Well, the problems with our broadband host from yesterday are gone, but we're having an unexplained issue with our audio servers. We have two, and they keep crashing. We're going to fire up a third one and see if that can't keep the music online a bit longer than these. Thanks for your patience.

You may have noticed we're having some difficulty keeping our station online today. Our broadband host experienced a major outage that cut us off from our servers completely. Now that we're back up, our broadcast servers are having some unexplained problems. We're watching it to figure out what exactly is going on, and also preparing a secondary setup in case of a major outage again.

From our friend Fred Hohman at Pro Organo:

Gerre Hancock, who is regarded and revered as one of the most talented and inspired leaders in American organ music and church music, with a long and brilliant career as a director of superb choirs, as a composer, as an organ recitalist, as a teacher, and as one of America's foremost organ improvisers, has passed away into Eternal Life this afternoon (21 January 2012) while hospitalized in Texas, with his wife, Judith, and daughters at his side.

In speaking with Dr. Hancock's concert manager, John McElliott, just this evening (21 Jan), I had confirmed these sad details, and even though I sense that many who read this, like me, will be shaken, and deeply and profoundly saddened by this news, I felt that the many of the people who receive the Pro Organo newsletter would want to be so informed.

We on earth have lost a mighty talent, as well as a musical advocate for art that supports our Faith. The Good Lord in Heaven has gained one wonderful and powerful soul. I feel confident that Gerre's spirit will live on with the same enthusiastic and creative praise as we have witnessed here in his music, and that his shall be a litany of endless praise in a glorious New Life with the Almighty in Eternity.

- Frederick Hohman, producer, Pro Organo / Zarex Corp

A strange problem popped up this afternoon that's disabled our main server database. We have a backup one streaming now, but the now playing information on the website may be inaccurate. We're working, though and hope to have this solved quickly.

Right now, two controversial bills are making their way each through the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act, and PIPA, the Protect IP Act. Both of these bills aim to stem the tide of piracy of copyrighted material on the Internet through regulation, however, the motives and supporters of these bills, as well as some of the language included in each are making many people uneasy. Several major websites such as Reddit and the English Wikipedia site are shutting down on January 18 in protest of these bills and to draw attention to the issue.

The Organ Media Foundation is a non-profit organization, and as such will not make any political statements or ask our listeners and contributors to do anything specific regarding these bills. However, we do hope that our listeners will take some time to learn a bit about this potential legislation. Just type SOPA or PIPA into your favorite search engine, and you'll see links with lots of information. We then hope our informed American listeners will take time to contact their Senators and Representatives to ensure that they carry your voice.

We strive to prevent piracy of the materials we broadcast and to ensure that the artists heard on our channels are fully and fairly compensated. This is already made difficult enough by regulations put in place by non-internet broadcasters, and we're not sure further regulations are going to make our lives easier. We appreciate that the Internet is a free and open space where specialty stations like ours can operate.

It appears our contact form decided to quit sending your messages through on December 24, even though the page says it's sending them. It's sending them somewhere, but not to us. If you contacted us about something in the past couple of weeks and haven't heard back, you might try emailing us at comments@organlive.com until we can get the problem figured out.