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Getting Noticed

C

Chuck

We've been streaming our over the air FM radio station for a bit over a year now. Things seem to be going well, as we get emails every day from on line listeners. But I'm wondering if there are any tips or trick to getting people to discover your station? If you know what to look for, we are easy enough to find on Google, Yahoo, etc. Several Internet Radio Directories list us too. But if you don't know what to look for, we're invisible.

I'm not sure how people even find us the first time. I suspect that word of mouth is our best promotion. But maybe there are other ways. What do you guys do to get noticed?
 
Do you make any money off of your internet stream?

Didn't think so. Worry about getting people with diaries to listen to your FM stick.<P ID="signature">______________
</P>
 
> Do you make any money off of your internet stream?
>
> Didn't think so. Worry about getting people with diaries to
> listen to your FM stick.


Probably good advice. To my amazement, we have had a few people make donations through Pay Pal. Others have sent us music that was good enough to play on the air. One listener did a series of liners for us because he like the way we sounded. They were great. We've even had some equipment donations through it.

But you are right, it isn't a profit center. If anyone figures that out, we might have something.
 
I've been riding around looking for TV live remote shots. When the camera is live, I jump into the shot hollering and waving a sign advertising my webcast.

Bad publicity is better than no publicity at all.


KL

<a href="http://home.nc.rr.com/gttyson/lastradio.html">The Last Radio Station<a>
 
> I've been riding around looking for TV live remote shots.
> When the camera is live, I jump into the shot hollering and
> waving a sign advertising my webcast.
>
> Bad publicity is better than no publicity at all.
>
>
> KL
>
> The Last Radio Station
>

LOL, great idea. :)

Like Sam mentioned, it's good to get people with the diaries. If only Nielsens had sent me a radio diary, lol. Anyway... what kind of music do you play? Depending on your genre there are a variety of opportunities that you can look into (remotes, sponsorships or special events).

And I strongly recommend offline promotions. They are the coolest and definitely make your station stand out. I won't lie, it's definitely not a easy process but it will pay off.<P ID="signature">______________
</P>
 
> Like Sam mentioned, it's good to get people with the
> diaries. If only Nielsens had sent me a radio diary, lol.
> Anyway... what kind of music do you play? Depending on your
> genre there are a variety of opportunities that you can look
> into (remotes, sponsorships or special events).

We're a jazzy Adult Standards station. No elevator music, just pretty much all toe tappers. A listener discribed as "like listening to the Ed Sullivan Show." It's music most baby boomers grew up with, but when they were younger, it wasn't cool to admit that they liked it. By age 45 or so, who cares what's "cool?" Now, it is OK to listen to Ella or Sinatra.

Most of our listeners are from age 45 to deceased. I don't have any big complainte about our stream numbers. We're consistently ranked about 1200-1400 on Shoutcast reports. That's not great, but it isn't awful either. We never intended to be a "number one" station, and the Internet is not a revenue stream.

Mostly we are just filling a niche in our community with our FM signal that nobody else bothers to address. We are much more interested in our local audience than we are about our Internet listeners. On the other hand, we get emails every day from all around the world. We seem to have lots of Australian listeners for some reason. I'm not sure what to do with it, but it is intriguing. Maybe it could be turned into something positive.

Chuck
www.kzqx.com
 
> Do you make any money off of your internet stream?
>
> Didn't think so. Worry about getting people with diaries to
> listen to your FM stick.
>
Your point is well taken, but I'm still wondering if there are any search engines it pays to submit to, Internet radio station guides, etc.? I've found a few, and I'm sure we get quite a few listeners from being listed by them. I'm wondering what I'm missing? Maybe it is something obvious.
 
> Your point is well taken, but I'm still wondering if there
> are any search engines it pays to submit to, Internet radio
> station guides, etc.? I've found a few, and I'm sure we get
> quite a few listeners from being listed by them. I'm
> wondering what I'm missing? Maybe it is something obvious.

Publically list yourself. If you use shoutcast/icecast you can set it to report your usage to shoutcast.com. Live365 likes to promote their stations, too.<P ID="signature">______________
</P>
 
> Publically list yourself. If you use shoutcast/icecast you
> can set it to report your usage to shoutcast.com. Live365
> likes to promote their stations, too.
>
As far as I know I've already done that. You can find us on Shoutcast, and we even show up in their weekly ratings. We even got an "Editors Pick" from Real Player.

We also stream via Windows Media, but I haven't discovered any way to get listed through Microsoft. Maybe I'm missing something. I'm just wondering if there is anything more?
 
> > Like Sam mentioned, it's good to get people with the
> > diaries. If only Nielsens had sent me a radio diary, lol.
> > Anyway... what kind of music do you play? Depending on
> your
> > genre there are a variety of opportunities that you can
> look
> > into (remotes, sponsorships or special events).
>
> We're a jazzy Adult Standards station. No elevator music,
> just pretty much all toe tappers. A listener discribed as
> "like listening to the Ed Sullivan Show." It's music most
> baby boomers grew up with, but when they were younger, it
> wasn't cool to admit that they liked it. By age 45 or so,
> who cares what's "cool?" Now, it is OK to listen to Ella or
> Sinatra.
>
> Most of our listeners are from age 45 to deceased. I don't
> have any big complainte about our stream numbers. We're
> consistently ranked about 1200-1400 on Shoutcast reports.
> That's not great, but it isn't awful either. We never
> intended to be a "number one" station, and the Internet is
> not a revenue stream.
>
> Mostly we are just filling a niche in our community with our
> FM signal that nobody else bothers to address. We are much
> more interested in our local audience than we are about our
> Internet listeners. On the other hand, we get emails every
> day from all around the world. We seem to have lots of
> Australian listeners for some reason. I'm not sure what to
> do with it, but it is intriguing. Maybe it could be turned
> into something positive.
>
> Chuck
> www.kzqx.com
>

Haha, I think this thread was a PR stunt to get noticed even more. You guys sound like you're doing a great job. Keep up the hard work. :)<P ID="signature">______________
</P>
 
> Haha, I think this thread was a PR stunt to get noticed even
> more. You guys sound like you're doing a great job. Keep up
> the hard work. :)


No, not a PR stunt. But thanks for saying something nice. I wasn't looking for a compliment. I'm just trying to learn something. Sometimes people on these boards have interesting ideas that I've never thought of. I'm not all that creative myself, but I usually know a good idea when I hear one.
 
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