Iron Range Country Year In Review

OK, only been on the air for about half a year, but still -- some general highlights and observations after half a year as a Part 15er, while still also being a 40+ year commercial broadcaster!

My Procaster has operated flawlessly and sounds darn good on the air to me, better than the commercial stations when in my primary coverage area.  Much nicer audio.  The Procaster has stayed on frequency in operating temperatures from 97 degrees in July with the sun beating down on it so who knows how hot it was inside that box!  To a low of 29 BELOW ZERO a couple weeks ago. And we're looking at similar low temps this coming week!

I'm running the station on a 5 year old iMac with Megaseg software. Has operated without so much as a burble the entire time.  It has no problem allowing me to do other tasks -- surf the 'net, download programming, etc while the station is playing.  I use the built in Time Machine software to keep an automatic, current backup of the entire station on an external drive which can be nearly instantly loaded in a different computer should there be a failure. I've used Apple computers for 18+ years with never a failure or repair needed, but if something happend I have several other Macs in the house that would quickly be pressed into radio station service. For live programming my mixer goes into the audio input on the iMac -- I just click the "live mic" button on the screen, and the mixer is live on the air. 

My backup power unit ran the station flawlessly for 3/4 of a day during a power outage with no intervention from me in any way. Had power to spare.

Got a nice front page article in the paper about the station, and the editor/owner is interested in producing a local newscast weekly for me to air, in exchange for a weekly ad for the station in the paper.

They're playing my station in City Hall, the stores on main street and the library office.  Also my audio is now playing on our local cable TV public access channel, which is just a bulliten board text channel except when they broadcast live city council meetings. Increasing coverage and awareness for very little $$ and effort.

I sold $180 in advertising in December. Easily covering ongoing costs for a year - although not covering much in equipment costs, but it's a hobby, so I don't expect that.  I did not solicit ads, people came to me.  Ads for the stores on mainstreet are free.  These were people out of the immediate area.  30 cents an ad. 

Pretty good run so far, I'd say!

Good luck to all for a successful 2014!

timinbovey

Iron Range Country 1620