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| · Who are you and where do you come from? Hober is just another person with a radio station. Hober broadcasts from a geodesic dome in the oak forest just outside Washington DC.
Email, snailmail and phone contact details can be found here. [ Back to Top ]
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| · What is Hober all about? Hober is an attempt to bring human warmth to the computer environment. Let's face it, there are most likely a lot of artificial creations in the vicinity of your computers right now. The last thing you need is artificial music. Hober brings unvarnished sounds into a glossy space.
Hober is the best station on the net, given the tools we have today. Internet radio like it should be, and a pointer to what could be.
Hober doesn't demand much attention and is meant to be used while you do other things with your computer. Go ahead and bury Hober under 20 layers of windows until you're curious about the music that's playing sometime. Or sit and stare at it. The changing titles and messages are there to keep you from feeling too silly whilst simply watching the player play. [ Back to Top ]
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| · What kind of music does Hober play? There are some strict rules governing which music is aired on Hober. The music should be hand played, without augmentation. A Hober band is people who could walk up to each other with their instruments in the middle of a field and just play their stuff. Drums should be struck by the hand rather than a stick. Hober songs should be musical descendant of melodies and rhythms which people knew, remembered and passed down - before recording machines existed.
Luckily, rules are meant to be broken as you can plainly hear on Hober.
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| · Why don't you make a folk station and a bluegrass station? There are two reasons why Hober broadcasts only one music program. Community and Quality.
Community is enhanced by a common listening experience. When listening to the live Hober stream, you are sharing a global experience, rather than being shunted into single-faceted canned programs.
We have found that most people that like the more natural music are interested in a wide variety of different types of that music, and become bored quickly with one-dimensional playlists.
Hober is the sum of the creative talents of twenty or more people, in addition to the musical artists presented on the station. Many other stations leave one soul to program five or more sub-genres which renders the "canned" sound so common to the "first generation" stations.
Perhaps if we master the creation of one real good station we can then turn to trying on another. [ Back to Top ]
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| · Why don't you ever talk? Hober is actually rather chatty—but what is to be said on a global radio show? Time of day is out, as are traffic reports and weather. The song titles and info display on the faceplate.
Silence is golden for Hober. Strange words to hear from a broadcaster. But true. [ Back to Top ]
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| · If Hober is a dot com, where are the commercials? This is a very deep question. Most internet radio stations are driven by venture capital or IPO money and their banner and cry therefor must be "to enhance shareholder value!", often at the expense of the overall listener experience.
Hober is privately owned and adequately funded for the time being. Our mission is to enhance LISTENER value. That means great content that demands very little listener attention in return. Hober is very listenable and doesn't ask for much of your space in return. [ Back to Top ]
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| · How do I use Hober in my cubicle? Hober is wonderful. If you like to listen in your cubicle, Hober works like a charm to send obnoxious co-workers and bosses running. We like to say that sometimes enduring a little banjo is a small price to pay for some good peace and quiet. [ Back to Top ]
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| · May I interview Hober for my show / newspaper / magazine / web site? Hober is available for interviews and we can help you prepare your material.
Please write to gregor@hober.com [ Back to Top ]
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