SS:R Needs You! We’re Looking For DJs!

Now, as some of you may know, we here at SEGASonic:Radio have been toying with the idea of a full on relaunch for an unbelievably long time now… All we’ve had consistently running through our airwaves as the station’s activity all but shut down were Biafra Republic’s A/V Hijack and TurboXLR’s Turbo Drive Live… However, I am happy to inform you that the fabled relaunch is finally upon us, and but we need your help!

There have been quite a few changes going on behind the scenes, some of which I can publicly disclose. One: I, VizardJeffhog, have inherited the position of Station Manager from BlitzChris, leaving me in charge of all things SS:R. Two: EAR (who you might recall as one of the musicians behind the Sonic Stadium Music Adventure series, the man behind the Mad Rabbit Podcast, and a talented DJ over on KSBR 85.5′s The Mix as well as OC Rock Radio’s Monday Night Meltdown) has recently accepted a position here and joined our happy family!

And four! …no, wait a minute… Three! You. Yeah, you! No, not the one sitting next to you (well, maybe him/her too)! You’re here because you absolutely love music, right? You’re here because you love the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, right? Do you think you have the same passion as myself, Biafra, Turbo, EAR, Blitz, and Speedknux? Do you have the capability to be a team player with the rest of us? Well, good! Because we’re looking for folks like you!

SEGASonic:Radio is scouting for volunteer DJs to help keep that ball of music rolling around at the speed of sound. If you think you have what it takes to audition, continue on after the jump for more details!

Here are the qualities we are looking for in a potential DJ:

  • The ability to speak fluent and coherent English, accent not withstanding as long as it’s understandable;
  • A dedicated yet sensible passion for music and/or for SEGA (or other!);
  • The availability and drive to broadcast an hour-long show on a weekly basis;
  • The initiative of providing their own unique flavour and make SS:R a better station than it ever was;
  • The capability to be confident, be cool, be wild, and be groovy!

In order to audition, you will need to submit the following:

  1. A profile that includes your name and a little about yourself;
  2. A paragraph pitching your show – this includes the show’s name, what it is about, and an explanation from you as to why you think it suits SS:R perfectly. Don’t be general in explaining your show, be detailed;
  3. Times of availability. Not an obligation at first, but we will want to know when you are usually free and can do your show, so that scheduling will be an easier task;
  4. A 10 minute demo of your show, and by your show, I mean you talking. Send us a 10 minute recording/mp3 of you “hosting” your show as if you were on air: that way, you can give us a better idea as to how your segment will work. Explaining your show is all nice, but we want to hear you! No better way to demonstrate your theory than with practice, right?
  5. Lastly, an investment of, I don’t know, 100 Gems. Mmm… yes.

And finally, to clarify:

  • If your show contains multiple hosts, you know what they say: the more, the merrier! There are no restrictions on there being more than one person running a show, but be careful: make sure your friend(s) are as into this as you are! No point in a show if not everyone’s on board!
  • Your recording must be authentic. That means no tweaking, no alterations, no filtering, no cuts, no nothing, or you will be disqualified, and you will be ignored for the rest of the auditioning period. You can’t change the way you sound with Audacity while you’re on air, so don’t bullshit your audition with falsities! Don’t tell us we didn’t warn you!
  • Before you throw in your hat for “Sonic music”, let me stop you right there. SS:R is, basically, that at heart, and most of our shows revolve around this idea (with each their own flair, at least), so more of the same might not tickle our fancy. Be unique with your show! This is your chance to make SS:R a diverse listening environment! Just… if you’re doing non-SEGA/Sonic, don’t expect us to give you the music you’re looking for (e.g. “i’m doing mario but i don’t have that soundtrack can you get it for me plzthx”). We look after each other, but the rest of the team won’t necessarily do your work for you when it comes to external material. Your resources, your problem!
  • That being said, don’t go overboard. Make sure that it’s the kind of show you can actually manage – don’t try to run one that you’d grow tired of or don’t have enough material for. Really, if there’s any place you shouldn’t do the impossible, it’s here. Your show must be fun, doable, and lasting!
  • What makes a good DJ is one who knows how to manage his/her time, one who’s a team player, and in our case, one who has a stable internet connection! Being active in social media, thus interacting with listeners, is a plus!
  • Finally, the SEGASonic:Radio server on The Sonic Stadium is Icecast-based. If you’re one of the chosen, be sure to have the streaming software/freeware necessary to broadcast your show. If not, don’t panic, we’ll help! Rest assured that we’ll go over everything with you to make sure you can run your show no problem!

