[Petra-JohnSchlitt] English Newsletter 4/1/03

[Sue@JohnWSchlitt.com]

4/1/03

Hello everyone!

This is Sue, and this month's newsletter will fill you in on some of the new
and interesting additions we have at johnwschlitt.com.

First of all, our bandwidth troubles have been solved! Two very generous
Petheads have donated enough funds to pay for an entire year's worth of
additional space, so the site should never go down again. This will also
enable us to add more audio interviews, rare songs, and even videos! This
same Pethead is in the process of converting a large number of videos into a
format viewable on the internet, so you will be able to see both of John's
solo videos, his Swine Tour concert, live Petra concerts from 1991, and
Petra videos including "Whole World," "Who Do You Listen To?" and more! We
will send out a special newsletter informing you when they are ready, so
stay tuned.

Since all our audio files are so popular, we have now added (and are in the
process of adding more) two versions of each interview and music file.

If you look at the Audio or Interviews pages, under many of the files you
will see "Click here to listen" or "Right-click to download."  'Click to
Listen' are low bandwidth streaming files for those of you on dial-up or
slow speed connections. You can now listen to the interviews without waiting
forever for them to download to your computer. Simply click on the word
"LISTEN," and it will play automatically.

For those of you who want a better quality recording,  'Right-click to
download' are 128 kbps files that can be downloaded directly to your
computer. That way you have them on your hard drive and can listen at any
time without having to re-load from our site. This will save US bandwidth
and will save YOU time!

We have two rather rare interviews on the site right now, thanks to Pieter
V. Wingerden. One is a 2 ½ minute piece from 1986 with Bob Hartman speaking
on the future of contemporary Christian music, and "new lead singer John
Schlitt" on Petra's message - and his own.

The other is an hour-long session from 1987 originally aired on the "Love
Talks" program at WCM Radio in Detroit. This is a rare opportunity to hear
Mark Kelly, in addition to John Lawry, Bob Hartman, Louie Weaver and John.
This interview is full of history, taking you back to the days when a
concert was huge event, where the controversy over Christian rock music was
in full swing and when parents questioned the validity of using rock music
to pull kids in to hear the Gospel.

Interviewer Foster Brown asks some hard-hitting questions, as do audience
call-ins; Bob's high school days are discussed, as well as Petra's
progression from their early albums until now. And don't forget to listen
closely as Petra's experience as opening band for a world-famous mainstream
group is revealed!

This interview is streamable or downloadable as a high-quality zip file.

Make sure to check out our latest album promo addition on the Audio Page: an
hour-long Unseen Power radio special with special guest commentaries by Vice
President Dan Quayle, Josh McDowell and John Elephante, to name a few;
comedy spoofs; reactions by the band and much more.

We're also in the process of reviving the E-Schlitt-Bay Auctions! MJ is hard
at work automating this entire program so it will run similar to EBay's
auctions, complete with online bidding, bid confirmation and outbid
reminders. I still have a drawer-full of Petra memorabilia to auction off,
so when that program is ready to go - we'll let you know.

Don't forget to check out our "Asked & Answered" feature right on the
homepage, where a new question from the Petheads is put to John every
Monday.

As always, thank you for all your support and interest in the site - we put
a lot of work into it and it's great to see that it is appreciated.

Sue Dempster & Michael Jones, webmasters