HotTrax Radio Toolbar: Uber Cool!

Okay now... let me see if I remember how to blog. LOL Seriously, I've been meaning to write this post for a while now. I want EVERYONE to know about the HotTrax Uber Cool Toolbar! The HotTrax Toolbar is not only Uber Cool, it's the ONLY toolbar you really need! Unlike other toolbars, such as Google and Yahoo, the HotTrax Radio Toolbar uses fewer of your system's resources. And while other toolbars track where you go on the web, the HotTrax toolbar does not.

The HotTrax Radio Toolbar has been around for a while now, but it keeps getting better all the time! If you don't have it... why not? Hmmm... where do I begin? Let's start with Applets. Well, first off, once you have the toolbar, you need to create an account. This will let you sign onto the toolbar. Why would you want to do this? Well, two reasons, actually. First of all, if you are time challenged, as I am, it allows you to choose your time zone. Then when you go to the Applets and look at the schedule, it will give you the times in YOUR time zone! The other reason is so that you can use the Tune Minder. What's a Tune Minder, you ask? It's another nifty Applet. It allows you to remember a tune that is playing that you like and would like to add to your library. You can even use it to go directly to purchase the tune. Another cool feature of the HotTrax Radio Toolbar is the Playlist Search Applet. This allows you to search a DJ's playlist for a certain song. It also allows you to check ALL the DJ's lists at one time. I use it when I'm looking for a tune during my show. I can look to see if a DJ has a song, then contact them if they are online to send it to me. It's handy during a show, when a DJ gets a request. Sure, I could probably go online and find a tune, but if a DJ has it, then it's probably already been checked out and tagged! Other handy Applets are the Song History and the Listeners Map. Oh, and I mustn't forget... you can even come directly into our Chat room from the HotTrax Chat applet.

Then there are the Links you can get to from the toolbar! All the HotTrax Channels, all the DJ's playlists, and DJ Bios. The only way to get to the Bios is from the HotTrax Radio Toolbar! There are more channel links, plus from the ToolBar you can get to a couple of lyrics sites, the station's Facebook and MySpace pages, NASCAR.com, AND there's even a link for the WildWest Festival in Hayes, Kansas, where the HotTrax Gang will be meeting up again this year for the 4th of July Celebration! Oh, and don't forget the Blogs! You can reach those directly from the Toolbar, too!

Then there are the Gadgets. You gotta love gadgets! There are plenty of cool ones there, including the Countdown one, under "Tools/Utilities." It allows you to count down to special events in days, hours, minutes, and seconds. And there are some fun games under Gadgets, too. There is more than one DJ around HotTrax who can be found playing Bubbles... occasionally even during their show! TSK TSK!

Recently, our beloved Lizard Boss, who is responsible for constructing our fantastic toolbar, added a Games drop down menu from the toolbar. There are even more games to become addicted to there! How much better can it get? You can listen to HotTrax and play games all at the same time.

There is also a Newsfeed drop down menu, a place to set the weather so you have the temperature at your finger tips, and you can even set the Toolbar to check your email, and inform you when "you have mail!"

Of course, I've left out the obvious... you can tune in directly from the Toolbar and listen to your favorite HotTrax stream... or your favorite DJ! Also, the HotTrax Radio Toolbar uses Google as it's default search engine. And when you use the search engine on the HotTrax Radio Toolbar, it benefits HotTrax Radio. So download the Uber Cool HotTrax Radio Toolbar, lose the others, and start searching! And let your friends in on it... it truly IS Uber Cool!

The Grammys 2009

It's always rewarding when the station you work for has shown that it's consistently up with, and often ahead of, the game when it comes to choosing the music which will eventually be saluted as the best in its field.

Look at this year's Grammy awards, held 2 days ago and which, of course, is the supreme arbiter of the year's best music. There were some well-deserved winners and I suppose the run-away 'superstars' were Robert Plant and Alison Krauss who won all five awards for which they were nominated - and that's some achievement - including 'Record of the Year' for 'Please Read the Letter', Album of the Year for 'Raising Sand' , Best Pop Collaboration for 'Rich Woman', Best Country Collaboration with vocals for 'Killing the Blues' and finally 'Raising Sand' won the best Folk/Americana album of the year too. And Hot Trax Radio has been playing 'Raising Sand' - and all the above songs - throughout 2008 even when the album's success was not a sure fire guarantee. After all raucous Zep front man and gentle Bluegrass queen hardly sounds like a marriage made in heaven, but the results were wonderful.

It was great to see Adele win Best New Artist and Best New Female Performer for 'Chasing Pavements' another song HotTrax has played almost from the date of its release.

Coldplay won best song for 'Viva La Vida' and Duffy won Best Pop Vocal Album for 'Rockferry' - another album which Hot Trax Radio has plugged almost from the date of its release.

There are way, way too many awards to list but I was pleased to see prizes for Ne-Yo, John Mayer, the Kings of Leon, Alicia Keys and Bruce Springsteen among so many - and again all their songs have been well featured on the HotTrax playlists over recent months.

I suppose the one unfortunate note in the proceedings was the non-appearence of Chris Brown and Rihanna who, it appears had had a domestic spat before the awards ceremony resulting in injuries to Rihanna followed by Brown turning himself in to the LA Police.

One puzzle was the award of the best country song to Jennifer Nettles 'Stay'. It is a great song but it must be at least 2 years old and not even on the latest 'Sugarland' album so I'm not sure how it qualified.

Finally, on a very sentimental note, I was delighted to see the Best Traditional Folk Album award go to Pete Seeger, for the appropriately titled 'At 89'. One of the great mainstays of traditional American music, now in his 90th year, there can't be many albums left and he deserved all the plaudits he got.



So if you agreed with the verdict of the judges - and even if you didn't - listen to Hot Trax Radio through 2009 and we will prove to be a pretty accurate barometer of what is the best in popular music in time for the Grammys of 2010. Just you wait and see!