This week, LRN.FM, the Liberty Radio Network announced two podcasts joining our lineup: "We Are Change" with Luke Rudkowski and Jason Bermas and "Destination Unknown" with Vin Armani and Dave Butler. You can learn more and see our full program guide at http://shows.lrn.fm
Don't forget to join our Discord chat server to interact with other Free Talk Live and LRN.FM listeners and some of the hosts! In fact there's a new chat room there for the Tim Preuss show, since he's now a weekday, regularly scheduled program. Just grab the Discord App , create an account, then click on Discord.LRN.FM .
Thanks for listening to Free Talk Live and LRN.FM, Ian
I've permanently uploaded them to our website and linked them from the Promote page , with our other various graphical resources you are free to use, however you like.
You can join Ricky Sticky and a bunch of other listeners, callers, and hosts on our Discord chat server anytime. If you're new to Discord, just grab the Discord app , create your account and then visit http://discord.lrn.fm in your browser to get in our server.
I mentioned in last week's update that we are now using Telegram and IFTTT to feed Free Talk Live's social media. So is Call to Freedom. If you'd prefer to see FTL's posts before they hit any other platform, just join our Telegram channel here . You can also follow Call to Freedom's updates on their Telegram channel .
If you don't yet have Telegram , I highly recommend it. We've been using it in the Keene area for activist communications for years and it has been very effective. It's attractive, easy to use, for both groups and individual chats. Plus it's available cross-platform, so you can have your chats available on your phone, computer, and any other devices.
Of course, if Telegram isn't right for you, you can always follow Free Talk Live's posts on Mastodon and...
Through the magic of Telegram combined with IFTTT, our LRN.FM Twitter feed has become a place for social media posts from two of our main live shows, Free Talk Live and Call to Freedom. I'll work on expanding the feed to include content from other shows as well.
Previously, the LRN.FM Twitter was just automated reports of when our Twitch stream started, so hopefully this new format will be more interesting to subscribers.
I am often asked "How many listeners does FTL have?" This question is as reasonable as it is unanswerable. One person could listen to every segment of FTL: are they one listener or more? One guy I know downloaded 60,000 episodes of FTL; we don't even have that many episodes! You can see the cunundrum.
So, knowing this, I propose a different question: How many listens, rather than listeners, does FTL get per month?
Podcast: We get around 100,000 downloads a month. I am fine with calling these one listen. The industry standard for podcasts is to just ask for downloads. More than one person could clearly listen to a podcast, but some downloads are not listened to.
Radio: I have seen radio ratings for FTL in the past - though not all stations are rated since the companies that release these numbers only provide ratings for stations that pay for inclusion. In round numbers, FTL's AQH (Average Quarter Hour ratings), for the stations that are included in the...
This week, Free Talk Live opened an account on the Mastodon decentralized social network. It's basically a replacement for Twitter that is censorship-proof and it works very well. You can follow our posts on the new Libertarian/Voluntarist/Anarchist server "Liberdon" at http://toot.freetalklive.com .
Plus, we're now going to be originating our show prep posts via our new Telegram channel, "FreeTalkLive" . From there, they'll be shot out automatically to the FTL Mastodon , Twitter , and Facebook . If you're still following our posts on Facebook, they will appear there, but of course you almost never see what we put on Facebook because Facebook wants us to pay to reach you. If you want to see more than what Facebook will allow, I recommend you switch to...
Since 2009 we've been a part of WBHP-AM's lineup in Huntsville, AL. WBHP is also simulcast on WHOS-AM in nearby Decatur. Recently, WBHP added an FM Translator, which is an FM station just large enough to cover the city of Huntsville. In addition, WBHP is now on an HD radio signal in Decatur at WDRM-HD2 on the FM band. That's not all the good news, as though we have been on weeknights in Huntsville/Decatur for years on WBHP, only recently have we begun airing live, 7-9pm Central! So, welcome to our new FM (and HD2) listeners in the area. To see our full list of over 190 radio stations airing Free Talk Live coast-to-coast and beyond, please visit our affiliates page .
Our Discord server is approaching 1,000 users! Were at 947 right now and more than half of those users have returned to the server...
Years ago, we added Skype as a call-in option on Free Talk Live. This wasn't part of a sponsorship or any kind of partnership, but a way of increasing caller audio quality and an acknowledgement of the ubiquity of Skype as a platform. Sadly, after Microsoft purchased Skype it's seemed like they're running it into the ground. Audio quality is worse than ever and now a few weeks ago Skype forced an "update" that broke the program for on-air purposes. Not only can you not turn off the ringer (we tried multiple potential workarounds), the older Skype would allow you the option of assigning the ringer to a different soundcard. That feature has been completely stripped from the latest "upgrade". After being interrupted multiple times on-air by the ringing sound effect, I decided I'd had it with what has become a garbage app.
Thankfully, we added the "On-Air Call-In Line" several months ago to our new Discord chat server at Discord.LRN.FM and...
Last week began with the unfortunate news that FTL co-host Mark Edge pulled a Molyneux and used a DMCA takedown on a YouTube video he didn't like (one which used our show content). It would be one thing if Mark had done such an unprincipled thing on his own, but he claimed to do it on behalf of Free Talk Live. After an on-air rebuke, he apologized for doing it in FTL's name and has promised never to do it again. I will reiterate here what I have said on-air forever, which is that Free Talk Live does not believe in intellectual property and you are free to copy, edit, or do whatever you please with our content.
Thankfully, the week ended with the good news that Youtube restored the Mark-offending video upon my request, which made it clear to them that Mark made this move without authorization. FTL is no longer able to be blamed for any takedown, because the video is back and Mark has been publicly shamed for his...
Thanks to everyone who has not only visited our Discord chat server , but especially to those who keep coming back! We started the LRN.FM Discord in January of this year and over 850 people have created an account, with 348 of them coming back within the last seven days! That's a large, active userbase. If you haven't dropped in yet, take a moment and visit http://discord.lrn.fm . You can download the Discord app or just use their web version.
