About SomaFM

About SomaFM
SomaFM is a listener-supported, commercial-free internet radio station. Launched in February 2000
from a warehouse in San Francisco, we started with just one channel, playing “ambient” music, and
developed a small but dedicated audience. By 2001, we’d increased the number of channels to seven.
Our audience was small by broadcast standards – our AQH ratings were under a few hundred.
Interest in our station continued to grow and we now have over 16 channels – all focusing on niche
genres rarely if ever heard on commercial radio.
Thanks to the hard work of our dedicated music directors and the generous support of our listeners, our high-quality MP3 and aacPlus internet broadcasts are now enjoyed by people all around the
world. With over 5 million “listener hours” a month, SomaFM is one of the larger independent internet-only broadcasters. Groove Salad, our most popular ambient/chill channel is the most listened
to “chill out” station on the internet, with over 600,000 listener hours a week. At any given time, our
station has between 5500 and 13,000 listeners, with an AQH of 7500. We have over 500,000 unique
listeners a month.
SomaFM plays music for a huge, previously ignored audience. Over-the-air commercial radio, now
dominated by just a few corporations, plays formats geared towards mass appeal. With limited play
lists, and limited genres, they seek to reach the most people with the least effort and risk. This model
assumes an unsophisticated and captive listener. Today’s listeners are neither. The real listener has
internet access, wildly eclectic taste, and is eager to discover new music. SomaFM’s stations, playing
thousands of songs, with new songs constantly being added, are the antidote to mainstream radio
boredom.
It is not simply the number of songs that makes our stations work. With record stores and the internet providing access to an almost unlimited amount of music, anyone can have a huge song collection. What makes our stations successfull is the passion of the music directors. They love music.
They have collected thousands of albums and CDs, and most importantly, culled through them to
find the best songs. Finally, they choose amongst those great songs to find those that work together
to create a strong station play list. Too many internet stations are simply “data dumps”– all the top
songs from an era (the same old songs we’ve heard a thousand times), or every song from an era (all
the same songs plus the worst songs by the same artists). There are no shortcuts to finding great
music and creating compelling presentation.
listener-supported, commercial-free, underground/alternative internet radio broadcasting from San Francisco
Another factor in the success of SomaFM is the broad range of artists we have access to. In addition to famous names and labels, we play music from small record labels and unsigned artists, out
of print pieces, and rare unpublished recordings. We literally search the world for great music, and
artists from everywhere send us their work for consideration. A great song from a local unsigned
band or artist has no chance of being heard on a big over the air station, but we play hundreds of
these tracks.
Finally, SomaFM is a success because of our dedication. Not only to great music, but to the infrastructure that allows it to sound great. Too many internet “radio stations” load up a bunch of song
files onto a server and send a playlist to the listeners media player to playback in sequence. This has
given internet radio a reputation for having a poor “quality of presentation”. SomaFM understands
that music needs to flow together, audio levels need to stay consistent, and the tone of tracks can’t
vary too much from song to song. That is why we use real broadcast automation systems that produce tight and smooth segues, Optimod audio processing, and high-quality audio encoders. You can
easily hear the difference.
SomaFM is thriving. We will continue to work hard to find great new and overlooked artists and
genres for our listeners. We will continue to investigate and deploy new technologies for broadcasting. Most importantly, we will continue because we love the music and our audience can tell.
listener-supported, commercial-free, underground/alternative internet radio broadcasting from San Francisco
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Staff
Rusty Hodge
General Manager and Program Director
Rusty Hodge is the founder, general manager and program director for SomaFM.
His first radio station was a carrier current AM he operated during high school.
Seeking a wider audience he started producing daily programs and making them
available over the telephone. In no time, he had people filling several phone lines at all hours listening to his talk/music programs.
Rusty got involved with computers when, while managing his college radio station in the early ‘80s,
he developed software on an Apple II for handling station playlists. His professional experience
includes work at radio stations in the Los Angeles area, developing software for broadcasters, multimedia, and founding a company to put radio and TV stations on the web. It was only natural that
eventually Rusty would start his own internet radio station.
Rusty has been collecting records since the mid ‘70s, bought his first ambient record in the ‘80s,
and latched onto electronic ambient music right away when it started first appearing in the early
‘90s. Many of the records in his collection are now out of print and extremely hard to find. With the
launch of SomaFM in 2000, Rusty’s dream of his own station became a reality.
Elise Nordling
Music Director, Indie Pop Rocks!
Elise Nordling has been the Music Director and DJ for Indie Pop Rocks! on
SomaFM since 2001. She came to SomaFM after many varied years of experience in the music industry, from record shop girl to editor/reviewer at the nowdefunct Addicted To Noise/SonicNet internet music magazine. In 2007, Elise was awarded “Best
DJ: Satellite/Online Radio” by the San Francisco Bay Guardian, citing how she is “renowned for
her impeccable taste” and that “Indie Pop Rocks! has become required listening on a global scale.”
