When WBOR station manager Mason Daugherty got a notification of a spike in listenership to his small station, he assumed it was spam. However, after a little digging, he found out that it was legitimate: Thousands of new listeners were tuning into WBOR, the college radio station for Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. And it was causing his servers to melt down.
He then discovered the reason for the newfound popularity — a game called “The Internet Roadtrip,” where players collectively navigate a virtual car by voting on which direction to go in or to either honk or change the radio. The virtual car was now on a course through Maine and was tuned into WBOR.
Host Robin Young speaks to Daugherty, who has since graduated, about the moment and excitement, and Neal Agarwal, who created the game.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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