Original Country Radio Network, previous owner of 24/7 online bluegrass outlet WorldWideBluegrass.com, has folded operation. Ownership and operation of WWB has been undertaken by Gracie Muldoon, who functioned as both an on-air host and station manager while the streaming radio station was under the OCRN umbrella.

The site (and the audio stream) was only down for a little over 24 hours, and Muldoon reports that she received only 30 minutes notice from the previous owners that everything was about to be shut down – just two days after returning from a week in Nashville promoting the site and the stream at the IBMA convention.

“I was given enough time to go ‘on air’ and make an announcement, and I determined right then, that after 1 solid year of growing our bluegrass community at the WWB – I was not going to ‘not come back.’  For the last 12 months here, I had done all the work – and I was angry – so I set out on a mission.

I purchased new encoders/streams/software and we’ve gone with the same reliable server. We’ve also purchased a new chat room through ivocalize.com – though we had several places offer to donate one – and we used one of our broadcaster’s rooms for about 2 days just to regroup our ‘regulars’ and tell them we weren’t going down. They ran out (on the web) and started posting we are still HERE!

It’s been an real learning experience – but one we actually ended up growing from… and all the DJs and myself are actually giddy about being independent now and away from OCRN, and its management – which no longer exists.”

WorldWideBluegrass.com is run by an all-volunteer staff of hosts, and offers their audio stream for both high speed and dial up connections.