counting down

On a particularly uneventful evening, after a glass of wine or two, radio free school researchers delved into the radio4all site to explore download statistics.

With almost five years of shows, there are currently a total of 180 radio free school shows available. All the shows get into double digits, but what shows were generating the most online action?

Let's start with the century club:

100 to 200 downloads: Aaron Falbel, Susannah Sheffer, Architects, Wendy Priesnitz, Brent Cameron, Jerry Mintz [from year three]
201-300 downloads: Naomi Aldort, Paul Krop, John Colaruso, Joseph Pearce, Matt Hern [from year two]
301-400 downloads: National Film Board, Naomi Aldort (again), Pat Feranga/[John Holt]
401-500 downloads: Grace Llewellyn, Roald Dahl, Wendy Priesnitz (again)

So far so good. There are all kinds of reasons why various shows get more attention than others I suppose. Some shows have been up on the web longer than others, perhaps the show title helps or hinders, but all in all, each show is getting decent amount of action. Each week a few of the downloads go to the various pirate and campus/community stations that broadcast radio free school, each with their own range of listeners.

OK, so now we go to the shows with the highest numbers of downloads:

600-700 downloads: Sandra Dodd
701-800: [na]
801-900 downloads: Lee Hoinacki/[Ivan Illich]
931 - Pat Farenga

and then into the "Grand" club:

John Taylor Gatto got over 1,000 downloads on each of the three shows on radio free school: 1,059, 1,131, and 1,683.

And the single show with the most downloads?

Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes with 2,844.

Of course these numbers will change. Especially if you go to www.radio4all.net and type in "radio free school" in the search engine. You can then see a list of radio free school shows (going back to our first ever show in May 2002), choose a show, and then download, stream or podcast it.

That's what it's there for.