Friday morning, look out the window to a beautiful site of ice on the trees, and the power line down in my driveway. In fact, 75% of my city was without power, and over half a million in MA/NH area. Luckily my sister was in the 25%, and we all moved over there on Friday night. All included my other sister, my parents, my grandmother and an aunt. They were so nice to help us out, and the boys all enjoyed playing together. The streets were covered in branches and wires. My oldest’s school is closed for the week. Lucky boy.

Power came back for us on Sunday night, and the internet was back on Monday night - and with that the return of CatholicJukebox.com Radio. We only lost a little bit of stuff in the fridge, and a few boxes in the garage got wet. Little by little we’re getting things cleaned up. God took care of us. Let’s just hope we don’t loose power again with another storm predicted for this week.

Yes, we are still alive here at CatholicJukebox.com. I’ve been doing a lot of work behind the scenes, that you will hopefully see soon. I’ve been working on ways to keep you up to date with events in your area. What good is a concert 1000 miles away? We’re going to help you find bands in your own back yard. Plus I’m trying to update the list of bands, make a more complete experience here on CatholicJukebox.com. Right now, there are a lot of disconnected pieces, but I’m trying to connect the dots. The radio should connect with the directory, and the directory connect with a real event calendar. It’s a lot more work than I first anticipated, but I think it will be well worth the effort. The hardest part is keeping the band pages up to date. Once I’ve got things linked up, I may be searching for volunteers to help update band pages. Keep that in the back of your mind.

Radio
The radio is doing well. At least when it stays up running. I’ve been having a strange problem with my computer, where it will blue screen of death on a driver. It doesn’t say which one, and it all started after an iTunes upgrade - suspicious. So I’ve removed iTunes, and re-installed. I’ve also upgraded a handful of drivers. So far, it’s stayed up for a couple of days. But aleast it reboots within a minute, and the station comes right back onto the air.

We’re also officially into the Christmas music season. We are mixing our Christmas line-up into the play list. There are so many great Advent and Christmas tunes out there, so tune it to keep the Reason for the Season ringing in your ears.

Podcast
I know I keep saying it, but we are going to get started back up very soon. I have a few new segments I’m working on, and the same great music, which is what it’s all about. There is always room for more audience participation, as well as wanting bands to take a more active role in the show. Even with the gap between “seasons” (heck, they do it in tv all the time), the show still has a steady download rate, and many new fans. It’s still one of the best opportunities for bands to be heard.

Blogging
I’m going to try and keep you more in the loop. I’ve re-simplified the blog page. The magazine layout was cool, if I was going to maintain it, but none of us who were writing were really good about keeping blogging more than a few times. Sometimes, simple is better.

Forum
The forum is going away, but I don’t think anyone is going to cry too loudly over that. We got hacked a little while back, and was attacked with a ration of spam. With so many better avenues for social networking, there isn’t the same need for a forum. Actually the blog is a great example of the “better forum”. Your comments on the blog help share ideas. As we regroup, we’ll figure this thing out.

Remember, we’re all in this together.

The Podcast Awards were announced on Sunday, November 9, and for a second year in a row Catholic Rockers won the Best Podsafe Music Podcast. It’s amazing to me that we won, but it shouldn’t be that surprising if you listen to the great music created by Catholic artists from around the globe. The quality of the writing, performing and production is second to none. I’ve said all along that a win for Catholic Rockers is a win for Catholic music, and the second time around that holds true even more.  Thanks to everyone who has been a part of the family.

It was also great to see 3 other SQPN shows take their categories as well.
Daily Breakfast
Grace Before Meals
Healthy Catholic

The award ceremony will be online this year, and I’ll keep you informed of the details.