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Real Time Distribution for a Syndicated Show

Mike Phillips

Mike Phillips

A friend has a regionally syndicated weekly radio show that is distributed by CD. He would like to investigate real-time distribution. My technical knowledge of what goes on inside today's radio stations is outdated.

If he were to distribute the show via the Internet, do most stations have sufficient hardware and bandwidth to broadcast directly from the Internet? There are numerous streaming companies that deliver high quality streams for a reasonable price. The best part of this solution is that if a station has an Internet connection, implementation is trivial.

Back when I was in the business, satellite time was very expensive. Now, based on the very limited research I have done, it's much less so. What satellite services can most stations access without having to buy hardware?

If you have any recommendations or links, I would appreciate hearing from you.
 
I think you'll find very few stations will be willing to air a streaming audio feed (i.e. Windows Media, QuickTime) no matter how "high quality" it is. There's just too much that can go wrong to make streaming acceptable as a real time terrestrial broadcast link.

Now if you're using a dedicated system (i.e. Zephyr, Tieline, Barix, etc.) it's a different matter if you use the Internet as those products are designed to deal with the bandwidth unpredictability.
 
I've broadcast over the internet with a simple Windows Media stream, but only with a live op on both ends. Of course, an op on both ends is much cheaper than satellite time, which still runs hundreds of dollars per hour.
 
Mike...

I agree with Rob...at this point I don't believe the public Internet is reliable enough for live program distribution.

One of my clients has decided to end CD distribution of a Country Music show. They decided to switch to satellite to start hoping to move everybody to a web download or FTP download. Almost half the stations have told us that they would use the FTP download.

If the show does not have to be sent in real time a FTP download may do the trick. A file hosting setup like MediaFire.com might also be an option.

Otherwise satellite is the way to go. I like Citadel Media (was known as ABC Satellite Services). Clear Channel Satellite is also an option. Dial Global will sell occasional time as well.

Test123
 
Up until now the program has been produced in advance. And the cost of producing and shipping CDs has been part of the formula. If going fully live is not critical to the future of the programming, I would vote for the FTP of files in advance. With the growing popularity of Podcasting, I assume there has to be more and more technology and off-the-shelf programs to streamline the distribution process in FTP or some kissing-cousin variation of FTP.

I don't know if NCEs and LPFMs are any part of your venture, but there is this curious little concept that drives me nuts but there are claims the FCC accepts this concept. And commercial stations may find the "loophole" interesting if congress and/or the FCC moves forward on the topic of localism.

LPFM rules clearly require that a major portion of programming be "locally produced". And yet a major portion of the LPFM population consists of religious programming produced by national centralized ministry organizations. Here is the logic that I have trouble wrapping my arms around. If programming comes in by FTP or Sattelite or some other means and is delivered to your hard drive, and sits there for maybe an hour, and then it is called up by the automation machine, It is considered locally produced because it is origination from your local hard drive.

Things that make you go: Hhhmmmmmmmmmm....
 
We use a mono high bitrate mp3 stream to air Michael Groff live, and it works poorly. The main problem is with the tones not always being recognized or recognizing them too often. However if you were to "boot" the affiliates from the shoutcast server going into each break it might work, albeit with bad timing.
 
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