Happy Nation Radio first began back in 2003, when Happy Nation acquired it’s first shop. The actual station came about by chance, after realizing that we had all the software and hardware for such a task, and already had DJ’s playing at the shop every evening - which proved to be an excellent studio.
Happy Nation built its online radio in to the shopping cart which formed the basis of the Happy Nation site, which, at the time was www.happynationrecords.co.uk
Happy Nation pioneered the use of the WMV format to provide the first known webcam based radio stream. This format, along with the FlashChat chat room and forum community, proved to be a winning combination and very quickly became popular.
During this time, Happy Nation had a chance meeting with the kcp-unite.co.uk crew at a party, and guest DJ swaps were quickly arranged.
After some time working together, at around the same time, Happy Nation lost its shop (frustratingly, not because of finances) and kcp-unite lost its website hosting, streaming server, most of its website, and only half the needed backup of its forum database was saved.
The shop in 2003, before being renovated for Happy Nation
Losing the studio knocked out the radio completely as there was no accommodation for DJ’s to play elsewhere, so DJ Mixman of Happy Nation, and Sian of KCP (Kent Crew Promotions) got together to create a re-branded website, now known as Unite Promotions (www.unite-promotions.com), where Happy Nation was able to host Happy Nation Radio night every Monday night. This was also an opportunity to work further on the technologies used by Happy Nation Radio. After a number of months of searching for another shop adequate to Happy Nation’s needs, it was decided to postpone those plans, and Happy Nation suggested dropping the Happy Nation night from Unite Promotions, with it’s DJ’s playing as Unite DJ’s.
The last surviving recording from Happy Nation Radio in 2004
This was highly compressed for dial-up users
A new turning point arrived for Happy Nation back in February 2006, when it started promoting regular events in London. The new ability to source DJ’s that are mainly based at home, and a new focus for Happy Nation, created the perfect opportunity to continue with, and expand on what was started back in 2003.
Most concurrent listeners on Happy Nation Radio was 248 on Mon July 2, 2007 10:45 pm - The newest registered user is NorrisNRG We have 3867 registered users - Most users ever online was 268 on Tue Apr 15, 2008 3:00 pm - Our users have posted a total of 18410 articles Colour Key: Offline - Offline Admin - Online (Chatroom & Website) - Online (Chatroom) - Online (Website)
Wednesday 10th of March
