Many of us I'm sure can agree that an internet radio "station" playing nothing 
but mechanical musical instruments is long overdue.  That's why I was pretty 
excited a couple of weeks ago when it was announced on this forum (and on other 
social media sites) that a 24-hour internet radio broadcast was starting up 
which would be dedicated to nothing but music produced mechanically. Although 
it was up and running in late march, the official start date was April 1st.  I 
couldn't wait to hear it, and see what it was all about.  I've been listening 
for the past few weeks now in the shop and in my truck through Bluetooth from 
my Android phone.

Mechanicalmusicradio.com is run by UK resident and fair organ buff James Dundon, 
who, according to his bio at the site, has worked in traditional broadcast 
radio most of his life. The write-up goes on to say that it's done solely to
promote mechanical music and bring those who enjoy it closer together. Without 
a doubt, the project is a labor of love.  Running a 24-hour music Internet site 
is certainly time-consuming, costly, and ambitious.  Their site relates that 
it is run completely as non-profit, with donations graciously accepted to help 
with operating expenses.  According to the text at the site, much of the program 
material has been provided generously by Graham Spencer of Royalmusic Recording 
Services in the UK, and also by John Van Kleef of Discus Records in the 
Netherlands.  Interestingly, their licensing class as an "Internet Radio Station" 
allegedly gives permission to broadcast music which is also still in copyright.

After reading the posting of its introduction here on the MMD, I immediately 
went to listen in.  The web site is clean-looking and professionally designed. 
Navigation is easy--you just click on the "Listen Live" button to immediately 
begin hearing the program of mechanical musical instruments.  The sound is clean 
and crisp, and it surely must be sampled at a high rate, as there are thankfully 
no annoying digital artifacts of compromising audio compression evident, at least 
not in any of the selections I have heard over the last three weeks.  I am very 
impressed with the consistently clean audio quality, and listening for a couple 
hours a day has been easy.

The musical selections are varied, and as yet I have not heard any repeated 
tracks.  I must say however that one major disappointment is the lack of variation 
of machine types represented.  The tunes you'll get here are about 95% dance organ 
and street organ selections, sadly not representing highly enough the variety of 
mechanical instruments out there.  To be fair, the site does say on its home page 
that musical selections are "picked from the most iconic mechanical organs from 
around the world".  Even still, it has a certain sameness from selection to 
selection that gets tiring if you aren't a fan of these types of instruments. Don't 
get me wrong, I love me some Mortier and DeCap, but I can't take several straight 
hours of it. In three weeks of what I'd call "heavy listening," the only different 
instruments I have heard were a player or reproducing piano (several times), a 
music box (exactly twice), an orchestrelle (twice) and an Aeolian Duo-Art pipe 
organ (once).  All the rest of the programming has consisted of dance-, street-, 
or fair organs. I have yet to hear an American or European coin piano or 
orchestrion, although the playlist showed that a Mills Violano-Virtuoso had 
been played previously, but I missed it.  In one bumper, the announcer referred 
to an orchestrion as an "orchestration", which I hope was a once-only mistake 
for a radio station devoted to playing mechanical music.

All this aside, it's awfully good fun and great listening.  Its UK-centric organ 
style is of course not surprising due to its originating location. As a premier 
mechanical music radio site, it would be really satisfying to show a broader 
scope and variety of music machines, especially from a radio station calling itself 
"mechanical music radio."  Hopefully this is something that will come in time, 
otherwise Internet mechanical music radio still has a big gap to fill.  I'd 
really enjoy hearing a Coinola, then a music box, next a Decap, then an Ampico, 
followed by a Popper, an Orchestrelle... and so on.

One other small but easily fixable distraction is the announcement bumpers 
between each and every selection. The announcer's voice is a bit louder than 
the musical tracks, and there is a decidedly shrill, high treble equalization in 
his voice that drills right into your skull.  It's rather painful, mostly so 
when listening inside a vehicle, and toning down of this would be a great asset. 
It's especially jolting, after listening to a piece at fairly high volume, to 
have the announcer coming on full-force at an even higher decibel level directly 
afterwards.  I've since learned to lower the volume when I know a piece is going 
to end, and it's now become a habit to do so.

Additionally, I don't know that a bumper saying the words "mechanical music 
radio" (and other similar taglines reminiscent of pop music FM radio) is 
necessary between every selection.  I know what I'm listening to.  A suggestion 
might be that between every four tracks is plenty, just as in regular music 
broadcasting.  Perhaps a second or two of dead space between tracks would be 
nice as well.

Further, there's a link to a CD shop at the site, offering an impressive array 
of professionally recorded discs of mechanical organs at a very reasonable cost. 
Another area of the site lists links to other mechanical music related interests, 
as well as a way to donate funds.  There's a 30-second world news spot on the 
hour, and also a few announcements regarding UK-based events and meetings are 
thrown in, as well as at least one low-key advertisement for an organ building 
shop that I heard.

There are many ways to listen, even with an android phone app,although according 
to the site, there's not one for iPhone as yet.  Evidently, Alexa is coming soon, 
as the site states.  However you want to listen, go to mechanicalmusicradio.com 
and play it often.  The music is really great!  Except for a roughly 18-hour 
crash just after premiering on April 1, due to a computer update, I have never 
found the site to have any technical glitches or be down since.  It's bound 
to be polished up over time and have any kinks worked out.  It could by all 
indications grow a large audience.  I wish mechanicalmusicradio.com the greatest 
of luck, and many congratulations on filling a musical void that has long been 
neglected. Perhaps this will inspire others to do the same.

John Rutoskey
Baltimore, Maryland