Oldies 77 On Live365

[CaptainFirstReturns]

Shameless plug, ahead...

It's my station on Live365, playing mostly 60s & 70s Top 40 material (on average, no more than 2-3 50s records out of every 20). I'm trying to create a "what-if" station, namely, what if WABC in New York had flipped to oldies instead of talk back in 1982? Playlist changes every two days, except for the weekends, when Sunday has an all-70s list, then the new list kicks in again on Monday. If I'm hitting either the reverb or the compression too hard, would appreciate being told so so I can adjust accordingly. Went to this format just
two weeks ago, and have seen my TLH more than double, so, I must be doing something right, right?

Stream is 56K/Mono, with audio run off the board into an actual AM radio, then into the computer for recording. Station is at:

http://www.live365.com/stations/gmkevin711?play

 

[RadioMan203]

While the music mix is fine, you really need to do something about the audio quality on some of the tracks. I just sampled Freddie and the Dreamers and it sounded like I had a dozeen blankets over the speakers. The Ad Lib's Track "Boy from NYC" also sounds dreadfully muddy as well as ELO's "Strange Magic". It's was way too muffled. I confirmed this on two differrent players.

Perhaps it's your source material? It sounds like an AM radio rebroadcast on an AM radio and taped on a cassette. Some of the other songs sounded much better in comparison. The mismatched audio quality won't help you retain listeners.

 

[CaptainFirstReturns]

While the music mix is fine, you really need to do something about the audio quality on some of the tracks. I just sampled Freddie and the Dreamers and it sounded like I had a dozeen blankets over the speakers. The Ad Lib's Track "Boy from NYC" also sounds dreadfully muddy as well as ELO's "Strange Magic". It's was way too muffled. I confirmed this on two differrent players.

Perhaps it's your source material? It sounds like an AM radio rebroadcast on an AM radio and taped on a cassette. Some of the other songs sounded much better in comparison. The mismatched audio quality won't help you retain listeners.

Yeah...I'm aware of this, and am working on it by tossing everything I have out and redoing all the songs, which is a bit of a pain but really does need to be done. Source material is indeed an issue, so anything that's not good enough to air is getting dropped completely.

Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated.

 

[RadioMan203]

It's like anything, it takes time. It took me almost two years of planning and work to get my station on back in 2001.

Originally the audio software I used required all the audio in a special format. I had to buy a 100 disc CD changer and play my entire music library into the computer. It took WEEKS and I still had tracks I had to re-encode back into the box. I'm so thankful I can now use either mp3 or wav files.

Good luck with your fine tuning.

 

[CaptainFirstReturns]

It's like anything, it takes time. It took me almost two years of planning and work to get my station on back in 2001.

Originally the audio software I used required all the audio in a special format. I had to buy a 100 disc CD changer and play my entire music library into the computer. It took WEEKS and I still had tracks I had to re-encode back into the box. I'm so thankful I can now use either mp3 or wav files.

Good luck with your fine tuning.

Yikes! Two years...wow.

Anyhow, thought I'd mention a few things. One, I have a new and much better microphone, so voice-overs sound much improved. Two, switched from using Freecorder to Audacity for recording music, again, a definite improvement. Three, am about to start a new playlist with about 60 new added records.

 

[RadioMan203]

Audacity is suppose to be a great program although I hadn't used it. I used another freeware program on the Mac platform, Amadeus Pro, as well as Adobe Audition 1.5 (newer versions just doesn't seem as intuitive).

I don't think I heard any voiceovers except the Live365 canned stuff, so I'll have to take a listen to hear your new mic.

Yep, the two years it took for me was getting music together and into the computer (much of it was vinyl transfer and restoration), building the studio and saving to get the audio processing chain I wanted. A couple of years ago I re-ripped the entire on-air library as I moved to a more modern automation system and that went much, much faster.

I'll have to give your stream a listen.

 

[CaptainFirstReturns]

Just another shameless plug ....I just upgraded the stream to 128k and stereo, that along with some newer equipment has really, I think, improved the sound of what I'm doing...and I must be doing something right, because my hours for April so far are almost doubling March's, which in turn, doubled February's.

 

[deltas69]

i'm an old rock jock from the 60's/70's and i'd love to throw a internet station up..got 4500 songs, 400 vintage spots, and couple hundred classic jingles..it's sitting here on my hard drive..i've looked at the usual suspects, live 365, shoutcast, loud city, etc..what do you guys use, recommend, or advise ? from what i've been able to research..looks like it would cost a small fortune to stream my playlist. i can dedicate a pc to the stream so that's the only thing on it..i'm using dsl from at&t..i know i need a program like sam or ots..but it's the cost factor that conerns me..i don't understand how someone like me in the bedroom can do this and afford it..what am i missing ? thanks..chuck lundi

 

[RadioMan203]

With the recent increase in rates at Live365, I've decided to end my 7 year run with online radio. I'm actually taking a modified version of my "Oldies Revolution" format and moving it up to terrestrial AM radio, with reverb and all! With the RIAA/SoundExchange bent on trying to screw webcasters any way they can I'm just tired of the battle (the RIAA's own greed is the main reason for the increases).

