Creation of a radio station. From idea to implementation
Hello! Many, probably listening to the radio, had a desire to create their own radio station. I had such a desire 7 years ago, imagining myself to be the director of a large radio station, where only my favorite music is played, where people call and say hello. My father took off children's “pink” glasses from me - he explained that for this you need to register a radio wave, purchase a huge amount of equipment, negotiate with the copyright holders for music, and all this must be accompanied by huge wads of money in different cabinets with uncles in ties. This is how childhood dreams are crumbling, but the “pink” dream has turned into a careful consideration of the possibility of creating a radio station. And only this year I got like-minded people, and we began to implement the ideas accumulated over a long time.
During the implementation of ideas, I encountered a problem that there is not so much useful information on creating web radio, mainly copying articles or a very superficial description. Many cones have already been hit, and still I continue to encounter some problems, the solution of which I have to look for myself. So that other users will have fewer problems in the future, I suggest you listen to a series of articles that will describe all the stages of creating Internet radio. Each article will represent a separate stage: from the idea to implementation, from the selection of music to legal issues and, possibly, we will touch upon the topic of creating a real radio station.
I plan to complete the series of articles, as well as all organizational and legal issues, by December. Topics to be covered:
- Idea
- The choice of broadcast technology
- Server selection and configuration
- Choosing Live Streaming Software
- Studio: choice of place, repair, equipment
- Website development for a radio station
- Selection of music, the formation of the ethereal grid
- Legal issues
- Work with advertisers
- Conceived and unrealized
In this article, all initial plans for creating Internet radio will be announced.
Idea
The idea does not claim to be unique, but I wanted to create my own youth Internet radio, where in addition to music there will be live communication, where there will be their own RJs with good diction and a good sense of humor, where there will be no strict censorship frames and there will be little advertising.
Music
One of the most important aspects when creating your own radio station is the style of music. Since I and my associates love dance music, I accordingly chose this direction, it is quite extensive and if you twist all the tracks in a row, you would get a vinaigrette, and this could kill the interest of the audience. Therefore, it was decided to break the day into different styles of dance music:
- in the afternoon - popular club music (Electro, House);
- in the evening - music that works well and surfs the Internet (Trance);
- in the early night (23:00 - 01:00), when listeners are going to sleep - calm, relaxing music (Lounge, Dub);
- late night - music not to fall asleep (Drum'n'Bass, Techno, Hard Style);
- morning - immortal hits 80s, 90s, 00x in modern processing or without it.
Radio show
The main emphasis is on high-quality music, but also great attention should be paid to radio programs, because we are creating an interactive radio station. The show should be with humor. Gear Ideas:
- Greetings and congratulations (2 airs every day);
- News feed about club events (1 time per week);
- Radio shows with DJ famous and not very (2-3 times a week);
- Humorous program about cars in the style of “Top Gear” (1 time per week);
- For those over 20 (1 time per week, after midnight).
Technical implementation
To start the radio station, use a dedicated server on which software for broadcasting non-stop music with the ability to connect for live broadcasts will be installed.
On a computer that is broadcasting live, software must be installed with the ability to work with a microphone. Make calls to the studio (Skype, mobile phone), communication in ICQ, as well as through the feedback form on the site.
Creation of a site on which there will be a grid of broadcasts, voting for tracks, a poster, as well as a feedback form for communicating with a radio host.
The main criterion when choosing a provider for a dedicated server is a wide return channel. When broadcasting with a quality of 192 kbps. for 1000 listeners, the channel must be at least 188 Mbit / s.
Legal issues
From the very beginning, we did not want to have problems with the law, so it was decided to obtain permission from the copyright holder for each song that will be broadcast live. How and with what success - I will tell in one of the following articles.
Along with this, it was planned to register a legal entity for the “white” work and the payment of all taxes.
Money issue
We all understand that you have to pay for everything. From servers and domain name to RJ paycheck. It’s unlikely that anything will happen on bare enthusiasm and with an empty wallet, so at first we were ready to pay money from our own pockets and work in the “minus” until advertisers appeared on the horizon. Yes, we decided to include advertising on the air, but it was unanimously decided that it should be as small as possible, because we know how boring it is to listen to advertising every 20 minutes of air time.
In order for advertisers to pay, it is necessary to achieve a certain popularity of the radio station and a stable number of listeners. Here promotion is important to bring the listeners, and RJ's work so that the listener wants to return. We understood this and tried to approach work with responsibility.
The main goal we set was to let all the money received into the development of the radio station, and not the purchase of Mercedes and Lexus.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I want to apologize for the superficial presentation of the material and the lack of technical details. This is the announcement of a series of articles, so starting with the next article, the technical side of creating an online radio station will be published.
The main inspiration for the creation of online radio was one radio station from Krasnoyarsk. Let this not be ideal and RJs and they are not professionals, but on their example we decided to launch our station.
In the next article we will talk about network broadcasting technologies, a comparative description of the two main technologies Icecest and Shoutcast, as well as a detailed description of their installation and configuration will be provided.
Thanks for attention!