The Cockroach - The Internet's Talk Superstation is the brainchild of a radio geek residing in the Northeast. It was originally known as "AM 930 The Cockroach"; legend has it that it was named as such because it officially signed on September 30, 2006. While it was one of said radio geek's dreams to own and run his own station, reality sets in heavily these days, thus making the desire less affable. Unbound by the limitations of Internet radio (and maybe a repeater) it was decided a new station would come into existence, but it would offer something different. In the beginning, this "talk superstation" was originally a "music superstation." You had your garden variety "Jack" stations that play an extended music mix, but usually limited to a certain year range and aimed at a certain demographic. And since there's basically no advertising on this station, there's not much worrying about demos. Enter the concept of "playin' it all". It was determined that we'd offer a deeper variety of music - the only station that dares to throw in country next to rock and pop. And in effect try and challenge any real radio station when it comes to entertainment. Alas, that task did not quite pan out to expectations. The music changed to all-Christmas in late October. The Cockroach actually saw its listenership actually peak during this time. Then it was decided in early December - with three weeks before Christmas Day - to go back to our roots and "play it all". The flip, which was hinted with clues between the Christmas songs, was met with disastrous results. It was then decided that the only way to win back the listeners would be to offer highly creative and entertaining programming.

Enter 2007, which proved to be a hectic year for the Cockroach. With the "RadioA2Z" program, it was still possible to "play it all" - only now in alphabetical order. And a different letter, every week. No other radio station in any medium had executed that idea before the Cockroach. Meanwhile, aside from the music programming, the Cockroach additionally strived to offer a unique and eclectic mix of talk programming found nowhere else on the Internet. Mind you, back in 2006, we had also presented some talk programming such as "The Radio Racket" during our broadcast hours. With the music programming tweak in 2007, it also began running other talk programs, such as "Ham Radio" on Saturday nights. These shows, along with "Pam Stone" on Saturday mornings, would prove to be programs that played key roles in the station's future. In February, the Cockroach, retaining its Shoutcast technology, started streaming exclusively through Loudcity.com, so at least the artists who made our "RadioA2Z" programming possible would get their rightful royalties. Apparently, that wasn't enough for the Copyright Royalty Board and Soundexchange to increase royalty rates for webcasters retroactively to 2006. As a result, the Cockroach decided to suspend the "RadioA2Z" program on March 31, at the same time teasing an "announcement" at midnight. The announcement, in the wee hours of April 1, 2007 - no joke - was a format change to all-talk. And while Internet stations that relied on music hung in the balance, the Cockroach didn't want to be a garden variety talk station (see our blurb about "garden variety" music stations above). On Thursday, April 5, upon sign-on, The Cockroach officially became "The Internet's Talk Superstation". They gradually built around "Radio Racket", "Ham Radio" and "Pam Stone" with other talk shows, podcasts and specialty programming. At this point, the Cockroach had turned out to carve a pretty good niche, developing a cult following of some sorts. And over time, we've expanded our repertoire, even presenting the occasional music special, such as the moderately successful "Memorial Day Tea Party" every year. In addition, there are a handful of music programs on our lineup. (It's worth noting that "Live At The Nail Radio Show" is perhaps the most stable show on our lineup, basically staying in the Saturday 5 PM slot since forever.) But our model is mostly rooted in the unique talk programming that is featured on our channel. When sophisticated listeners with a wild side choose to hear stimulating talk radio, with a dash of groovy mixed in, they choose The Cockroach - The Internet's Talk Superstation.

Then, in 2009, while we may have gotten smaller, we've just started to get bigger. "The Radio Racket," one of our benchmark programs, ended its seasoned run, which led us to scale back broadcasting hours. No longer would we sign on every week on Thursday nights, but Friday afternoons would mark the start of our broadcasting week. Of course, that news was soon overshadowed by the debut of the channel's first-ever original show, and first program to broadcast live from the Roach Motel, "Twitter Time Live." Airing every Friday night starting in May 2009, "TTL" was intended not only to be the first stab at original programming on the channel, but also an attempt to fill the void left by "The Radio Racket". And while it was well-received, two things marked the demise of "TTL": Low listenership levels, not only via the live broadcast, but in podcast form; and most importantly, the surging popularity of social networking competitor Facebook. The latter would also serve as a red herring to Myspace, which The Cockroach had called home since its inception in 2006, at the URL http://www.myspace.com/roachradio. And really, when the only friend requests and messages that you get from your Myspace page are from bands and other sorts of "non-friends," you know it's time to move on. And with that, our highly publicized (at least in our little corner of the Internets) "digital conversion" from Myspace to Facebook was on. Indeed, it was inspired by the even more publicized (by leaps and bounds) digital conversion in 2009, which resulted in the shutdown of analog television signals. We even scheduled shutting down our Myspace page on June 12, as well. June 12, 2010, to be exact. Myspace visitors were constantly reminded to "be prepared for The Cockroach's digital conversion" and "become a fan" (or "like") our Facebook fan page at http://www.facebook.com/cockroachradio. (Yes, roachradio was taken on Facebook - long story, though... and if you've made it this far, we don't think you're in the mood for anymore long stories, so we won't get into it.)

And with the "analog shutdown" of Myspace comes the dawning of another new era... The Cockroach now has its own Internet domain at http://www.talksuperstation.com. However, we are being very frank about this: the domain is merely a placeholder on the Internets for us; you are still urged to "like" our Facebook page, as it will be updated more often than this website. Even if you don't have an account with Facebook, you can still view the content of our Facebook page. Hell, bookmark it if you want. Our Facebook page now serves the same purpose as our Myspace page used to. Whereas this domain serves as a virtual attic of the things we documented on Myspace over the years. If you wish to see how The Cockroach has evolved since our inception as a tiny music station in 2006 - and, in fact, you are in the mood for more long stories - click the below link for our archive of blog posts on our old Myspace page.

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