As a station owner, I thank you for your support of Internet Radio.
BTW - i've had people in New Zealand call me up before because they heard one of my dj's play a song that they had not heard in over 20 years. That makes my week because something that my station did touched another.
For those that say "I wanna listen to what I want to listen to" I say this:
Fine. Make a request. And if the station doesn't have the song, then so be it and tune into another station.
I always welcome input from listeners. Hell, I had one that had protested "Under My Thumb" because they said it oppressed women. I posted the email and my response to it proudly.
9412, Radio Paradise, DI, Club977 and others are communities and everyone is welcome to be a part of them - donor or not.
Do you have a media kit? Do you have a rate card for your spots? If you answer yes, then are they on your website?
If you do not have these things, then you have to create them. There's a slight problem.
Once you go "commercial" AOL/Nullsoft will cut your streams. Happened to me and Wolf FM and a few others in the summer of 2003. They cited the terms of the agreement were broken yet there was no agreement I signed or saw. Same with the others.
So, if you go to getting donations or commercial advertisers be prepared to find your own bandwidth - FAST.
My name is Chris J. Popp and I own 9412 - The Rock Station. We've been on air for over 6 years, and I have co-organized two internet radio confrences.
I'd say 95% of the stations out there do not care about making money with their station, they just want to be able to play music and share a dream they have had. Yes, there are stations that raise money or sell commercials and 9412 is one of them. But it costs money to be able to do Internet Radio.
I've seen a few posts about quality of the station in terms of bitrate. With Internet Radio, which is digital, you do not have signal loss or skip. You either get it or you don't. Some stations broadcast at 128k or 320k which can look impressive but elminates a lot of listeners out there and unless you have a trained ear you won't tell a difference.
320, IMHO, is a bit excessive. The stream cost more at about $8 per which is nuts when you look at a 56k stream which is going for approx 90 cents to $1.50. More listeners can be reached with a lower bitrate that still sounds good.
Most stations out there are iPods or jukeboxes that play randomly and have no real feel to it. That is true. 9412 - The Rock Station has 140 hours of live dj's on it's schedule every week. Last I checked, no one else matches that. Oh yeah - we actually interact with listeners by having a dj in a chat room, take requests via IM and email and we check our ego at the door. Lets see your local CC station do that. That's right - you won't because it's corporate "station in a box" radio.
WOXY, Wolf, Y100, DI, Radio Paradise, Club977... these stations are some of the best out there. That's because they have a desire to do well and take it seriously.
Why should Internet Radio be given any special rights? We should not. 9412 pays the Big 3 license bodies - just like FM and AM stations in the US do. I've had stations say "we do not want the competition there" when I have approached organizations such as concert organizers, festivals and similar events.
To me, those stations just put us on the same level playing field as them and see us as equals.
Why have you not heard of many stations yet in the public realm? It comes down to money. Ask ANY internet station owner if they had a choice of spending $$$ on advertising on a bus or getting more streams to accomidate the people (remember them?) they will say more streams so fast it will make your head spin.
I've seen some talk about Internet Radio being able to turn a profit. Here's the thing:
Listeners -> Advertisers -> Money for streams -> Listeners
You have to have a good listenership number to get Advertisers. 50 listeners once a week will not bring in a Fortune 500 company let alone the local book seller.
Get the advertisers, that will bring in the dollars. You need to have a sales person that knows radio and has the contacts with ad buying firms and the advertisers themselves to be able to get them on board. Also, a media kit and rate card will help and DO NOT cheapen yourself. Don't charge $27 for a:30 (which is a rate in a market of say 100,000) but go $9 per:30. Better yet, get sponsors for each hour so you don't have to have commercials. FYI - 9412 only will ever do 4 minutes per hour of commercials. Period. CC and other corporate stations do 12 mins per hour.
Got the money, then you can improve the station. Buy more music so you have a larger play catalog (we've got 15,000 songs) and put the money into giving prizes to the listeners and doing more for them. Get more streams to increase the level of demand you can accomidate.
But, it all starts with the listeners. Without them, the circle is broken and you won't get to do the other stuff. Get the other stuff, then you get more listeners.
