unable to answer that question for privacy reasons. If a staff member stepped away, we no longer are going to keep their information on the staff area of the website unless they have their podcasts on here with us, and then we will move them to the alumni section of the website. You have to understand, unless they come to us, we can’t put them on here unless we’ve previously agreed.

So that should about cover the FAQ Section of this. The last part I want to say is thank you to everyone who’s read this, it’s been a pleasure, We will have more and more to come as we transition into the new phase. The next part of out big transition statement will include more about the shows, how they will operate and how this will affect the day to day. Thanks again!