THE HISTORY OF JFSR

CHAPTER: 1

 

Introduction

First of all, let me introduce myself. My name is Dave Marley aka "Morph" I am now 50 years young, or as I like to say to people, I'm 21 years old with 29 years experience.

 

Who Or What Was Vinyl Morpher?

I've always been a big fan of all kinds of music and have been DJ'ing since 1983. I listen to anything from 50's & 60's to House, Drum n Bass and of course Jazz Funk Soul & Disco. Coming up to four years ago, I was digging around on YouTube and I discovered a guy on there taking video of his jazz funk and soul 12'inch vinyl spinning on his decks. My first thought was, what an anorak, lol, but as I clicked through his video collection, it got me thinking, this guy has got some great records here, but there are so many missing from his collection. I literally had everything he had videoed but I had a lot more in my collection. I have been collecting vinyl since the 70's and still do today. So, as you can imagine, my collection is pretty big and getting out of hand. So, going back to this guy on YouTube, I suddenly felt myself wanting to video my own collection and posting the vids on YouTube and this is exactly what I did. I guess you could say, i also turned anorak lol. I created my own YouTube channel called Vinyl Morpher and started posting videos daily. Ok, hands up, this started becoming a bit of an obsession with me, my video collection got bigger and bigger first 100, then 200, 300, 400. The more videos I posted, the more people would find the Vinyl Morpher channel and subscribe to it. Before I knew it I had over 700 videos posted on YouTube and over 40,000 subscribers. I would get hundreds of comments every day

 

Vinyl Morpher Was Born

I guess at this point, I should explain to you where the name Vinyl Morpher came from. Well, the 'Vinyl' bit is somewhat obvious, I am and probably always will be a vinyl junkie. I love it. The smell, the touch and over all, the sound. Clicks, crackles and all. And I have always loved to mix my vinyl on the decks. The 'Morpher' bit came purely by overhearing a comment someone made once. I was DJing in a club a few years ago, and me, being me was deep in the mix with the set I was playing. I heard a girl say to her friend, "I just love the way this DJ mixes his records together, he kind of Morphs them together" I laughed at her comment but loved the concept. I thought about what she had said for a few days and came up with the name "The Vinyl Morpher"

 

Ok, the YouTube channel was buzzing, and getting bigger and bigger by the day. I sat down one day showing a friend of mine my YouTube channel and he pointed something out to me. Something that had totally slipped over my head. He pointed out the fact that I had gone to all this trouble of uploading all these videos of classic Jazz Funk Soul and Disco tunes but hadn't even mentioned the fact that I was a DJ. He suggested I put a show together and shared it with my 40,000 subscribers.This is exactly what I did, I recorded a one hour show (very embarrassing to listen to now lol) and posted a video on Vinyl Morpher channel with a 10 minute clip of the show and also with instructions on the video how to download the complete show. To my surprise, people were actually downloading the whole show to listen to and asking for more. I called the show "The Vinyl Morpher Show". This continued for a few more weeks, doing one show per week until, the day came I had my heart broken. I logged into my channel one evening only to find my beloved Vinyl Morpher channel had been deleted by YouTube due to breach of copyright laws. I was absolutely devastated. I couldn't believe all the time and hard work I had put into my channel had been wiped out by someone, somewhere at the click of a mouse. I just couldn't believe it. It was all gone and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it apart from start all over again. YouTube channel number two was born this time "The Vinyl Morpher Show" I managed to re post most of the original videos but this time I wasn't going to be caught with my trousers down, on top of creating a new YouTube channel, I also got my own website together which was VinylMorpher.co.uk. Many of the people who subscribed to the original channel found me again but this time I made sure all were aware of my website just in case disaster struck again. At least people would still know where to find me this time. I was still producing one show per week and I would post them on my website, and listeners were getting used to checking my website each week for the new show. I introduced a very small chatroom to the VinylMorpher website which remained empty most of the time. But in time, a few people started to say hi to each other in there. I would also hang out in there and take requests from listeners for the next show I would record. Back in the early chatroom days were where I first met people like "Debz" who later became "Debz the Promo Girl" and our very own "Peter Evans" (now fellow DJ but back then fellow YouTube channel owner "Spongepeat" as was "TrickyDickyDJ") to name but a few. TrickyDickyDJ in my humble opinion was the only other YouTube channel of our kind that was bigger with more content than The Vinyl Morpher channel. If no one else would have it, Tricky usually would. Listeners would also leave regular messages in the Vinyl Morpher guest book, also on the website. Before long, other DJs would find my website and ask if they too could record the odd show and have them posted on the VinylMorpher website. I recorded my shows over the next six months and posted them each week. The download numbers were growing and growing

 

Morpher Radio Was Born

Christmas 2008, by now, there were many regulars in and out of the Morpher chat room and about five or six DJs posting shows on the website. Two of the DJs back then (DJ Allan and DJ Pirate) had their own stream which they used once in a while to broadcast themselves to a handful of friends and play music for them. I asked them if I could use his stream to do my first ever live broadcast to my listeners on New Years Eve. I advertised it on the VinylMorpher website. "Vinyl Morpher Live on Air, New Years Eve 2008, Join me in the chat room" and posted instructions on how to tune into the stream at 8pm (GMT) New Years Eve. I went live for the first time with a handful of people in the chat room and we saw 2009 in together. That was it, I was hooked and had the bug to do my shows live instead of pod cast. January 7th 2009 I purchased my own stream and "Morpher Radio" was born, with only a hand full of DJs involved, names such as Carlin Langley, Steve Montana, Roman K, Graham Banbury, Tony D, Toni Baveria, Rainer Mwav, Chocci D, Geoff Hobbs and DJ Allan Most of them were pre recorded shows that the DJs would record and send to me to broadcast on Morpher Radio. That was it, the only way from this point was up. Other DJs to follow were the likes of Pete Evans, James Murphy, Tim Woodford, Mike C, Terry Peters, Peter "Wunni" Hitch, Mark Prince, Chris the Shirt, DJ DeJaVu, Mickey G and Eric Nugroove. More and more listeners were getting to hear about Morpher Radio and tuning in. Some would come and then disperse after time, and others are still involved today. Many DJs were sending shows for consideration of airplay and now some of the others were also doing their shows live on the station. Morpher Radio continued until June 2010. The later end of Morpher Radio brought DJs such as Barrie Stone, Neil Winters,Dave Simons, John Peters, Mark J, Redd Pepper, Steve & Paul from Gold, Chaz J, Gem, Darren Horn, Andy H, John Douglas, and Brian Jay