She delights in introducing friends and listeners to new music, and SomaFM provides her with the
perfect way to do just that.
Roy Batchelor
Music Director, Boot Liquor
Roy Batchelor stumbled upon the format that comprises Boot Liquor via a circuitous route. Graduating from high school in the late ‘70s, radio stations throughout the country labeled his beloved music “classic rock” and conspired to play the
same damn 20 songs over and over until he screamed in pain and was forced to find a new musical
listener-supported, commercial-free, underground/alternative internet radio broadcasting from San Francisco
home. Fortunately, he discovered The Beat Farmers and, while mining all their various influences,
realized that “country music” had been given an undeserved bad rap. Boot Liquor is proud to serve
up songs about life, death, misery, broken hearts and broken bones.
Shawn Blosser
Music Director, Beat Blender
Shawn Blosser started BeatBlender in the waning days of the dotcom boom of the
late 1990’s. Coworkers loved the music he played in his office at work, CDs from
his collection by artists such as Bullitnuts, The Verbrilli Sound, Baby Mammoth,
Thievery Corp, Boards of Canada, and others. In response to their enthusiasm, Shawn set up an
office Shoutcast server so they could enjoy his musical selections around the clock. Surprised to see
about 30 people connected to his stream, Shawn discovered his office friends had started giving out
the stream server IP address to friends and relatives. It was at this point Shawn decided to make the
BeatBlender stream officially public.
BeatBlender became a regular channel on SomaFM in 2002. All the music on BeatBlender is handpicked from Shawn’s extensive private collection of CDs.
Tag Loomis
Music Director, Tag’s Trip
Tag’s love of trance and broadcasting goes way back. In the early 1990’s, he spent
nights and weekends at a local radio station learning the ropes of broadcasting,
and taking a few stabs at DJ’ing at the University of Northern Colorado.
Tag’s Trip was started as a homebrew project in 1999, broadcasting over DSL in his apartment. His
love of trance was an evolutionary gradient, beginning with mid-80’s New Wave to pure Industrial.
Side-stepping the Techno scene he went straight for Trance. Trance as a genre is hard to define,
but for him, its the Deep Progressive and Ethereal sounds that get him moving. Tag’s Trip joined
SomaFM in 2004.
In addition to producing Internet radio, Tag pursues a career in streaming media technologies. Tag
is most well known for his rewrite of the ubiqutious Shoutcast Server. Now residing back in Northern Colorado, he spends his non-music time developing streaming media software for Liquid Compass. He is married and the proud father of very smart 5 year old daughter.
Nitya
Music Director, Sonic Universe
Nitya grew up in a home where jazz music was always playing, and began collecting jazz albums at age 12. Most of the music on Sonic Universe comes from
Nitya’s personal collection. In addition to his large CD library, he’s developed relationships with artists who have provided him with rare live soundboard recordings. He attends local
jazz festivals (Portland, Vancouver BC) and also regularly attends the Punkt Festival in Kristiansand,
Norway. Originally from Minneapolis, Nitya has lived in Seattle for over 30 years.
listener-supported, commercial-free, underground/alternative internet radio broadcasting from San Francisco
DJ Lucretia
Music Director, Doomed
Lucretia got her start in radio as a kid in the late 70s, playing punk rock on an
underground station. She went on to host a show at the highly-rated college station KFJC during the late 80s, where she was immersed in the exploding industrial music scene. Her love of music dark and stompy had Lucretia spinning at the top San Francisco
goth/industrial clubs all through the 90s, where she came to the attention of SomaFM’s General
Manager, Rusty Hodge. After her retirement from club DJing, SomaFM invited Lucretia to present
her brand of eerie music to Doomed, where she now hosts the scariest music broadcast around.
Michael K
Music Director, Covers
Michael’s interest in covers started at a young age, and like all great things in
life, should be attributed to the Simpsons. Sometimes it’s a song that you always
thought was the original, only to learn that it too is a cover; other times it’s an
entirely new take on a beloved standard or respun pop tune.
He’s been gathering these little snippets for years and although it’s an anything goes ‘genre,’ the goal
is to find covers that portray the original in some new light. The opportunities are endless.
Merin McDonell
Marketing and Design Manager
Merin has been involved in SomaFM from its inception, working on logo design,
web design, station logos, photography, marketing materials, press materials, and
more. Who knew that hours spent in bars and clubs, listening to music and dancing, would actually turn out to be work experience? Merin’s professional experience also includes
work for McKinsey & Company, NASA Ames Research Center, and several internet start-ups.
Meghan Logue
Podcast Producer and Business Coordinator
Meghan began her career in college radio, eventually becoming the manager for
KSFS, the station of San Francisco State University. Now at SomaFM, Meghan is
the associate producer for our podcasts and special event programming. Additionally, Meghan coordinates incoming music submissions, manages SomaFM’s music library,
manages the distribution of supporter premiums, and handles much of the business operations at
SomaFM.
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