FREE Programming Service Available to Community Radio Stations

Hello.

I wanted to let everyone on this forum know about a free programming service available to noncommercial campus, community and public radio stations called Global Community Radio, or, GCR.

GCR is a non-profit, noncommercial internet based radio station founded by Jason "Jake" Longwell, and based ini New York's Finger Lakes region. GCR proudly makes its programming available for free to any community radio stations wishing to retransmit the audio during hours when no live or local programming is broadcast.

What really makes GCR stand out is that all of our shows are fully hosted. We feel this makes for far better radio rather than just running an automated playlist when local volunteers are not available to do shows. We have assembled some of the highest quality internationally syndicated programs into two 24/7 program streams. The shows are organized in such a way so that most of them are in blocks with a common sound or theme.

The two streams of GCR are:
GCR1: News, Informational, and Educational programming from around the world.
GCR2: An all music stream with a wide variety of genres, all arranged in a block style program schedule.

Stations may use as little or as much of GCR's programming as they wish. Also, you can use programming from just one stream, or, use programming from both streams, as your needs dictate. All you have to do is to be able to connect to our internet streams with your automation software. We have found most software programs can do this, including freeware such as Zara Radio.

GCR is primarily aimed at licensed, over the air LPFM, Class D, and Noncommercial/Educational stations who want to air fully hosted programming during automated hours, but who do not have the time or the staff necessary to download hours upon hours of programming, even if that programming is free. We inset top hour legal IDs for all terrestrial stations using the service.

If your station is interested in using this free service, then please find more info at our website:
http://globalcommunityradio.blogspot.com Contact info is also on that site.

I thought I would post about GCR here, as there have been many interesting discussions about community radio on this forum, and, I know there are a lot of station managers and volunteers who hang out here. I want to help community radio in any way I possibly can, while at the same time, helping a lot of unknown programming to gain more exposure.

If anyone is interested, then I hope to hear back from you!

Jake Longwell
GCR Station Manager

Just curious; as you know, doing news or music as a network is expensive. What's your financial support model? How do you make money to keep the lights on and people behind the mic?

Your question is a logical one. Yes. There are expenses involved with this service. However, because I run this network out of my home, and am able to pay most of the expenses myself, there is no need to make money from advertising, underwriting, or by charging partner stations an affiliate or carriage fee. Global Community Radio exists to give stations a line up of fully hosted programs which they can run in place of an automated playlist. One of my inspirations for launching this service was The World Radio Network, or WRN. GCR operates on much the same principle as WRN, or the mostly Spanish language service Radio Bilingue, which is also available to noncomm stations for free. I admit that GCR doesn't have some of the "bells and whistles" that these other two services have. For instance, we're not available on satellite. But, then again, most of the stations we are targeting with the service do not have the funds to afford a satellite receiver anyway, but they can afford to connect to an internet stream. Likewise, I cannot afford the expense of a satellite uplink, nor do I have room on my property to place the dish and other needed equipment, even if I wanted to offer GCR on satellite. Plus, I would almost certainly have to charge stations a carriage fee, and that's something I don't want to do. Also, all of the programming we run is available to us gratis, so there are no carriage fees for any of the programs I am offering to stations. This, too, cuts down on operating expenses.