 

 

THE HISTORY OF JFSR

CHAPTER: 2

 

Bless The Funk Was Born

As the listener numbers grew, and our DJs became more and more involved, the need to finally meet each other was inevitable. And so, on Easter bank holiday Sunday March 2009, BTF 1 (Bless the Funk 1) was held at Mantra in Windsor. It wasn't a great success, but it was a chance for around 40 or 50 of us all to meet for the first time. As the year continued, and the listener numbers grew even bigger, making the success of BTF 2 and 3 even better. They were held at Latinos, Henley on Thames with a bigger audience each time. The last Bless the Funk was held in March 2010 at Club Temptation, Camberley, and was the best success so far with more than 160 listeners from all over the country attending. Every BTF was broadcast live on Morpher Radio for those listeners outside the UK to be able to join in with us on the night. Though, some listeners from other country's did attend, the furthest being Texas USA

 

By June 2010, Morpher Radio had been live and broadcasting for 18 months. There were some great DJs on board. We even had a guest appearance from the legend Greg Edwards to celebrate my birthday in March 2010. We were interviewing live on the station, legends such as Shakatak, Steve Arrington, and Barry Biggs. Unfortunately, due to radio politics (yes, believe it or not, there are politics involved) and due to circumstances that at the time grew out of my control, I took the decision to pull the plug on Morpher Radio. It once again broke my heart. I felt at this time that many people I had called friends at the time had betrayed me and let me down. There were also many people across the globe really sorry to see Morpher Radio come to such an abrupt end. I will always remember sitting alone in a bar in Essex with tears streaming down my face as I emailed DJs and friends telling them of my difficult decision. I spent the next few weeks looking back and reflecting on the whole experience I had putting her together and some of the people who were involved in the station. By now, some of the DJs who played on Morpher Radio had got together and had their own ideas of starting Internet radio stations trying to mimic and re create what Morpher Radio once was. I knew, if I was to continue in my venture to bring great music to people that wanted to hear it, I would have to learn from the experience of Morpher Radio. I thought long and hard about how I could improve on my previous project Morpher Radio

 

JFSR was born

One of our newer DJs came forward with ideas of what he could do if he were involved in the project of a new station. His web designing skills were second to none. I saw his personal website and the design just blew me away. This man would make a massive difference to the web design of the new station in the planning. I'm talking about none other than our very own Gem (The Funk Academy). He started putting ideas together and building this website, that was nothing like its predecessor, and nothing like I’d ever seen before.  He brought the look of what was to be our new station into the future. Suddenly, we had the best website I could possibly imagine, a mixture of some old and some new DJs that were itching to get back on air, and a handful of our original listeners just waiting to be told when they could tune in. After three months of planning, designing, meetings, ideas and unity, in September of 2010 JFSR (Jazz Funk Soul Radio) was born

 

So, here we are today. We have a mixture of DJs from across the globe, from all walks of life. Some with professional backgrounds, some just living their life long dream to present their own show to an audience that want to listen. We are still growing even today. We are continually bringing new DJs in and bringing you even more of the music you want to hear. One of the things I would like to add at this point and one of the things I learnt and realised by some of the mistakes I made on Morpher Radio, is the fact that it was all to much for me to do alone. It was OK back in the YouTube days. But as Morpher grew, the pressure of running a station and a website and show producing was too much for me to do alone, as much as I tried. So, this time round, JFSR has and amazing management and promotions team. I would now like to introduce them all to you...

 

 

THE HISTORY OF JFSR

CHAPTER: 3

 

And believe me when I tell you all, without these guys right behind me, JFSR would not be the great success she is today.

 

Pete Evans (Peat)

My right hand man. This guy as well as being one of JFSR's most loved DJs also knows all there is to know about the running of JFSR. He has on many occasions taken the helm while I have been away and I know, every time JFSR is in good safe hands until my return.

 

Martin Tiller (Gem)

As already stated earlier, the genius of a man, he is responsible for the look of our station. He is the tech guy behind the scenes and is always ready and waiting to jump on and fix any tech problem that may occur. He is also a great 'past' presenter on JFSR.

 

Andy Heavens (Andy H)

My left hand man. This guy also, as well as being one of JFSR's most loved DJs, also knows all there is to know about the running of JFSR. He is also responsible for running the station stream, loading the new pre recorded & Repeat shows, day in, day out.

 

 

The great thing about JFSR and all involved with her is the fact that we are a great team. We all work side by side, stick together and consider ourselves family. We welcome you the listener to join us on our funky journey back to times of great music and of course, our younger days. We also like to keep you up to speed with new soul releases, the latest soulful dance & funky house tracks, and from time to time, you will find us dabbling with Salsa, Latin, Broken Beat and even Reggae.  Our promise to you is to bring you the best of these genres and hope you will return time and time again.

 

JFSR, where the music comes first, and the people come back.

 

Dave Marley & The JFSR Team