KLR has been in Second Life for three years providing a music radio service to members, sims, parcels and venues.
It began when the owner (and long-time friend) Mercurius Galtier Karu on a venue called Karuvium (in Roman Karvvivm) shared a vision with Anthony Lovett (DJ Tony in Second Life) to launch the radio station on that homestead for the purpose of doing music sets to accompany a daily fireworks show there.
The station was originally called Karuvium Light Radio, and broadcast to just a few people per week who knew about it.
Anthony Lovett worked hard to get the station better known by approaching friends who owned parcels and sims to take the stream as a default music service on their land. It wasn’t until certain sponsors came to adopt the station that familiarity with the stream began with a wider base of listeners.
SPONSORS
One of those sponsors, who works hard to assist, is the land owner Mark Nova of Legendary Estates. https://www.facebook.com/LegendaryEstates/ and in a show of solidarity, Mark has his own music program on the station which is the main focus of trance music (a passion shared with Anthony), and the station was renamed Klassic Legendary Radio (a nod to Legendary Estates, https://www.lre.land/ ) and Karuvium is now on land rented from Legendary Estates, where Anthony has joined forces with Mercurius Galtier Karu to extend the facility and provide rented villas in the village.
Another sponsor who has supported KLR through thick and thin from the start is Dan Redangel of the Redangel Clothing Company. Dan has provided constant support both on and off his own venues and has created customised clothing for KLR and donated funds to help keep it going via percentage shares from clothes he sells. Dan has his own program on KLR which has focus on Country Music, a favourite genre of his. https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Nova%20Valley/206/180/3002
Markarius Viper of Viper Isles helped tremendously with design and landscaping, when Anthony tried making the KLR Park, and he is still a close friend and trusted advisor. KLR has made friends who are helpful, have the vision, and share resources or knowledge to make KLR succeed. Markarius is just one of them. https://viperisles.com
Previously, when Anthony Lovett had much more time to devote to it as a role player himself, he ran the radio station from premises on Lake Placid, but also provided and updated a website for news of Lake Placid, and he started a TV station (Lake Placid TV – YouTube based). Sadly Anthony bit off more than he could chew, spending almost all his time in-world maintaining this and other ventures around SL, and had to give up his role in Lake Placid as Senator and media mogul but, since then a number of those media initiatives on Lake Placid now go from strength to strength, having been created by Lake Placid members themselves to continue the media content of the sim and to further Anthony’s original ideas. It’s worth saying here that Lake Placid is also on land rented from Legendary Estates.
More recently though, Anthony is back there after the owner of Lake Placid (a realistic urban role-play sim in Second Life) has helped the radio station by adopting it as the default on the sim, and talks are presently going on to further develop KLRs’ presence there.
LONGEVITY
In general, and through a series of support with premises, percentage of sales, and with practical and creative services, shared knowledge and experience from these people mentioned, KLR now has an identity in Second Life that is growing.
Anthony Lovett kept an eye on the ball with regards to promoting the radio station, and enrolled in several Internet directories and apps, so that Second Life members could enjoy KLR when not in-world. See our Listen Page for details of those.
Today, KLR is listened to by many more than ever before, with a staggering 81831 listener minutes in just one month. That’s a total of 1364 Hours in just 31 days. In the last 15 days alone there have been 400 unique listeners, from 45 countries clocking up 6558 songs heard.
It has taken 3 years of learning, experimenting, and listening to and enlisting the help and advice of sponsors and friends to get this far. There is still much work to be done, and there is no sign of slowing down.
KLR has also been host to at least 20 advertisers, who have taken adverts for services in Second Life, and we thank them all for being part of the journey.
So happy birthday to KLR, and all who have helped make this a fabulous, engaging and creative time in SL so far.
For more information and details, contact Anthony Lovett by IM in Second Life (anthonylovett resident), or see our About page here.