My first question would be who Faisal Sultan really is?

News flash – Faisal Sultan doesn’t really exist! Yes, he’s imaginary and the station runs itself without anyone behind the wheel! :)


As far as I know the radio was started in 2001. Why did you think that it was important to launch an internet radio focusing on electronic music?

That’s thing… I didn’t think of ’launching’ anything.  In 2001, I was working at Winamp in San Francisco and was working on streaming server code and setup a streaming server and started playing my favourite electonic dance mixes and posted the link to a few friends to share this music that I love so much.  Pretty soon I started seeing regular listeners on this stream… and that was really surprising to me, as I never thought there was this hunger for GOOD electornic music out there … so I decided to name this prject of mine… So friskyRadio” was born…. Almost by accident and totally by word-of-mouth. 

To this day – I don’t advertise the radio stream anywhere or on any sites.  I  like the fact that the radio is promoted thru its fans and DJs.

How many people work in the radio right now?

Up until only a year or so ago – it was only me that worked on it full time – that includes coding the web site, maintaining the streaming server, updating the playlist up to 2 or 3 times a day, updaintg the website with guest djs’ bios, making deals with labels and promoters and djs, and scheduling shows both on friskyradio and pur Get Frisky! parties that we do in cities from time to time.  That was a LOT of work and it became apparent that for friskyRadio to grow, I nneeded help… And unfortunately technology is not that advanced yet to clone many Faisal’s do help me out…

Today, friskyRadio has a staff of three that take care of the respective duties to run the frisky empire without a hitch.  We have a Label Manager that runs the label, a webmaster that runs the site updates and such, and I still run the day to day stream and general A&R.

As years went by there has been more and more people joining you starting new programmes. How do you decide whether a new show will be successful or not?

Unlike so many other radio stations out there, I don’t just give out shows to just anyone.  The process of joining friskyRadio can sometimes take months.  We usually let the audience speak for itself.  After a DJ has been on the station a few times with guest mixes and such, we genrally take into account how successful his/her set was on the radio and then proceed with a show offer. 

Besides that, we at friskyRadio do not syndicate shows.  100% of the shows and sets you will hear on friskyRadio you will not hear anywhere else, and we are proud of that fact.  With all due respect to all the stations out there, we just don’t want to be just another radio station that also carries Radio Show XYZ. 

Has it ever happened that a show came to an end for some reason?

Sure, but very rarely.  Because of our very strict recruiting policy, it is very rare that a show bombs or is not sucessful.  Even if a show is not resonating with the audience, we don’t try to cancel a show just because of that.  I believe in giving the artists and DJs all the support we can.  Since we only have a number of hand-picked shows, I have a personal relationship with all the show hosts and consider them my friends.

Does it happen a lot that people want to start a new programme on your radio?

I get about 30+ emails each and every day from DJs and artists all over the world wanting to start a show on friskyRadio. I would like to respond to all of them but I just can not, unfortunately, so if you sent me an email and I didn’t respond, please take offense.

There are more producers/djs from Eastern Europe and Argentina than from England if I'm not mistaken. Is this pure chance?

Not necessarily.  By accident or by choice, I think the sound of friksyRadio and the artists that are on it are very much dependant on my personal tastes… And it just so happens that I like the sound coming from Europe and South America historically.  Our audience is also mostly global.  We have listeners in 126 countries but 66% of them are from outside the USA.

The timetable is mostly favourable to European listeners, the starting of the shows suits the Eurpoean time. Are there fewer listeners in the U.S. ?

Online Radio by definition is a passive „tunein-and-forget” experience.  That is why most of our audience is at-work listen-while-you-work (or study).  That is why our shows start at 09AM PST (USA California) time and go on until around 08PM PST.  It just so happens that this time equates to a more favourable time for Europe.  Just by pure luck. :)

I guess you are not really happy that people record mixes from the radio and then share that with others on p2p programs. On the other hand this way your radio reaches more and more people and this can also be considered as a free advertisement. What is your opinion about this phenomenon?

I don’t buy the argument that people that rip the friskyRadio stream and then share it online on share sites or their blogs are somehow promoting the radio stream.  9 times out of 10, I don’t see any link to friskyradio.com or mention of us when they are sharing the links.  That is not promotion, that is theft.  Plain and simple.

 
Which one is your favourite genre in the world of electronic music?

I don’t really have one… Whatever moves me and gets me off the chair is my favourite. 

You have mentioned in your e-mail that you really like Hungarian producers. We hope to be able to show you more artist of our country that you will like but in the meantime we would like to have foreign guests as well in our show. What is your relationship like with Hungarian producers?

We have a few shows from Hungarian artists like FeralCode, Kornel & Mannel, and now Musicforever.  I like the warm sound that these artists tend to have and they are a pleasure to work with.

Finally, what are your future plans concerning the radio?

FriskyRecords launched in March with our debut compilation CD Destinations with Pole Folder.  We plan to release at least one comp CD a year on the label, and other digital releases every month. 

A brand new friskyradio.com website is launching in the summer that wil, besides looking sexy and hot, have much more new features for our fans and DJs alike.

We plan to host more and more Get Firksy! Parties in cities all over and perhaps the Moon and Mars as well. Who knows.. those Martians are a crazy bunch.

Web: http://www.friskyradio.com/ 

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/friskygeek