Article: College radio isn't always 'on the radio'

In this case, it streams it's programming.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/e...heads-off-the-dial.html?scp=3&sq=radio&st=cse

You may have to register(free)to read the above article.

Without reading this article, let me just say I think streaming is becoming a very viable way for college stations to operate - regardless of whether they can afford a broadcast license.

I recently (finally!) got a smart phone with the internet on it. I got the "tune in" streaming radio app and was pleasantly surprised to find two local college stations streaming on there that do not have broadcast facilities. They sound great.

It occured to me that a lot (vast majority?) of college kids these days don't listen to FM or radio at all, but do listen to music on their smart phones. My guess is that it would not be hard to get a college station on an app like that and market it to college kids. It's portable, live and sounds great. What more could you ask for on a small budget?

tested said:

What more could you ask for on a small budget?

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Depends on what you mean by "small budget." College radio isn't exempt from digital streaming royalties. So if the college station is going to play music, they will have to pay for the music. Streaming royalties are higher than OTA publishing royalties. That why a number of colleges have chosen not to provide online college radio stations. Surprised it wasn't mentioned in the NYTimes article.

All true, but the cost of paying for online streaming is a lot less than maintaining even an LP transmitter + broadcast royalties.

All true, but the cost of paying for online streaming is a lot less than maintaining even an LP transmitter + broadcast royalties.

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That's not necessarily true. Depends a lot on how many web listeners vs. how many radio listeners. An LPFM in anything approaching an urban market will have much lower total cost-per-listener than a popular web-only station will.

But for most colleges, you're probably correct. Most web-only college stations don't have all that big an audience listening at any one given point, so they don't need a huge (and therefore expensive) capacity for streaming. Plus a lot can defray the cost by running it through an existing campus streaming architecture. Plus there's a lot more liability issues with a broadcast license (EAS, public file, staffing requirements, indecency/obscenity, commercial/non-commercial) than with a web-only station.