Radio Brandy Part15 AM-FM & Streaming

[RADIOBRANDY]

Radio Brandy as a broadcast network and training facility, our programming is carried on a network of part 15 AM & FM stations via streaming and 2.5Ghz wireless. A single part-15 station is not going to set the world on fire anymore than a single CBS station. But a network of well placed part 15 AM & FM stations becomes viable. Our stations are privately owned and all are capable of local origination. The transmitters are placed in underserved areas with limited reception or no local service. Our affiliates also have transmitters located in resort areas and campgrounds.
The advantage of over the air broadcasting is your audience is concentrated in a smaller geographic area. Your Streaming listener ship tends to be scattered all over the world. For marketing purposes it’s easier to convince a client to advertise on a station that serves a thousand listeners within a mile of his business than scattered around the world. For those who do it only as a hobby and need e-mails to prove you have an audience, then streaming might be the answer. But for those who might have to pay the bills over the air is still the best choice if you ever plan to make a dime on it.
Cost is another consideration, it cost allot less to operate a part 15 station than a Streaming station. Most of our transmitters can easily be solar powered including the pick up receiver. Check the power draw on your computer alone add that to the cost of streaming, It’s very expensive on a per a listener basis when compared to over air transmission. One of our resort transmitters has thousands of campers and RV’s within the coverage area. Operating cost is next to nothing when compared to streaming station with three thousand listeners on at one time.
Start up cost for Part 15 AM or FM is cheap when compared to a streaming station. You can have a Rangemaster turnkey set up for about $1500 complete with 2.5Ghz receiver link, solar power with battery back up.
An Sstran AM transmitter with Carl’s antenna can be had for around $600 bucks.
Compare that to the cost of dedicated computer, processing, software & a broadband connection and the streaming cost.
If each of our streams did not terminate with a transmitter or 2.5Ghz transmitter I would not waste the money doing it. Each of our transmitters on average has a thousand listeners in the coverage area.
My own mother can operate a radio with ease, she is clueless when it comes to computers.

Making the best of both worlds

Steve
Radio Brandy

 

[midwestclubber]

> Radio Brandy as a broadcast network and training facility,
> our programming is carried on a network of part 15 AM & FM
> stations via streaming and 2.5Ghz wireless. A single part-15
> station is not going to set the world on fire anymore than a
> single CBS station. But a network of well placed part 15 AM
> & FM stations becomes viable. Our stations are privately
> owned and all are capable of local origination. The
> transmitters are placed in underserved areas with limited
> reception or no local service. Our affiliates also have
> transmitters located in resort areas and campgrounds.
> The advantage of over the air broadcasting is your audience
> is concentrated in a smaller geographic area. Your Streaming
> listener ship tends to be scattered all over the world. For
> marketing purposes it’s easier to convince a client to
> advertise on a station that serves a thousand listeners
> within a mile of his business than scattered around the
> world. For those who do it only as a hobby and need e-mails
> to prove you have an audience, then streaming might be the
> answer. But for those who might have to pay the bills over
> the air is still the best choice if you ever plan to make a
> dime on it.
> Cost is another consideration, it cost allot less to operate
> a part 15 station than a Streaming station. Most of our
> transmitters can easily be solar powered including the pick
> up receiver. Check the power draw on your computer alone add
> that to the cost of streaming, It’s very expensive on a per
> a listener basis when compared to over air transmission. One
> of our resort transmitters has thousands of campers and RV’s
> within the coverage area. Operating cost is next to nothing
> when compared to streaming station with three thousand
> listeners on at one time.
> Start up cost for Part 15 AM or FM is cheap when compared to
> a streaming station. You can have a Rangemaster turnkey set
> up for about $1500 complete with 2.5Ghz receiver link, solar
> power with battery back up.
> An Sstran AM transmitter with Carl’s antenna can be had for
> around $600 bucks.
> Compare that to the cost of dedicated computer, processing,
> software & a broadband connection and the streaming cost.
> If each of our streams did not terminate with a transmitter
> or 2.5Ghz transmitter I would not waste the money doing it.
> Each of our transmitters on average has a thousand listeners
> in the coverage area.
> My own mother can operate a radio with ease, she is clueless
> when it comes to computers.
>
> Making the best of both worlds
>
> Steve
> Radio Brandy
>
If you want to be technical about it, you can start an Internet station for free, all you have to do is plug your I.P,,, to a Shoutcast I.P, and use your own available bandwidth. You can have a station streaming in 15 minutes. I dont know if its 100% legal that way, but those streams are hard to TRACE, and nobody really cares about Free Internet Broadcasting, as it causes no interference,,,(BMI cares a little). You can use Shoutcast to stream for free, all you need is enough Bandwidth to reach a few listeners, Somewhere between 5 to 20 listeners is what most cable modems can do, depending on your Connection and available bandwidth.

 

[RADIOBRANDY]

Re: Radio Brandy Part15 AM-FM & Streaming part 2

> If you want to be technical about it, you can start an
> Internet station for free, all you have to do is plug your
> I.P,,, to a Shoutcast I.P, and use your own available
> bandwidth. You can have a station streaming in 15 minutes.
> I dont know if its 100% legal that way, but those streams
> are hard to TRACE, and nobody really cares about Free
> Internet Broadcasting, as it causes no interference,,,(BMI
> cares a little). You can use Shoutcast to stream for free,
> all you need is enough Bandwidth to reach a few listeners,
> Somewhere between 5 to 20 listeners is what most cable
> modems can do, depending on your Connection and available
> bandwidth.
Radio Brandy does use that very method to serve our network stations,
we use the 2.5Ghz links to save bandwith and save on expensive internet connections. Our network broadband provider is Roadrunner(5megs down/380kbs up), only one outage in a year and half when lightning struck a power pole in Bakersfield. We were not alone every station in Bakersfield went dark for sometime.
Our sister station provides programming to the local mountain communities via a seperate stream. in many areas only one or two stations are available besides ours. We only promote the streams locally to save on expensive bandwith. We have areas here 30 miles from the nearest city that have DSL or broadband cable.
Our Ranch in the Antelope Valley 35 miles from Lancaster Ca. a neighborhood of only 30 homes has DSL. The small town of Trona Ca.(Pop 2000)at the mouth of Death Valley has both broadband cable and DSL and only few radio signals mostly fringe if any. I can think of hundreds of California towns that have limited radio service if any but have DSL or broadband cable, many of these small towns benefit greatly from a part 15 station (or close to it).
In most towns we trade advertising for a transmitter location and a shared DSL connection to feed a network of AM & FM transmitters via 2.5Ghz.
The only thing holding us back is funding, as transmitters and links cost lots of money. It is our intention to increase our broadband operation in 2006 as funding permits, including adding as many transmitters as we can afford.
I have no intentions of letting leaches like BMI,ASCAP or the NAB stopping us from our growth plans. As we grow we will continue to expose these larva for what they are. They can put up all the walls up they want I will find a way to climb over it! and work my way around it.
Amy of BMI has pushed one of my buttons, the one that says it's time to start my own record lable with our own stable of artist. Could you imagine an artist keeping most of the profits instead of some sleeze like Amy taking more than 80%.
Don't let Amy or anyone stop you from broadcasting, instead add another transmitter or two. Take Carl's advice play it safe and be reasonable, keep it clean no excessive power or triple X programming and most of all enjoy your radio station, the last thing you want to do is turn it into a job.

For the love of radio

Steve
Radio Brandy
P.S. Watch the last part of Pump the Volume.