Category Archives: Starting a radio station

For many listeners around the world, Internet Radio forms a central part of their daily routine. In times of crisis, Internet Radio can play an important part in their lives. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect individuals negatively worldwide, preserving internet radio services has never been more important.

Now of course Internet Radio Stations can not replace the AM-FM Emergency Broadcast systems as they are set up to continue to transmit even though there is may be no power. These systems remain highly effective in alerting the population that is under distress by providing specific and clear actions on how to proceed.

However, thanks to advancements in many areas including technology, internet radio can still provide an essential role in crisis situations.

It is a Beacon of Information

In emergency situations, one of the most important sticking points is information. The sooner people can get access to the information they need – the better. Internet radio is a modern, convenient, personalized way for people everywhere to stay informed. In 2020, 90 percent of the global internet population accessed the internet with a mobile device. Internet radio stations today usually ensure that their broadcast signal is available on smartphones, therefore reaching people in case of an emergency easily.

It is Decentralized

Unlike traditional radio, internet stations don’t rely on massive, centralized networks and similar infrastructure. Outages and technical issues are far easier to overcome.

It Combines the Best of Local and National

Internet radio combines the global reach of national services with the personal touch of local stations. Listeners have more control than ever before over the stations they listen to and the information they choose to consume.

This makes reaching people during a crisis much more efficient. By reaching out to the right communities, people can be brought up to date in a language, attitude, and style they understand.

They Build Communities

The localized feel of internet radio can instill a powerful sense of community among those who tune in each week. At a time where global catastrophes put increasing strain on our mental health, these sources of comfort are vital.

Start an Internet Radio During a Crisis With Radio Solution

Starting an internet radio during pandemic times is easier than you might think. Get in touch today and we’ll give you everything you need to get up and running.

Radio station Sweepers

If you’re not in the radio broadcasts niche, the term radio station sweepers will likely make you envision a janitor who comes by the end of a day to clean up the studio. If that is what you perceived, not to worry, you’re not alone! There exists so much jargon used in the radio broadcasts industry, it’s challenging for someone outside the industry or anyone looking to start a career in radio to realize what it all means.

A radio sweeper is a recorded statement by a voice over artist identifying the brand name of a radio station along with a tagline or short phrase. It often comes to less than 20 words in total and can be combined with sound effects and effects on the voice (for example stereo phasing, echo or pitch shift to name one or two).

A radio sweeper is a short, pre-recorded sample used by radio stations as segues between tracks that give listeners a brief channel identifier or promo, usually 20 seconds or less.

An example of a radio sweeper is often as follows:

• You’re listening to your number 1 radio station.
• We play the best music of the 90s.
• visit us @ radiosolution.info.
• Don’t Touch That Dial you’re listening to.
• You’re listening to the soft sounds of ‘name’ radio.

Why Do You Need Radio Sweepers?

Radio sweepers enable listeners to identify which radio station they are hearing. This is important for market research when audience are asked to recollect their favorite radio station during polls.
When you’re playing a set of melodies back to back you should aim to pinpoint the name of your radio station in between each track. Radio sweepers are perfect for this need. They do the job quickly and let you get back to the music as soon as possible. You can have radio sweepers designed in a way that it’s possible to lay them over the top of the intro to the next music track (before the vocals begins). Some clever radio automation software packages can even play radio sweepers that mix seamlessly from track to track right up to the vocals of the subsequent track.You need radio sweepers to remind your listener of what they’re listening to and can even give them a call to action.

Think of what you want your listener to do.

Radio Sweeper Call to Actions

Listed here are some ideas of calls to action that could be used in your next radio sweeper:
• You could ask the listener to visit your site.
• Get the listener to follow your social media profiles.
• Ask the listener to call in to the radio station.
• Word of mouth to get the listener to tell a friend.
• Stay tuned.

Effective radio basically comes down to this make people enjoy tuning in to your station and by making your station very listenable. Radio sweepers helps you to build a great brand signature, comfort zone and program flow. That is, if radio sweeper is well-produced, regularly programmed and functionally used. If you’re searching for powerful voices to take the sound of your station to the next level, look no further than www.radiosolution.info

You can also visit one of our voice over projects by Dibblebee at www.djdropsandjingles.com

How to distribute your Radio to an Audience

Tuning into the radio is easy. Is it as easy to listen to your internet radio station?

Tuning in to a Traditional AM-FM radio has always been pretty simple, find a radio, pull and stretch the antenna, dial to a station with a good signal and boom you are tuned to your favorite radio station. However, nowadays AM-FM, satellite and internet radio stations are broadcasting their audio signal continuously over the internet. This means, that more and more people are listening to the radio differently because of new technology. Let us consider how to distribute your radio to an audience on the internet.

Making your radio station easy to tune into is a priority for all radio station owners. That is why it is important to make sure you are using the latest technology in media distribution. This means that your signal is available on the latest platforms, operating systems and smartphones.

Current Technology

The current audio streaming formats are MP3, Windows Media Audio, Ogg Vorbis and aacPlus, just to name a few. The data is sent from your audio console, mixer or broadcasting software via the internet to a streaming server which reassembles the TCP or UDP packets and rebroadcasts the audio to the audience a second or two later. This delay is called lag and is a normal stage of digital audio broadcasting.

The quality of your sound will depend at which bit rate that you are encoding your audio signal, but it also could impact your audience’s ability to tune in depending on what type of internet connection they are using to connect to your radio station. Some examples of bit rates are: 32 kbps, 64 kbps, 96 kbps, 128 kbps, 192 kbps and higher. If your audience is located in modern countries with good quality internet connections you will want to select at least 128 kbps for a stereo quality sound. If your audience has a limited or poor internet connection then you will want to lower the bit rate. Keep in mind that the quality of the sound will diminish as you lower the bit rate.

Your audience will need to tune in to your radio station with as much ease as possible. There is a wide variety of ways to tune into internet radio. We will touch on the most important ways. The main way you want your listeners to tune in, is via your website. In the past, it was difficult for your listeners to tune in, because so many types of software existed that was not included on every computer, let alone smartphones. Radio stations offered a link to tune in for Windows Media Player, Real player, QuickTime and Winamp. Later on, Adobe Flash offered some hope for compatibility issues, making it a little easier to tune in directly via an embedded player in your browser. Unfortunately Adobe Flash turned out to be a memory hog, causing many radio stations to lag, sputter and buffer. Many smartphones would not even support Flash.

HTML5 Players

Now thanks to HTML5, you can embed audio playback directly in your website. And it works a whole lot better than Adobe Flash and the older music player applications! Even iOS and Android smartphones now support HTML5. A simple Google search for “free html5 SHOUTcast player” will give you many results to choose from. There are all kinds of players available that will surely be a great fit for your website.

For example Radiosolution.info offers a solid FREE SHOUTcast player here

https://radiosolution.info/wp/free-shoutcast-player/

All you need to do is enter in your station details and the online form will return back by email the HTML code that you need to put in your website. If you want, you can purchase the full version and get an auto play, custom social media links and streaming song titles. The price is a one-time fee of $39.

Making your radio station easy to listen to is one of the principal keys to your success as a radio station owner.