Folks;

Before I do anything else, I want to thank all the folks who support the Nostalgic Rumblings blog and other lists, web services, etc., whether by financial support, moral support, or simply posting questions, answers, or comments; it’s because of all of you that the OldRadio.Network exists in the first place. I’d also like to note that no payment is ever required to visit the web sites or receive the mailing lists…not now, not ever; or at least as long as I’m operating them, anyway.

That said, there is some need for support. Prices increase, time investments increase as well, and for various personal reasons my company is increasingly unable to subsidize the “hobby” aspects of the server, so I’d like that side of things to be a little bit more self-sufficient. At the same time, though, as some people have noted, I don’t routinely post notices requesting financial support the way Bill did…it’s a little uncomfortable for me, and sometimes feels just a bit unseemly.

The web services, as you can see, do have small single advertisements at the top of each page (compare this to the bazillion of ads thrown on the top, sides, and bottom of most other website pages). The unfortunate truth is that they bring in very little income. The Barnes and Nobel book sales are in the same category; for the past EIGHTEEN MONTHS, we’ve received a few cents over $25.00 as commission for sales through The Nostalgia Pages/The Nostalgic Rumblings Blog. I’ve been seriously considering the addition of advertisements onto the top of the mailing lists, and there are quite a few dealers who would be happy to advertise on the lists. But I think that would be ugly and annoying, particularly to those visually-impared subscribers who use software to read the lists. Besides, I’ve held out this long on general principle, so I couldn’t bring myself to add advertisements now.

To rectify all these different issues, and after considerable thought and research, I’ve decided to take a two-prong approach to making the old-time radio/nostalgic TV aspects just a little bit more self-supporting, and it’s to explain these two prongs I send this over-long message. To those subscribed to all of the mailing lists on the server who will receive multiple copies, I apologize in advance.
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