I used to love these. Is this place still open?
I used to love these. Is this place still open?
Cafe Goa is still open and better than ever!
Negril.com - For the vacation that never ends!
We had breakfast there in August, so unless it closed since the ...it's open.
Thanks guys. I wish those Webcasts would start again
Sunday morning Webcasts from Cafe Goa
I go there each trip at least a few times. I will check it out when I am there next. 60 days and counting
My favorite sign from Cafe Goa.
I know that webcast participation went down to a rate where Rob couldn't justify doing it any longer, but, Is there any way you could perhaps plan on just maybe a few a year? Rob?...maybe we could hype up the anticipation? Like a couple Cafe Goa webcasts? perhaps a Seastar show or two?..and the Boardie Bash party, for all who can't be there?
Thanks for the compliments on the webcasts. It has been almost a year and a half since our last webcast at 3 Dives. And the participation at our last webcast, both online and in person, was easily justifiable for 3 Dives. The participation alone was not the deciding factor to stop the webcasts. The extra attendance at the businesses sponsoring the live webcast was incentive enough. And the online numbers were still enough to justify it from a "cost per view" advertising factor, but the numbers were going down. The times had changed since the first webcast in 1997.
In 1997, for the very first webcast ever from Jamaica, we had four webcast listeners. There was no video possible yet on the Internet anywhere at any price. Less than a year later, when we did get the first video webcast running from the island, if we got 20 viewers we were elated! With dial up on both ends, it was a rather amazing event to witness. Every week we were experimenting with new software and techniques to improve the quality of the webcasts. It was really an incredible thing, being in the right place at the right time.
Please remember that at this time you still had to rent VHS tapes at the local video rental store, DVD rentals were still a few years away. Watch on Demand did not exist yet nor did the recording of programs to be watched at your convenience. (Although the "time shifting" was possible with your VHS tape machine, most of them always blinked 12:00 making time recording impossible.)
During the mid-2000's, the webcasts were extremely popular with people letting me know they would plan parties based on the time and events being webcast. The Seastar Saturday Night shows were always well attended both in person and online. And we did some 500+ of those shows over the years. In the late 2000's the concerts at Negril Escape would have thousands of people watching.
The Negril webcasts hit its peak single viewership in late 2011 with the funeral webcast for Jimmy Jackson of the Negril Tree House. With over 32,000 viewers, no other webcast ever came close to those numbers. The next most viewed webcast was during a "non-hurricane" hurricane webcast live from Seastar. There were over 10,000 people watching all of us basically having a party and waiting for nothing to occur.
But time moved on and so did the viewing habits of our audience. With the popularity of sites like Netflix and Hulu, as well as the ease of presetting shows to be recorded and viewed at your leisure, the idea of having to be watching something at a given time became less significant. For our webcasts by the end of 2015, we would get people tuning in during the last half hour saying that they had completely forgotten about the time and would make sure to catch the next one. But as we all know, the "watch what I want, when I want" philosophy is just too hard to resist in the real life world.
In 2016, we decided that after 20 years, 1997-2016, it was time to retire the webcasts. What was once a challenge to do could now be done on a smartphone. In those early years, phone lines had to run, software had to be configured, bandwidth taken into account, connections limited and secured. But with Periscope, LiveStream and now Twitter and Facebook Live, anyone can use all the outbound WiFi bandwidth and webcast from nearly anywhere. Times changed.
Rather than hanging on past their prime like so many sports athletes did that we all admired growing up, we made the decision to go out while we were still on top. We could have easily justified the webcasts from a business advertising standpoint and been right, but we chose not to do that. The raw thrill and the challenge was gone. And I personally felt that it was unfair to our sponsors, they are all friends of mine. The online numbers were still impressive, but waning. Just because you can do something, does not mean that you should.
No one will ever be able to duplicate what we did, for we did it at a time that is was thought impossible. In 1999, we webcast Dennis Brown's last concert in Negril from DeBuss on a phone line I strung from Miss Joy's office. To this day, I dont know how or why, but that webcast turned out nearly perfect! Many people watched and listened to Dennis shortly before he passed, live from Negril! Somethings are beyond words or explanation.
Thanks to all for making twenty years of webcasts so exciting on both ends! It was as much fun for those in Negril as it was for those watching!
As for webcasting special events, that is always a possibility, but not things like a regular Cafe Goa Sunday, Seastar Saturday or even the Annual Boardie Bash. Besides, this past Boardie Bash was the very first one that I got to enjoy since the first one in 1999! They are actually a blast! Mark your calendar for the last Friday in April and get you and your friends down here to enjoy the party!
Negril.com - For the vacation that never ends!
I think I just read a reference to Brett Favre... LOL
Those webcasts were so fun! I went to a couple live shows, and several online sessions and shows from my well heated Michigan home. "Puff, puff, pass it on" ....
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