So, obviously I've been fairly busy lately.  That's understandable though.

I've been spending quite a lot of time working on wmph.org.  I've got full On-Demand going for both the top songs and several special selections.  It's actually a pretty interesting system.

The webserver gets updates each night in the form of logs from the station.  I have scripts that import these logs into a database located in the webserver.  The database serves as the source for all of the "what have we played" or "top songs" type information.

I can use this information to say what the top songs were for any given time period.  I can also use the logs to find the location of these songs at the station.  Each night the webserver figures out which songs it has and does not have.  It retreives the ones that it doesn't have.  It then converts them into the right format for streaming and makes them available on the site.

Nothing is more useful than a website that keeps itself current.  I've put a lot of work into making wmph.org self-maintaining.

The website itself uses several RSS feeds (that are reformatted to look smooth); continuing log uploads; and several other tricks to appear current with a minimum of upkeep.

For example, I use the Apple iTunes feed to show new releases on a daily basis.  I use the database to constantly show the top songs.  These keep themselves current, so I don't have to work quite as much.

Also, I recently converted the site to use iTunes for the Buy Links.  Hopefully this will bring some cash to the station.

I've put together some interesting tech to make the station work. 

• The webserver runs on ASP.NET with an Access MDB behind the scenes.  This allows me to do interesting things with the logs that I import.
• I syndicate a bunch of RSS's through ASP.NET to keep things looking fresh, and give us more news coverage than we could otherwise.
• The On-Demand keeps itself current for the most part, through a series of scripts.  Each week I need to provide the new show content though.
• I ended up making a special "parsing redirector" to make use of the iTunes referrals.  It is given a parameter of which artist you want.  It takes this, finds the "deep link" for iTunes, and then redirects you to it.  Simple, but very helpful.  This also allows me to add our referral info into the link.
• We have just started a new "concept show".  The idea is that listeners can vote on our website, and the show is based entirely on their selections.  For the moment, the working title is 'Command And Control', but it may change we come up with a better title.