The deadline is April 16th 2013, which is three solid weeks from now. That is plenty of time for you to get your stuff together and send us your auditions. When you’re all finished, submit your entries to us via competition@sonicstadium.org, with the subject header “SS:R DJ Audition” or some variation thereof! As soon as it is received, I will notify you and provide you with extra details on how the process will go down.

Once April 16th has passed, the audition period will be over, and no future submissions will be accepted. The other DJs and I will then go through all of your entries and start picking apart favourites, so make sure yours stands out – that’s what we’re looking for. After we pick them out, I will announce the winners via the front page, and the chosen will be initiated through a good old fashioned locker room towel-whipping! That’s what happened last time, heeheehee!

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to drop a comment.

That being said, many will enter… Three will succeed. Good luck to all of you!

-VizardJeffhog, SEGASonic:Radio Station Manager

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New 8-Bit Radio App for iPhones/iPod’s

For those who love their remixes on the go, you now have the perfect app to compliment your busy lifestyles.

Released yesterday through the itunes store, ’8 Bit Radio’ will stream all your favourite remixes from the OCRemix archives, straight to your Apple device. The interface is extremelly simplistic and easy to navigate, and you can pick from a number of different playlists depending on which games you enjoy. The app features sixteen different streaming channels featuring game such as Final Fantasy, Mega Man, Donkey Kong and most importantly Sonic.

The App is recommended for use with your local wifi, but can be used in conjunction with your 3G or 4G network. Big thanks goes to the amazing people over at OCRemix and the hard workers over at Ninja Pandas.

Best of all the app is FREE and can be viewed over at the Apple site here.

 

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A history of ArchangelUK and The Sonic Show

Someone recently asked my why I picked on Kevin (best known as ArchangelUK) in one of our recent videos, as they found it a bit unfair. What they didn’t realise was that AAUK has been frequently popping up in this little podcast since the very beginning. I view AAUK as the lucky charm of The Sonic Show. Lets not forget that he was the first major Sonic site (Sonic Wrecks) to support the show, long before anyone else did! It’s his promotion that got SCD to see the show and begin its long journey to where it is today. Every so often we always feel it’s important we do a “Kev Kameo” (we spell it with a K intentionally okay?!?!) so while you may have only just noticed, lets take you through his many appearances (with and without his consent) in The Sonic Show’s timeline.

 

#1 The BIG crossover. 2007.

Back in 2007, The Sonic Show and Radio Redux merged into one big thing! Kevin hosted in his usual style and unsurprisingly The Sonic Show suddenly gained a ton of attention!

#2 The BIG crossdresser. 2008.

 

Hop along to early 2008 and we have our first “Kev Kameo”. Featured in season 2 of The Sonic Show, we for some reason got very bored.

#3 The BIG stroke. 2009

We managed to catch AAUK for a chat during Summer Of Sonic 2009. Bless him he was completely fucked and the day had only begun (yes it got worse, can you blame him from retiring from organising this thing!) but managed to show such energy for the event in his brief natter. He also sent a message direct to you guys who watched at home through The Sonic Show live stream getting everyone to wave and shout for Crush 40 to come (which worked).

#4 The BIG Afro. 2009

 

The Sonic Show site went offline for about a month while we did a whole site redo on a new server. In that time the site had one working video, our second “Kev Kameo”, in the form of AfroangelUK getting on the soul train.

#5 The BIG kidnap. 2009

In what is simply a bizarre and disturbing opening sequence to any episode we’ve done, AAUK discusses how much he loves the show. To the point that he will lay a trap and kidnap so he can take over my show. The next shot has me locked in an empty room tied and gagged by him… o_O

#6 The BIG sequel. 2009

We announced we had an exclusive launch trailer on the show. Which we did…. of course it was fake. And it featured our favourite “Kev Kameo”. We imagine this is how he worked at SEGA.

#7 The BIG stroke PART 2. 2010 

We interviewed AAUK the next year for our big Summer Of Sonic blowout. His answer for “How is it going”, pretty much sums up how his “I may collapse and die” metre was at it’s max, even if his charm says otherwise. He must love the fact we come up in his face every year when he’s really busy to ask how busy he is. If you’re reading this Kev, <3 your efforts these 4 years! We will be bothering you on June 25th, sticking a microphone in your face as your being taken out on a stretcher.

#8 The BIG rainbow. 2011

The most recent “Kev Kameo” is the oddest one. If you know Nyan Cat then you know what this is. We stuck it in at the end to see if people watch all the way through. It would appear they did!

So that’s AAUK’s numerous times with the show (that we can recall) forgetting all the mentions of Wrecks on our news segments. Will we continue to do it, yes. Why do we do it, because we <3 him and even though we only shove his face in on average once a year, we feel it’s a stupid nod to what he’s done for us. Well that’s our excuse anyway.

