Interesting read on the postings in this thread.
What I've found in the past 40+ years of involvement in Part 15 radio is that some stations are what we call "one man band" operations where one individual does it all and it works fine for them. Other Part 15 stations have a staff of volunteers who work in tandem with the owner of the station and perform various functions as agreed upon.
My station falls under the latter category; we have a staff of 17 volunteers who work as a team to put out a respectable product for our listeners. What I've found is that delegating authority helps to spread out the work load thus making it feasible to maintain a large operation consisting of two studio/control rooms and a transmission room. Aside from the General Manager, we have a Program Director, Chief Engineer, Music Consultant, Producer in addition to the complement of Talent (Fancy name for Disc Jockey's), Operating Engineers (That's right, the jocks don't run their own boards) and various support personnel.
If everyone is on board with what their responsibilities are it will be a smooth running operation and you'll have no worries. We always encourage our staff to make suggestions since people tend to support what they help to create.
Just adding my 2 cents.
That's highly unusual, gamewell, in my experience. Some licensed non commercial stations don't have as much help. You obviously have a well run operation, and a number of community members who really care (which is absolutely necessary).
There was a low power (licensed) station on Saltspring Island in my locale that eventually fizzled out and went away because they had difficulty in recruiting volunteers. Part of the problem, I think, was that the station was right in the center, between Victoria (the capital of British Columbia), and Vancouver, with metropolitan Seattle not far away. As such, there were radio stations galore to choose from. In areas not so well served the end result might have been different.
Artisan Radio, you are correct; sometimes finding volunteers who'll commit themselves to an operation can be a very challenging task to say the least. I'm fortunate in that many of the volunteers come from a radio background and they have a love of the craft. For us, its over 40 years of building up the station from a three man operation running on Friday's and Saturday' at the outset to a 24/7 operation that's part live and part automated staffed by 17 committed volunteers.
If you or anyone else here is interested more in our station, I'll post the website for the station; it's chock loaded with pics, audio clips, video's and all kinds of good stuff.
www.wbxoclassicrock.com
gamewell in charge of entertainment
Here in the U.S. we are having a holiday, and gamewell said: "If you or anyone else here is interested more in our station, I’ll post the website for the station; it’s chock loaded with pics, audio clips, video’s and all kinds of good stuff."
Yes, please.
Looks impressive.
If your FM station an LPFM or Part 15?
More More
gamewell, your website is almost complete and by the way I love it!
The one more thing we'd like to see is an engineering section showing the transmitter crew, transmitters, and towers!
Me I'm a one man band automated running 24/7
Playful Giggly Manager
Most of the year KDX signs off the moment I get sick of hearing the best radio programs on earth, then I watch film noir movies on YouTube, which no big time manager could get away with.
But when overnight temperature drops below 39 Fahrenheit I now keep the machines running all night for the extra degree of heat they blow.
At first I was overwhelmed trying to select appropriate overnight shows but then found my stash of programs by Tom Smith of Whidney Air, a former LPFM station in Washington State, and I load the night with his great shows.
My success is going to my head.
Carl, thanks for your kind words; I'll speak to our webmaster and see about posting a pic of the transmitter/Antenna and crew (two people). (I'm assuming you mean the local community FM I'm the chief at and not the part 15 I run?)
Glad you enjoyed the website; it's the result of a lot of hard work on the part of the staff.
Artisan Radio; to answer your question, the station is a part 15/internet based operation. As you can see in the pictures, we use a lot of old radio equipment which works well for us.
The station is located in the lower level of my house; I decided to build it there as opposed to a small barn on my property for ease of use and keeps me out of the cold weather in the winter time. This current facility was constructed in 1997, an upgrade in 2015 with the addition of a second studio.
Gamewell,
The headshot of Laura Picardo at https://www.wbxoclassicrock.com/personalities shows an Avaya 8410D phone in the background.
Are you are running a Avaya Definity / CM at WBXO?
I maintain a network of the beasts at the day job, so it kind of stood out
SP
Both Stations for Sure
gamewell wondered: "I’m assuming you mean the local community FM I’m the chief at and not the part 15(?)"
By all means also the Part 15 because, even though the transmitter is comparatively small, we wonder where you put it? Is it on the floor where it can be stepped on? Hanging on an undersized window sill where it might drop? Outdoors on a pole with rain and ice?
And the antenna, if it is a plain wire, how are you making it stand up?
Quick question: Did your team write the statement of policy at https://www.wbxoclassicrock.com/policy or was it farmed out to an attorney?
I need one for CDL was curious if we could use the WBXO document as a starting point for our attorney.
SP
I wrote the statement of policy originally 35 years ago; there have been several modifications since that time.
Spareparts, that photo was taken at our place of full time employment and not at WBXO.