A NET STATION is a creative construct of George Maat. Your many letters of appreciation are warmly received. The Station has been, and continues to be an invigorating experience. Today it is a well known radio station and a popular informational and educational resource. Antarctica has been put on the map in a way no one ever expected. In that sense, we were definitely here first.

The station was one of the first Web radio stations in the world, (there were only a handful at the time, most of those did not stream sound). Today there are over 50,000 and most of those still don't play music. It's still number one in the world for audio playback quality, and frequently among the 10 most listened to stations in the world.

It's a long story that started in 1968 in the San Francisco Bay area, listening to the mellow FM broadcasts of "The KOIT Mother" and several others . Not your hyped broadcasts of today. Just endless excellent music and a lady (Mother) who spoke to you about the music she played with a relaxed and humerous savvy. She thought nothing of playing one side of an album without uttering a word. Allowing you to discover and enjoy excellent music and artists that were out there doing their thing. The true "Golden Days" of radio. Today that concept seems lost.

In 1971, on the coast of southern Spain, I met Isaac Guillory. Isaac lived under some olive trees on a hill by the beach in a little van. I lived in a tent in the dunes on the beach. We were the only people for miles around and got to know each other. Every day for hours on end, Isaac played his guitar . Some days we would go into a local town (Fuengirola), to a cafe where, to the pleasure and surprise of the people fortunate enough to be there at the time, Isaac would pop out his guitar and play for a while. Music. Excellent music from a normal tangible person. No hype. It brought out the good side of people. Opened them up.

Life was good. From that point forward I've been fortunate. In large part thanks to those "tangible people" who showed me the magic of normal people "making things good".

Along about 1980 or so the personal computer happened. By the early 80's the internet. Great stuff! I set up my first website. Somewhere in the early 90's came the REALAUDIO player. Music playback! I began collaborating with Isaac on his website, convincing him that by creating full length samples of some of his songs, playable without interruption, he could reach an entirely new audience which knew his music, his touring schedule, might go to his performances and want his CD's. It worked. It was fun.

It also became clear that I could create a worthwhile online radio station. Fine music from "tangible people". I only needed time, and a method by which the world would know the radio station existed. Back then the internet was small. Very small. M.I.T. had started up a list of radio stations in the world on their new website (only about 500 stations even were listed). Of those it was impossible to listen to a broadcast over the internet. The timing was certainly perfect. I just needed a quiet place to work.

I packed my bags and moved to Antarctica, intent on establishing a very fine web radio station. To be successful, 'A' NET STATION would have to play only excellent music, have no commercials, and no talk. Hunkering down in the seemingly endless freezing darkness, warmed by the colored glow of my computer monitor I designed the website. I registered 'A' Net Station, A.N.E.T, and anetstation.com with the M.I.T. radio listings, and loaded my web server with the music of three artists, (which I then proceeded to listen to every day since there was no other radio station to tune in to). It was incredibly moving and exciting when on that first day 'A' Net Station got three listeners.

The music played is created by some brilliant individuals, who have all participated in the growth of the station. Because you listen , these artist's music is being enjoyed by hundreds of thousands around the globe, many of whom first discovered their music here.

ABOUT OUR PROGRAMMING:

• NO COMMERCIALS
• NO TALK
• NEVER

Most radio broadcasts generate income through delivering paid advertising. They cover the odds demographically to get a broad base of listeners for those ads. The result is a music venue showcasing music generated by record companies with a similar profit motivation.

The Internet changes all that. The world is listening, and the expenses are minimal. This presents an excellent opportunity to open up the "airwaves" to some excellent artists and material.

We play music by artists who perform internationally and usually carry their own guitar cases. Most prefer not to compete for to the record industry's favor. This music is owned, published and distributed by the musicians themselves. That is why we provide links to their web sites. We play what we like, everybody benefits.

Graphic design, music editing, audio conversion for web playback and the software - it's all showcased on the site and the "Links" pages include the basic tools and information you need to understand how it's done.