This site was originally started as a place for Tony “Dio” Leonard to put his “MetalShop” articles online, which had appeared in various print publications up until that time. There was one other website around at the time that did something similar to what we accomplished (NCMetal.com, created by a friend of ours also from Wilson NC). NCMetal.com started having server problems on a quite frequent
basis, so Glen Stewart (STRANGELUST, DEVYCE) bought the domain name NCScene.com and started figuring out how to install a Snitz forum on the site. Server space at that time was not a problem for Glen, as he was working as a website developer at a web hosting company (of all places). The site was originally a place for a core group of musicians & good friends within the Wilson, Rocky Mount & Raleigh area to connect with each other and discuss the scene on a daily or weekly basis. Many of these same friends are the ones who worked together to bring you the NC Metalfests over the years, held at the Wilson NC Fairgrounds. We never really had any intentions of the site becoming anything other than that, but as the years went on, the site became more well known to all areas of North Carolina and the traffic increased greatly. As the site grew in popularity we added new writers such as radio personality Craig “Bam Bam” Stegall & regional concert promoter “Slim Jim” Keller, both of who now write for the more regional music website www.away-team.com. Keep in mind, that when this site was originally started times were quite different back in those days. In 2001, Google was not a household name as a search engine, MySpace didn’t exist, & the guys who created FaceBook were still in high school. The social media revolution definitely took its toll on NCScene.com’s traffic over the last few years though, instead of using NCScene.com’s forums to talk back and forth amongst friends & other bands, many users moved onto MySpace, FaceBook & other similar social networking platforms. In relaunching this site in mid-2011, we have attempted to go back somewhat to our core of covering the local rock & metal music scene, as we feel that there is still something there and still a way for a new version of NCScene.com to fit into today’s socially networked world. Instead of shunning all the available social plugins, we are welcoming them and building our site around them.