If you plan on running a "hosted" station (all content on host server play it and their own ads) Live365 is a pretty decent choice. Running a live stream like I've been doing can be a crap shoot between latency and total network failures, not to mention ISP and host server/network problems.

The fun had started to die years ago but it was the last 8 months that started me thinking about why I was doing it all. If you have the cash to do it, more power to ya. I've just decided that my own personal resources are better focused on something with a more tangible return on investment.

This isn't to say the entire webcasting experience wasn't fun, but I can easily get back into the game and get paid for working in radio instead of paying to "play" radio.

 

[CaptainFirstReturns]

Bill, I agree with you about the rate increases, the RIAA is really getting greedy. That said, for me at least, the monthly expense of Live365 is worth it right now. If I lived in a building where a Part-15 strength signal would go more than a few dozen feet (my window faces another building that's right across the way), I'd go that route, which is something I've done with some success in the past. Should I ever find myself moving somewhere where Part-15 is more practical for me, I might very well make the switch back.

 

[deltas69]

paying to "play" radio...so what exactly does it cost to get one up and keep it running? i see there are a lot of stations of all formats on the major sources..i can understand an existing terrestial station sending a stream out..but the guys that are doing it from the baement/bedroom etc..what are they paying? i'm not up to speed on the tech end of "servers" and this statement crap shoot between latency and total network failures, not to mention ISP and host server/network problems. i'm on the talent/programming side and in real radio, we jocks didn't care a lot about the engineering side of things back then..thanks

 

[RadioMan203]

Deltas69,

Just to give you an idea, here's where you can see the latest pricing from the Live365 service:

https://store.live365.com/orders/orderform.live

Mind you, these are the rates for those in the "hobbyist" class. Those who don't qualify for these rates (groups, profit and non-profit organizations, companies, radio stations, etc) must purchase "professional" class streaming, which is more costly and may or may not include royalty coverage.

As far as network latency goes, this is the delay from your own "server" (the computer at your location sending the data stream) to the "distribution server" such as the Live365 server farm. Data streams can suffer from dropped data packets and while in some instances the stream can recover (or maybe not even be affected) with an increase in dropped packets or excessive traffic on the network the data stream will fail.

I've seen this as one of the major internet backbone providers would have a piece of network hardware partially or totally die, leaving users in the dumper. This is a concern if you're trying to stream from the East coast over to servers on the West coast. The more "hops" (places where your data goes through a network device) between the start and end points, the more likely you'll have a place for potential data failure.

 

[deltas69]

thanks for that site..hadn't seen that one..but could you explain what those numbers mean ? in the P5 catagory, i see 2500 mb of storage i assume, with a 45 hour playlist..i have over 20 gigs of music,spots,and jingles..i also see 100 basic listeners and then 60 live listeners..does this mean only a 100 people can listen at any given time with this package ? sorry to be so ignorant in this area..but not sure what all these figures mean in real radio sense to me..thanks again.. ???

 

[RadioMan203]

thanks for that site..hadn't seen that one..but could you explain what those numbers mean ? in the P5 catagory, i see 2500 mb of storage i assume, with a 45 hour playlist..i have over 20 gigs of music,spots,and jingles..i also see 100 basic listeners and then 60 live listeners..does this mean only a 100 people can listen at any given time with this package ? sorry to be so ignorant in this area..but not sure what all these figures mean in real radio sense to me..thanks again.. ???

At each specific service level you get a certain storage capacity for doing hosted (i.e., "basic" mode) music streaming. The amount of play time you get will depend on what bitrate you encode your music files. The higher the bitrate of the files, the shorter your total playlist will be. Of course, the higher the bitrate the more fidelity you'll get at the listener's end.

Total listeners are just that. If you use basic mode streaming you'll get the 100 listeners max given your P5 service tier example. If you stream live and use your account in either "live" or "relay" modes you'll get the lesser number specified for that level.

You may wish to check the online FAQ and order info on their site if you need more detailed specifics for starting an account. Live365 use to have a trial account, but I don't know if they still do.

 

[deltas69]

i'm beginning to get an idea..but if a hundred listeners is all i could get...it's not worth the time or expense..i've had four times that at an american legion dance on saturday night..i'm a professional jock used to five to eight share numbers..but there is not any kind of oldies/past rock/classic hits..whatever format in the nashville area..i have some corporate level interest in underwriting an internet show with my format..but if the audience is that small, there's no use in getting one up and running..what are the listener numbers i see on live 365 that show several thousand ? that has to be costing someone serious money if i'm looking at the fees correctly..thanks again..pj

 

[RadioMan203]

Looking at the straight math, yes, to get any serious audience numbers will be a high cost on a monthly basis. This is true whether you go with Live365 with bundled streaming and royalty coverage or with another "hosting only" streaming company and do your own royalty reporting and payments. Keep in mind, Live365 prices are lower for "hobbyist" webcasters as opposed to others. If you were to get underwriting you would probably not qualify for the hobbyist rates anyways, so your costs have gone up further still.

The greedy SOBs at the RIAA are making it difficult and expensive to do webcasting, which is why I'm pulling the plug on my oldies webstream in June. It's all about money and it's taken the fun out of it for me.