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Happy Groundhog / Hedgehog Day (And A Possible Announcement On The Way?)

It’s 3am on Thursday, the 3rd of February, and fortunately for me Groundhog day won’t be repeating itself for me (although today seems to have gone on forever!) However for many of our American fans, their local groundhog will have predicted whether or not they will be having 6 more weeks of winter, of if early spring is on it’s way.

However the tradition of calling the 2nd of February “Hedgehog Day” was a tradition continued by SEGA since the announcement of Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 a year ago. The SEGA America Blog is celebrating Hedgehog day in a very mysterious way…and no, I don’t mean the hedgehog weather-sensing facts either!

Keen-eyed fans will notice that certain letters are highlighted throughout the blog, and in order, spell “Berlin”.

Is SEGA giving us a hint as to a possible announcement that could take place soon in Berlin? Are the SoA employees enslaved to write the blog trying to tell us the city in which they have been locked in a dungeon and chained to a laptop? Is Sonic changing his name to Hans and moving to Germany? No doubt many fans will find this too much of a coincidence, and with two or three Sonic titles in the works this year, this is bound to get the fans talking.

So what’s going on? Answers on a back of a postcard…or let’s hear your conspiracy theories or know-how in the comments!

UPDATE: LordSpeed has a pretty convincing theory:

“Isaiah Berlin with his essay called “The Hedgehog and the Fox” takes the hedgehog as the type of the person who knows “one big thing”, as opposed to the fox, who knows many things. This was taken from a poem by Archilochus -> (image of Sega Blog) (Wikipedia).”

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Summer of Sonic – 32 Days To Go

The first ever Sonic the Hedgehog convention is taking place in London on August 9th. I’ve been working hard with AAUK of Sonic Wrecks to make this extreme meetup as awesome as possible, and I can safely say we’ve got some pant-soiling stuff ready for your face. To celebrate the fact that we’ve got lots of shit ready for your inner Sonic child, the Summer of Sonic website will be regularly updated. The SoS Blog has just started and will reveal stuff such as special guests, events and other things (Prizes? Games? CAKE!?), so be sure to keep an eagle eye on it.

If I can pull this off, I’m having the biggest beer afterwards…

The Summer of Sonic Website

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Roundup: What We Missed

We’ve been away for a while, but now we’re back to kick some butt at Wild Canyon and as much as we’d like to not-believe, there’s been a fair bit of news that has slipped by the Sonic News radar (or Newsdar, or… something) during our reconstruction. FRET NOT, we’ve got it covered. Even though you probably already know all this anyway.

Sonic Blogicles

First off SEGA Europe’s community blog, the Sonic City Blognik, has started posting regular diaries from the desks responsible for Sonic Chronicles. The first entry was written by Bioware Brand Manager Randall Bishop, who discussed at length why the game will rock, in typical Brand Manager fashion. He interestingly pointed out Bioware’s new approach to Chronicles for the fact that this is indeed a kid’s game – I hope Bioware remembers that half the success of a kid’s multimedia product is the viability of it to adults too. Just ask Pixar. Continue reading Roundup: What We Missed

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Sonic Chronicles team start fortnightly blog entries

ArchangelUK over at the Sega Europe blogs has announced The Chronicles Diaries, a fortnightly blog feature where a guest from the Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood team will write a blog entry explaining their role in the games development, what its like to work on the game and give some details about the game itself.

ArchangelUK says the guest bloggers will range from people at BioWare, SEGA Europe, America and even maybe Japan from testers to producers and from top to bottom. The first guest blogger is Randall Bishop from Bioware who gives his 5 reasons why working on Sonic Chronicles is fun.

The fortnightly blog entries will continue until the games release so check back every fortnight.

Thanks to markwiinut over at the SSMB for the heads-up!

Sonic City Blognik, First Guest

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SEGA’s Community Blog Opens

SEGA Europe has kicked off the hype for all things Sonic related as it officially opens its Community Blog. Titled the ‘Sonic City Blognik’, it features members of SEGA Europe’s marketing and community management team discussing various interesting facets of the blue blur.

Initial blog entries included posts from Community Manager Rom and Svend Joscelyne, webmaster of The Sonic Stadium. Shortly after a mention on its e-newsletter, posts from the marketing department shared an exclusive insight into the upcoming TV and print advertisements for Sonic the Hedgehog on XBOX 360.

The inclusion of respected members of the Sonic the Hedgehog community is part of an attempt initialised by SEGA and The Sonic Stadium to bring the official source closer to the fans. TSS webmaster Svend will be writing regular columns for the blog, while a few other community members have already been offered the opportunity to write a piece for the online diary.

Visit the Blog to see TV advert sneaks and information on official game sites.

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