There Once Was an Indie Radio Station....

Named Blockhead Radio. This radio station was built by two people, Rod and Annette. This radio station had the greatest of ideas....a place for people to hear great indie music and artisans to join together as a community. Here's my side of the story.

I had a part of BHR for roughly 5 months. I was "hired" to be Public Relations for BHR on the condition I'd be paid 30% of the advertising revenue. BHR had fantastic potential and I liked the people immensely. I met some fabulous people and artisans. I learned a tremendous amount of things about online life, handmade art and running a business.

I also learned not to trust too much.

Things went swimmingly for awhile. Then Rod (Blockhead Rod) began to get fishy. He was UBER controlling about the way the station was run, basically vetoing any idea anyone had other than himself. Cancelling shows, backing out on promises, and changing his mind constantly. I put in roughly 20-30 hours per week for 5 mos for BHR.

I NEVER SAW A DIME. 

Things started to change after a few months and I began to wonder about Rod and Annette's actual intentions. We constantly kept hearing that not enough money was coming in, yet we were selling ads right and left. I have no doubt that radio equipment costs money but I don't think it cost THAT much. For example, a Skype phone number (which is what we used for the most part) cost 30 bucks a year. Everything else can be run with fairly inexpensive audio equipment on your computer.

Good shows got cancelled for no apparent reasons other than Rod wanted it that way. Good show hosts got told off for no good reason. I spent many hours on the phone with Rod and I thought I had a good read on him. I was wrong. In time I began to get bad vibes but I loved the artisans I'd met and I had invested so much time and money in BHR I felt like I needed to see it through. I also ended up on the air for a short time on my own show that I was quickly removed in yet another of Rod's changes.

Countless artisans invested time and money in listening and participating in BHR. Ads were bought, they promoted BHR for free all over the place. They all got screwed.

I want to say now I deeply apologize to EVERYONE I got to be involved in BHR. I'm sorry if I dragged you in, although I'm grateful we met :)

I was 'let go' around the summer because I was apparently not needed any more. Did I ever get paid for my time? Nope. I knew then Rod was an a*hole for sure because in our conversation in which I was fired, I said, "Well, you're welcome for my work." and Rod replied, "HAh You're Welcome." As if I should have bowed down and kissed his feet for allowing me to be on BHR?? I spent roughly 200 dollars in ads, donations and more to help BHR. I was SUPPOSED to get paid for my work and NEVER DID and he said I needed to THANK HIM?

Oh but no.

I disappeared for awhile, not going into chat, but I missed my friends so I stayed around a little quieter. Then 48forLarry came.

It sounded like a great cause, this man, who we all supposedly "Knew" was dying and hundreds of artisans banded together to come up with an auction for Larry where artisans donated items to be auctioned off and donated money. Things went fine until the end of the auction for me. My brother, who'd recently started an Artfire shop came in and offered to set up a site free of charge to continue to help bring money in for Larry. Even after I talked with both Larry AND Rod about who  my brother was, they continued to accuse him of trying to steal money from Larry and acted like they didn't know who he was. EVEN after I talked to Larry and told him who he was...they then commenced to slaughter him in Artfire forums. I know suspect that because Rod and Annette were part of a scam around this 48forLarry thing, they were doing illegal things with the money and that is why they freaked out about my brother creating the website (on his own dime!).

That was the final straw. (And Yes my brother still has all the emails from Rod and Huck where they trashed and were evil to him.) You don't try to destroy my friends and family without me getting mad.

I defended my brother in forums and at his request, stopped talking about it. He asked me to let it go, so I did. I also cut off all contact with Rod and Annette other than an occassional chat in plurk. I missed my other friends who still used BHR chat but I just could not go back in there. Not many knew what all had happened and I kept it quiet.

Then I started to realize how many other people got screwed by BHR. Items that were donated never got sent because Larry was supposedly to ill to send invoices and addresses. Ads were not put up on the BHR site. Suddenly the whole family was having to leave their home and travel the country in an RV? And they were selling ad space on the RV to artisans??? I wanted so bad to warn people about this but I kept my mouth shut. I'm sorry I did. Now those people are out money because of course there is NO RV and Rod and Annette have cut and run.

No one has seen hide nor hair of them (though Rod has logged into his Facebook account in the last 10 days.) and lots of worthy artisans are out money!

Because Rod is a genius he never changed the Artfire account so I logged in the BHR artfire account to do some digging. Sure enough, they sold roughly 2151.00 worth of ads on Artfire ALONE. That doesn't even count paypal invoices and Etsy sales! 2151.00. So I should have received about 645 bucks of that income and so should have the other artisans who were supposed to get paid.

Artisans have bought items from Huck that never got received, people bid on items for the Larry auction and never received them (not through the fault of the artisans who donated, but due to Larry never sending the addy's to who the items should go to.)

I don't think things started out for Rod and Huck as a scam but I think they started to see the money rolling in and decided to go for it. I've heard of some other bad situations that have occurred with BHR and artisans and its not my place to share that info. I will say, if you got screwed by BHR, and want to share, please do so.

Despite all this, I do not regret my time on BHR. I learned a TON of things and I met some FABULOUS people! There are nasty people all over the web, and in the handmade world, but thanks to BHR I met some of the best people in the world! I will always be thankful for that!

Perhaps one day when the time is right, we can again have a crafty type show on BlogTalkRadio to again share our handmade lives.

The BHR domain was bought by someone else and is still related to music but not owned by Rod or Huck. (Anyone can check this by going to godaddy.com and looking at the url blockheadradiolive.com)

So while I and many others got burned by BHR, Rod and Annette Grambel (not sure if I spelled that right?) I am very happy to have had the experience because I learned alot and learned to stand up for what I believe in---

the TRUTH.

SO, Rod, Annette, Larry, if ya'll are out there and BRAVE Enough to come out and speak for yourselves, BRING IT. But put your riot gear on first.

You've got a LOT of artisans mad at you. As they should be.

I just have faith that karma goes around and they will get theirs.

amy/mama