Can't hear a Internet station without a computer? BULLS
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As a station owner, I thank you for your support of Internet Radio. BTW - i've had people in New Zealand call me up before because they heard one of my dj's play a song that they had not heard in over 20 years. That makes my week because something that my station did touched another. For those that say "I wanna listen to what I want to listen to" I say this: Fine. Make a request. And if the station doesn't have the song, then so be it and tune into another station. I always welcome input from listeners. Hell, I had one that had protested "Under My Thumb" because they said it oppressed women. I posted the email and my response to it proudly. 9412, Radio Paradise, DI, Club977 and others are communities and everyone is welcome to be a part of them - donor or not.
Do you have a media kit? Do you have a rate card for your spots? If you answer yes, then are they on your website?
If you do not have these things, then you have to create them. There's a slight problem.
Once you go "commercial" AOL/Nullsoft will cut your streams. Happened to me and Wolf FM and a few others in the summer of 2003. They cited the terms of the agreement were broken yet there was no agreement I signed or saw. Same with the others.
So, if you go to getting donations or commercial advertisers be prepared to find your own bandwidth - FAST.
Hi all.
My name is Chris J. Popp and I own 9412 - The Rock Station. We've been on air for over 6 years, and I have co-organized two internet radio confrences.
I'd say 95% of the stations out there do not care about making money with their station, they just want to be able to play music and share a dream they have had. Yes, there are stations that raise money or sell commercials and 9412 is one of them. But it costs money to be able to do Internet Radio.
I've seen a few posts about quality of the station in terms of bitrate. With Internet Radio, which is digital, you do not have signal loss or skip. You either get it or you don't. Some stations broadcast at 128k or 320k which can look impressive but elminates a lot of listeners out there and unless you have a trained ear you won't tell a difference.
320, IMHO, is a bit excessive. The stream cost more at about $8 per which is nuts when you look at a 56k stream which is going for approx 90 cents to $1.50. More listeners can be reached with a lower bitrate that still sounds good.
Most stations out there are iPods or jukeboxes that play randomly and have no real feel to it. That is true. 9412 - The Rock Station has 140 hours of live dj's on it's schedule every week. Last I checked, no one else matches that. Oh yeah - we actually interact with listeners by having a dj in a chat room, take requests via IM and email and we check our ego at the door. Lets see your local CC station do that. That's right - you won't because it's corporate "station in a box" radio.
WOXY, Wolf, Y100, DI, Radio Paradise, Club977... these stations are some of the best out there. That's because they have a desire to do well and take it seriously.
Why should Internet Radio be given any special rights? We should not. 9412 pays the Big 3 license bodies - just like FM and AM stations in the US do. I've had stations say "we do not want the competition there" when I have approached organizations such as concert organizers, festivals and similar events.
To me, those stations just put us on the same level playing field as them and see us as equals.
Why have you not heard of many stations yet in the public realm? It comes down to money. Ask ANY internet station owner if they had a choice of spending $$$ on advertising on a bus or getting more streams to accomidate the people (remember them?) they will say more streams so fast it will make your head spin.
I've seen some talk about Internet Radio being able to turn a profit. Here's the thing:
Listeners -> Advertisers -> Money for streams -> Listeners
You have to have a good listenership number to get Advertisers. 50 listeners once a week will not bring in a Fortune 500 company let alone the local book seller.
Get the advertisers, that will bring in the dollars. You need to have a sales person that knows radio and has the contacts with ad buying firms and the advertisers themselves to be able to get them on board. Also, a media kit and rate card will help and DO NOT cheapen yourself. Don't charge $27 for a :30 (which is a rate in a market of say 100,000) but go $9 per :30. Better yet, get sponsors for each hour so you don't have to have commercials. FYI - 9412 only will ever do 4 minutes per hour of commercials. Period. CC and other corporate stations do 12 mins per hour.
Got the money, then you can improve the station. Buy more music so you have a larger play catalog (we've got 15,000 songs) and put the money into giving prizes to the listeners and doing more for them. Get more streams to increase the level of demand you can accomidate.
But, it all starts with the listeners. Without them, the circle is broken and you won't get to do the other stuff. Get the other stuff, then you get more listeners.
Can't hear a Internet station without a computer? BULLS