Ever since we boomers were teenyboppers, our music has been mobile. We first fell in love with transistor radios and earphones, then embraced nearly every mobility milestone to follow, from The Walkman to iPod Nano to Spotify and beyond.
So better mobility has been the natural Next Big Thing for us in The Floodiverse. Specifically, we’ve been working to untether our popular Radio Floodango music streaming service from the website so fans could access it directly from their computer desktops and/or their iPhones.
The goal, then, has been Floodlusciousness that can float along with you wherever you drift online or in the real world.
Downloadables
The most convenient way to enjoy Radio Floodango’s free audio treasures is to have it just a click away whenever the mood strikes you. And right here we can get you set up in just a minute or two.
Mac desktop shortcut
To put Radio Floodango on your Mac laptop or desktop computer, you need only create a “shortcut.”
To do that:
Click the following link: Download Radio Floodango Shortcut. This will download a file called “Radio_Floodango.webloc.”
Open Finder and click your Downloads folder.
Click and hold the Radio_Floodango.webloc file, then drag it across your screen and drop it anywhere on the Desktop.
Now whenever you click that shortcut, you will be whisked to the Radio Floodango page (removing the need to first navigate to the website).
Graphic (Optional)
But the plain-jane shortcut is ... well, rather plain, something like this:
Yawn. If you’d like something a little snazzier, we can fix you up and let you customize it with the official Radio Floodango icon:
Here’s how:
Click the following link -- Download Mac Icon -- which will download a file called “Radio_Floodango_Icon.png.”
Open Finder and click your Downloads folder.
Click and hold the Radio_Floodango_Icon.png file, then drag it across your screen and drop it anywhere on the Desktop.
Now open the file in Mac’s Preview app and copy it (by either selecting Copy from the Edit menu or just pressing Command-C). Exit Preview.
Right-click on the Radio Floodango shortcut and select Get Info from the menu.
Click the tiny icon at the top of the Get Info panel and paste (Command-V).
This will give your new shortcut a distinctive look on your desktop.
Windows shortcut
If you are a Windows user, you can put Radio Floodango on your Windows desktop by creating a simple shortcut.
To do that:
Click this link: Download Radio Floodango Shortcut. This will download a file called “Radio_Floodango.url” to your computer.
Locate the file in your Downloads folder.
Click and hold the Radio_Floodango.url file, then drag it across your screen and drop it anywhere on your Desktop.
Now, whenever you double-click the icon, your web browser will automatically open and whisk you away to the Radio Floodango page.
Graphic (Optional)
If you would like you can give your shortcut the official Radio Floodango icon rather than the generic browser icon.
Here’s how:
Click this link -- Download Windows Icon -- to save the icon file (Radio_Floodango.ico) to your computer.
Right-click on your new Radio_Floodango shortcut on your desktop and select Properties.
Go to the Web Document tab and click the Change Icon... button.
Click Browse..., navigate to where you saved the Radio_Floodango.ico file, select it, and click Open.
Click OK on the Change Icon window, then click OK again on the Properties window.
Your shortcut will now display the official Radio Floodango graphic on your desktop.
An iPhone Solution
Tucking a mobile version of Floodango onto your iPhone is a bit trickier (for some long, technical and stupefyingly boring reasons), but we have figured out a pretty good method. All it requires is a little extra — and only one-time — work on your part.
Here’s How…
Using you iPhone, come to this page of the newsletter and select this text:
http://1937flood.com/r.php
then tap Copy.
Now go to Settings > General > Keyboard > Text Replacement. Tap the + (plus) icon in the top right to reach this screen:
Tap the Phrase field and select Paste which should place the copied text into the space. If it does not, then simply type in the phrase, but be careful to get it precisely this:
http://1937flood.com/r.php
(Note the syntax of “http://” followed by the web address “1937flood.com/r/php”.)
Now in the Shortcut field, type in the abbreviation radfl (for “Radio Floodango”) and tap Save.
How to Use Your New Shortcut
From now on, whenever you want to play Radio Floodango on your phone, simply:
Open the Safari app on your phone and tap the address bar at the top or bottom of the screen.
Type radfl and tap the Go on the keyboard and the phone could display Floodango as it appears in the photo at the beginning of this section.
Troubleshooting
We’ve struggled to make these methods of mobility easy and flawless, but, alas, nothing binary is ever bulletproof, it seems. The most common problem is that the screen displayed by your new shortcut doesn’t show the lovely Floodango logo, but rather something like this:
Fixing this is easy. All you have to do is go to the address bar where you will probably see:
https://1937flood.com/pages/bb-radioflood.html
Move your cursor to the “s” that appears before the colon (:) and delete it. In other words, make the edited web address read:
http://1937flood.com/pages/bb-radioflood.html
Press ENTER and you should reach Radio Floodango correctly.
Fun with Your Floating Flood
Be sure to tell us how you use your new Flood Floatie toy.
“I’ve begun to turn on my Flood Radio every morning,” one beta tester told us, letting the guys provide an audio wallpaper as she works her morning crossword, randomly selecting from more 800 audios in its archives.
Let Radio Floodango — the band’s treasure house of music — match your moods. Just scroll down to its “Have It Your Way” section where:
Hear by Year lets you zero in on a specific year, from recent days back to 2001. Click a button in this section and all the tunes you hear will be from that specified 12-month period.
People Picker focuses on songs featuring a specific Floodster. Channels here call up favorites like Joe, Dave, Doug, Roger and others.
Spin the Discs lets you listen to any of the band's studio-recorded commercial albums.
Genres lets you rein in The Flood’s famously eclectic repertoire and concentrate only on tunes of a particular style or mood. Folk, Swing, Blues, Hokum… collect ‘em all.
A favorite new option is “Special Blends” with its playlists devoted to specific seasons (Christmas, St. Patrick’s Day), people (Bob Dylan, John Prine) or themes (trains, rivers).
The Bowens often use the Flood app on road trips, playing the Radio Floodango on Charlie’s iPhone and interfacing via Bluetooth with the car’s speakers. On a recent drive home from Beckley, thy played “The West Virginia Blend” playlist for a lovely soundtrack for traversing those green rolling hills.
Live Flooding
Finally, if you’re out and about this Thursday evening and you want a little company, remember your Flood family is gathering at Bahnhof WVrsthaus & Biergarten, 745 7th Ave.
The band plays from 6:30 to 8. Come on ‘round for good food and good times.