A former broadcast journalist, Richard "Rick" Babb, was delighted in January, 2000 to stumble onto live365.com....and a unique opportunity was launched to re-energize some of his old broadcasting skills. A '66 graduate of Kent State University, School of Journalism, Kent, OH, he had worked at four northeast Ohio radio stations in the years 1961 through 1976.
Babb saw the newly-opened Internet webcast venue as a great chance to share UUism's liberal religious message at a nominal cost. He assembled a stack of CD's from UU and UU-friendly artists and coupled the collection with his church's tape recorded sermons. When the encoding of the music and spoken words into the mp3 format was over, UUplink took to the Internet's airwaves during early and late morning hours.
The past six+ years have seen many technology advances at live365.com. The program was plagued with multiple tech problems in the early months and years and for much of the time was airborn only 10-12 hours a day. Tech problems fortunately have become fewer and fewer, although, says Babb, "there's an occasional glitch that interrupts the routine." Although we strive for 24/7/365, we hope you'll pardon us when you tune in and find us off the air.
Programming highlights include Poet's Corner with encouragement from Jennifer Bosveld of the UU Poets Cooperative and Pudding House Publications. Jennifer's husband, Jim, served the Canton, and two other congregations, Wooster and Bellville, as a Ministerial Intern. He was ordained as a UU Minister in Bellville, OH, in July, 2003. Jim waged a determined battle against cancer that re-surfaced during his internship until his death on March 18, 2004 at the age of 56. Click here for a tribute to Rev. Bosveld.
Babb tries to maintain some resemblance to a "real" radio station. Recorded station breaks, and UU "commercials" have become a part of the playlists. The program features a wide range of musical artists, including Rev Fred Small, Joyce Poley, Rev Mary Grigolia, The Granary Girls, to name just a few.
UUpLink is optimized for a broadband high speed modem. While there are questions as to why the program would restrict itself to the "broadbanders," Babb says it's been necessary "to preserve the reproduction quality of the music." The program is currently streamed at 32 or 56 kbps which often produces "drop-outs" for the slower dial-up modems. The emergence of the broadband market has seen the spiraling growth of cable company modems and DSL's, making UUplink more accessible now than ever before. Plus, the future is bright for more and more broadband connections.
UUpLink upgraded to live365.com's PRO version on December 12, 2003, a giant, and more costly "leap of faith," as Babb describes it. The new format, which essentially is commercial ad-free as well as registration-free, means you'll still hear the announcements for Unitarian Universalism, and station breaks, but "you'll not be bothered by other commercial ad content."
A former president of the UU Congregation of Greater Canton, OH, Babb, and Trinidad-born wife Nazimoon, a Muslim, reside in the Norwood Hills subdivision on the northeast edge of Canton, OH. They're joined in the home by niece, Kamini Harrypersad of Chaguanas, Trinidad, who's a Hindu, now attending Walsh University , North Canton, and by pets, a Shih-Tzu, Seri, and cats, L.C., Lacy, and Midnight.
