Do your local sim soap need publicity? Are you a superstar with a song to share or a tour to advertise? Running a sim website with some exciting news? Spread your message - tune in to Radio S-59!

In Simmerville we had the local radio station, Radio S-59, since a long time. Play lists were updated regularly and lately there were even jingles and commercials playing on the radios and stereos of this region. I believe it is time to share this flick of our local culture!

- John Gamming, hello! You are Radio S-59's general manager. How's going?

- Thank you Bimbo, I'm doing fine. The radio station is doing its business too, I'm sure you know. Being among our most eager listeners!

Some of you might recall Mr John Gamming (36) from the SimLOOK project which he "won" together with another testsim, Arthur. Their full names are John Stello and Arthur Ferrelli, but everybody still call them the Gammings. They won a house in 59 Simmerville and have been residing there ever after.

- John, you grew up in Testville where your parents Rudnard and Minnie Stello worked as testsims. Were you interested in music back then?

- Yes. My father often tested electronics and we always had the home full of radios. And you know the good thing about being a testsim is that you get to test stuff that you couldn't normally afford to buy. Some of those radios and stereos were impressive and definitely made an impact on my music interest.

But this is not the first time John has got involved with music here in Simmerville. A year ago he was headhunted for the local Cultural Events team. They had great success hosting Alisa Crawston's concerts. John is still a member of that team.

- They asked me because of my very high interest in music. If I should serve the hood in any way it had to be music, which is also my top interest, he says. And the work with the team also gave me some of my best friends, Carla Hedgewood and Carl Lobos Hornsby were both on the team and we had loads of fun sharing an interest like that.

Radio jingles and local commercials
Running the local Radio S-59 John has to deal with more than updating the play lists. Lately the radio has also played commercials and radio jingles, and this is why the radio station is now offering its first radio pack to radio stations elsewhere in Sim Nation.

- That's right. I put together a radio pack that can be downloaded from Simmerville's STUFF section. Radio S-59 just got our own page there. The radio pack for June 2004 contain 4 jingles/commercials and even a song. You won't need to be an expert to install them in the local radio system, but I included some directions just in case.

- So, John, you will now offer music and jingles on a regularly basis?

- Yes and no. Our goal is not to provide other radio stations with music. It's easy enough to arrange the music locally. Besides, providing music would easily become illegal because we don't own the copyright of the songs or the right to make them available for download. But we hope to include a song in most packs, and this is a great opportunity for sims into the music business to provide their work! Send me your demo and it might be included in the next radio pack. Before you know it the song will be played on radios all over Sim Nation!

Same goes for commercials and radio jingles. This is a terrific opportunity to promote any simmish event or business - all free of charge! There are so many interesting soaps, sites and events out there which could do with some more publicity. Create your own commercial or jingle and send it to me, and it can get valuable radio play! It might be odd to include a web URL in the commercial, so we will offer a link on Radio S-59's webpage. to make the advertising part easier. The jingle would serve more like a reminder.

- Way cool! This means I can even record a jingle for the Simmerville web and it will be played on the radio and remind sims of visiting this site!

- Exactly. And we will not be very critical to the recording quality either, except it should sound decent. You don't need a professional technician but just the right feel.

- How long should such a radio commercial be?

- A commercial should be about 15 seconds, but less than 30 seconds. Longer run time requires better sound quality. If your recording is poor then even 15 seconds might be too much, but we might still accept 10 seconds. Regarding songs, hopefully some out there want to promote their own music, we go for 2-4 minutes.

I must say this sounds like a cool service, I will now listen even more to my radio. And I will be looking forward to the radio pack updates!

- Thank you, Bimbo! And please let me add that Radio S-59 will offer updated radio packs even if nobody send in content. Check back on the page! At this time the radio pack will be replaced every two months, but as soon as we receive content we are ready to replace it on a monthly basis.

- Thanx John, and good luck!

And here is a direct link to the Radio S-59 page!