By: Erin
Posted: February 23rd, 2025
Five years! Five years of running EMN! There was a time in my life where five years felt like an eternity. Now, it’s still a pretty amazing amount of time to be running a single project, let alone to have expanded it to six channels that I’m always tweaking and updating, but it still feels like it has flown by. Well, that’s what happens when you’re having fun, I suppose.
And yeah, I’ve been having a lot of fun. You may notice that I mentioned six channels up there. That’s right, I’ve added yet another modulator to my collection, and now we have six distinct EMN channels, all with their own purposes! Obviously there’s the main channel, the rotating monthly channel in EMN2, Marathons, EMN Pro, and EMN Vibes, but there’s now EMN DIY! It’s…just a cheap Android box from Wal-Mart running SmartTube and going through a YouTube playlist at random. The benefit of this is that it’s great for longer form programming that wouldn’t fit the television nature of other EMN channels, but it’s also useful to play streams on. We had it running throughout all of Awesome Games Done Quick and it was so cool being able to tune into that marathon at any time just by changing the channel in any room. With this, I really feel like we have everything we could need from EMN – our hyper-personalized channels, something sporty with Pro, music on Vibes, and even “live” and “Slow TV”-style programming. Wonderful!
Tomorrow is Twin Peaks Day. Tomorrow is also the first anniversary of EMN’s test run, where we set up the original Pi, installed Kodi, and experimented with modulation and video. What serendipity! EMN’s anniversary being on the same day our favorite show is celebrated is just so cool. We will of course be updating EMN1’s lineup as we do every year, and I feel really fantastic about our plans for it. I was so excited for the additions (which will be added to the Programming Guide shortly) that I made a brand new bumper using only the 2025 additions!
As always, thank you to everyone who reads this site, who reads me posts on various social media, and who has seen EMN with their own eyes. It’s a project that has kept us sane during dark times, and it looks like it’ll keep doing so. For some personal goals, I want to get my article on physical media completed in the next few months, and I want to update any outdated guide pages. For EMN itself…well, I doubt I’ll happen upon $2000-3000 any time soon, so maybe I can’t buy a professional AV rack and 16-channel modulator, but maybe I can tidy things up in the laundry room just a bit.
Until next year! And hopefully sooner.