Entertainment > Drama > INTERVIEW WITH NIMA MOAEDI BY SHABNAM REZAEI
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If
you have still not heard of Mystery
4 Radio, then it is time you give it a shot. Truly
a multicultural station with music for young and old, this
jukebox was the creation of Nima Moayedi. A resident of
Irvine, California, Nima is a true music enthusiast and
got his rhythm cravings at an early age. Although he confesses
he knew nothing about the radio business, his radio station
sounds as professional and lively as any other. They are
incredibly responsive and all about their listeners. This
week, we had a chance to find out a little bit more
about
this mystery man.
PersianMirror: Where
did you grow up and how did you end up in Irvine?
Nima
Moayedi: My family and I left Iran in early
1979 – when I was 5 years old - and moved to London.
We were there until 1987 – so for elementary
school and the first part of my teenage years.
In 1987, my family decided to move to Irvine
in California. I spent the summer of 1987 adjusting
to life
in “America”. I went to High School
in Irvine; attended the University of
California – Irvine for both Undergraduate (studying
Political Science and Law and Criminology) and graduate
degrees (MBA). The only thing I miss about London
is their accent. Unfortunately I lost my English accent
sometime in the
10th grade. While I wouldn’t want to live there – visiting
is always a blast.
PM: Can you tell us a little
about how you got started in radio?
NM: Sure.
I actually don’t do anything even remotely related
to Radio as part of my “day job”. The radio
came about a few months ago when I was coming back from
the dry cleaners. I was in the car listening to a mix that
I had made and thought that I wish there were some way
for more people to listen to my mixes. By the time I got
home, I had decided that starting an online radio station
would be the fastest, easiest and most cost effective way
of getting people to hear my music. By the time I had read
up on all the different software that was needed to stream
and figured out the “how to’s” of setting
up an online radio station – I had decided that for
my test I would play Persian music. I ran the test and
it worked. From that point on – I stuck with the
Persian Music. It has been such an incredible joy to play
the music for fans and music lovers all over the world.
As the radio grew and more and more people started giving
me feedback, I decided to leverage my very close and dear
friendship with Armin Hashemi of Avang Music Company and
our partnership in Mystery 4 to get the word out about
M4 Radio
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PM: Who
do you work with and how did M4 get started?
NM: M4,
or Mystery 4, started 10 years ago. There were four of
us at the time…myself, Armin, Arash and Kourosh.
We basically wanted to produce and promote the biggest
Persian events and parties in the LA and Orange County
areas. At the time, I wasn’t especially keen on anyone
knowing who we were – so that’s how the name “Mystery
4” came about – the so called “Mystery” was
supposed to be the anonymity of the people behind these
big events – but that didn’t last too long.
In fact, by our first event, the “mystery” had
pretty much vaporized. Over the years we have been fortunate
enough to throw some of the largest and most successful
parties and concerts in Orange County, Los Angeles and
Las Vegas. M4 Productions also produces music videos for
artists like Omid, Dariush, Andy, and many others.
PM: Who
do you admire most and why?
NM: That’s
an easy one, my father. He is the corner stone of our family.
If anyone ever needs anything, they go to him. If anyone
ever has a question, they go to him – and the scary
thing is that he always has an answer (and his answers
are always right). You can rely on my father for anything.
He has truly been a guiding light in the lives of both
myself and my brother. He is a remarkable man.
PM: How many listeners
do you have? Can you share any interesting stories about
them?
NM: The
number of listeners is growing daily. I started out playing
music and announcing
when only around 10 or 15 people would visit the site on
any given day. The last stat that I looked at showed over
1,500 unique visitors to the site in one day. Now, all
of these people don’t listen to the radio simultaneously – but
through the course of one day, we do get a lot of traffic
to the site.
Our listeners represent fans from over 22 countries from
around the world and at any given time, we’ll
typically have listeners from 10 or more countries listening
simultaneously.
As far as the listeners themselves, all I can say is that
I’m thrilled that they are enjoying listening to
the music, as much as I enjoy bringing the music to them.
I have received hundreds and hundreds of e-m
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