Well, I took the jump and am joining the ranks here officially as a Part15 broadcaster.
Transmitter is sitting around at UPS waiting for delivery service to resume.
Opted for the Talking House 5 unit since it's an entry priced thing and true and tested. Not expecting much from the unit, but it will be a start 🙂
Working on lining up program scheduling (mainly sourcing content and laying out the schedule and planning for live content and local stuff).
Since I am in a mixed ethnic area (growing younger African American community and older European retirement age) with a blue collar type demographic looking to bring some content I believe is suitable/educational while still entertaining.
Looking to do a few hours (4-8) of jazz (Saturday night) and reggae music (Saturday morning) a week along with several more of acoustic and singer songwriter with emphasis on world music.
Doing IRNUsa news at the top of hour (5 minutes) followed by NOAA weather (current conditions followed by forecast). Jim Hightower fill in pieces
Shopping around now looking for Patriot and freedom focused shows that are both informative and entertaining (too much simple gloom and doom and yelling ... ahh Jones).
Aiming for a hybrid mismash of stuff on the station. Urban but smart but also entertaining.
Goal is to produce at least 2 hours a week of local content at first. Might mainly be news type content to start and ideally talk format later.
How does that sound? Would you be a listener?
I'm always interested in alternative radio stations, particularly ones that carry jazz. Will you have an Internet stream?
However, the key to everything, if you want listeners other than yourself and family and friends, is to get the word out. Particularly if you're including local content. Contact your local (preferably community) paper - they're always looking for stories. Talk to local business establishments, particularly ones that play music in the background, such as coffee places, eateries, etc., and see if they would be interested in playing your station. Put a business card and/or flyer up on local bulletin boards. Even licensed local radio stations might be interested in putting in a plug for you, especially if you convince them that you're not competition and doing something for the community.
The problem with such radio sites as TuneIn and the like is that little stations with limited coverage just get lost in the crowd (with over 30,000 stations and growing). You might get a few listeners that accidently stumble across you, but that's it.
And just as food for thought, a mish mash of programming is all very well and good. But directed programming, with a specific set of listeners in mind, might get you more overall success, if that's what you're looking for - one successful example that's been reported here on the Forum is the play by play of local high school football games. And Artisan Radio achieved its greatest number of simultaneous listeners (100+) with special event programming - a weekend of all Cliff Richard music, which featured new interviews with Cliff himself and former members of his band (aided by coverage from the Cliff Richard fan club and the Cliff Richard facebook page).
Looks like you're well on your way...I have about 3 to 5 hours local programming on my 880 AM station (Liberty Radio) and I use LRN.FM as a feed for the rest right now. I'm gradually moving toward 10 hours, but that will be some time down the road...LRN.FM provides linking via streaming or satellite link (my choice). Keep up the good work and welcome aboard!
Looks like you're well on your way...I have about 3 to 5 hours local programming on my 880 AM station (Liberty Radio) and I use LRN.FM as a feed for the rest right now. I'm gradually moving toward 10 hours, but that will be some time down the road...LRN.FM provides linking via streaming or satellite link (my choice). Keep up the good work and welcome aboard!
Thanks @ArtisianRadio! Planning on the internet streaming probably first. Expecting it to take weeks to month to get transmitter positioned and best/perfect and determine what other pieces needed and get them all wired and in place.
I grew up as a baby being put to bed on jazz. I love it, although not a 24x7 thing, it is a fall back to standard.
Getting the word out here will be hard as it's a strange demographic. Good think is most homes have AM receivers.
We have a local newspaper, but it's a soulless out of town owner chain and it's readership has to be dwindled to nearly nothing. Would contemplate bothering with them when coverage of signal is the whole town and adjacent towns. Live amongst 4 towns clustered together. A single LPAM signal might cover 1/4-1/5 of the single town. Not huge places, but not exactly dots for towns either.
Not much in the way of establishments to promote at either. Those are in the other town up the road with stronger middle class demographic.
As for local radio here, there is none. The dial is all Cumulus and Clear Channel. Other than a college NPR affiliate that plays mostly classical music.
Agree about the programming mismash and direction. Trying to balance the puzzle. Clearly interspersing music with talk is one part of it, as is the local content.
Collectively in the 4 town area here we have oh, 40-50k people. In the town I am starting in, 12k plus another 5k that overlaps where close. It is high density population (4k people per square mile).
So, all that said, there was for decades an AM station out of this town. They had a morning two guy talk/news format show. It was alright and probably top show in the entire county. Cumulus killed that along with all but one show somedays at like 5PM. Entire rest of schedule is mass syndicated crap.
So, big opening/void.
The high school games wouldn't be bad idea. Was actually a high schooler who was doing game broadcasts via his Iphone or similar a few years back. Might look him up to see what ever became of that and if still going, great!
Really interesting stuff @amradioman. Have you done any write ups or been on Low Power Hour yet? Interested in hearing about your collection of stations and how you are managing it and what the outcome has been.
Depending on where I place the transmitter, might be running a solar powered setup myself. Goal long term is to run it all offgrid.
LRN.FM, I like, but worried about some of the language and topics. I think they cross lines for many folks and might raise problem flag.
You are grabbing LRN off satellite? What sort of gear are you using to do that? FTA satellite? All running off grid also?