Presenter console
During their show, the presenter could use their console page to interact with all those in the shoutbox.
The console was another unique feature of 1Radio and let the presenter see how many people were connected, the names of those in the shoutbox and a map showing where listeners were located around the world.
When someone used the shoutbox for the first time, their name and IP address was stored. If they came back on another occasion, they could be detected as previous listeners, even if they weren’t actually signed into the shoutbox. These days, it would probably be considered an invasion of privacy. Back then, it gave presenters the (slightly creepy) ability to name check people who were listening but were not actually signed into the shoutbox. Listeners were often spooked when mentioned on air in this way.
Another important feature of the console was the ability to block someone. One click would be all that was needed to prevent trolls from participating in the shoutbox conversation by blocking their IP address. The feature became more powerful over time by blocking names and aliases and IP ranges.
The console also provided useful information that a presenter could quickly call upon during a show. UK and US music charts, news headlines, music and event-related RSS feeds plus a selection of canned answers. These were pre-filled text responses to some of the most commonly asked questions or links to station features such as the guestbook, online polls, music request form or instructions on how to listen to the stream.
All this functionality evolved over time. Much of it was suggested by presenters, other parts were just ideas and experiments to see how we could make the experience fun, exciting and memorable. It was this kind of interactivity that set 1R apart.
I loved writing the code to bring it all to life and is something I shall miss alot.
Posted by Tim on Tue 19 Jul 2022 at 21:42 and viewed 1,124 times.
The trouble with timezones
The 1Radio Schedule
