"Say hello to my little friend"

Each month when I rip off a page from my desk calendar, I can’t believe how fast the year is going. OCTOBER!!! No!!! Now it will start to get cold and all the booty will be covered up.

Ok let’s buckle down and get a few things off my mind.

First up is the 2006 Central PA Music Awards. In the beginning of Sept. I made a Message Board post regarding Best Band of 2006. I always have my opinions, but it’s nice to get the “boards” opinion too. Well one thing lead to another and with some leeriness I decided to have a full blown Music Awards contest again. For those that weren’t around a few years ago, I did this before. I used a 3rd party voting program that turned out to be my worst nightmare. No matter what level I set the program to, there was always the ability to cheat. So after that was done and after all the “no fair” emails, I just dropped it. Until this year. Again looking at 3rd party’s I saw no 100% fool proof program. So I did a test with email voting and liked what I saw. I then tweaked out the Awards page, made up the voting links and launched the nomination process the morning of Sept. 18th. Nominations started for each category listed. We even added some new ones based upon emails received. After 2 weeks of nominations the voting started. I thought we would bet a couple 100 per day but never would have guessed the actual amount of votes received. Last week 1000’s of emails came in from people voting for their favorites. Just like before as the days go by, some feel the need to cheat. Well not this time, because I deleted 100’s of votes from the bastards. I can’t understand why people feel the need to cheat. If I was in a contest, I would do whatever it takes to win, without cheating. I would also feel much better winning something fair and square vs a win caused from cheating.

Most of the cheating is done from the lesser known bands. Perhaps they hope by winning will give them a stepping stone to greatness. Doubtful. See that’s the problem with this area. Everyone wants something handed to them without putting in the effort. The bands that do put in the effort, go places. Those that look for the easy route, are the ones spinning their wheels for years wondering what went wrong.

I’d like to mention that the Music Awards are for the people by the people. I had nothing to do with the nominations. I would have liked to seen Screamin Daisys in the Best Cover Band and Hexbelt in the Best Jam Band, etc, etc. However I wanted to stay out of the process and let the public do their thing. Overall the listings are pretty impressive. To date no one is running away from the pack. All categories are pretty tight. I was thinking of putting current leaders up, but decided against it because it could possible effect the voting.

Finally special thanks to Seventh Wave Studios for helping to sponsor the awards. The trophies and plaques will cost a small chunk of change and every little bit helps.

Next I’d like to get something off my chest. Every year people/websites come along promising to be the next best thing since sliced bread for local music. Many bands get drawn in thinking they are the real deal. However usually after a couple months their blip fails from the radar screen. I won’t mention any names, but you guys that follow this stuff know who I’m talking about. Funny thing is most of these people first send me an email advising of their intentions and then state they wish I could help them out. That’s like politicians asking the other party to help them during a campaign. Don’t get me wrong, I welcome competition for two reasons.

One, it let’s these people know just how hard this business is. They start up thinking they will change the world and make money doing it, only to find out a few months later that is not the case.

Two, most of the “newbies” have their sites on us, because over the years we have become known within the local music community as a somewhat authority. As each one fails we seem to get another notch in the belt.

As mentioned above regarding bands, these people also want to take the easy route by riding off our coat tails. They’ll post on our message board to check them out. (Which I always delete) Then I get an email wanting to know what’s up my ass, why was their post deleted. Then I reply, use your own marketing to gain site visitors and not my traffic that I busted ass over the years to obtain. Of course that fires them up and I’m sure they have visions of knocking us off. This never happens and soon they are gone only to have someone else step up and try all over again.

You know 7 years ago I almost had to beg for people to let me take their picture. Now they come up to me asking for a pic. Years ago I was treated like a terrorist, trying to get into places with my camera bag being searched all the time. Now with the exception of Angelina’s, (sorry Dan) venues are grateful that I’m there to take pics of the night.

These last seven years haven’t been easy either. Our first couple of year’s threats of lawsuits and people with something up their ass’s, were trying to shut us down. However this David vs Goliath battle only elevated our status. Cost for the website to function far exceeded what was coming in from sponsors. The time spent taking care of everything relating to the website far exceeded the rewards of having the website. However the dedication in believing in HBGOnline, kept me going even through all the hard times.

I’m not sure when we made the jump from underground to mainstream, but it’s another obstacle that has been overcome.

Soon more new staffers with new features will be added to the site to broaden our appeal to the masses. We will still be focused on the music, but also give a little more to other areas of entertainment and general interest. The ability to always take it up a notch and leave the “newbies” guessing on what will be done next, is what keeps us ahead of the pack. I know as soon as I’m 100% satisfied with the site, that will be the time we fall from the top.

So go ahead and follow the sheep to something new, just remember where it all started from and watch who you lay in bed with.

I appreciate all the support obtained and the friendships we have made over the years and look for your continued support for the years to come. It should be a wild ride. So grab the Jager, buckle up your seatbelts and enjoy the ride!!!

Lator Gators!!! - BigJim