It's Halloween and guess what will shortly follow? Christmas music on the radio. When I was growing up and when I began my career in radio, holiday music would not begin until after Thanksgiving. A Christmas song would be heard once an hour beginning the week after Thanksgiving and increase as we got closer to Christmas Day. Today, some radio stations switch to all Christmas music shortly after Halloween. Why do they do this? The answer is ratings and advertising. Typically these stations ratings jump when all Christmas music is featured during the holiday season. It's a risky move yet has proven to be successful in some cases. Lots of stations don't play any Christmas music because it real

What kind of microphone hook-up are you looking for, USB or XML? If you’re new to internet radio or podcasting, I recommend sticking with a USB microphone. USB mics are extremely easy to get started on your computer, with little or no software required. They are also a good choice if you have limited space. I use a Yeti mic and it does a nice job. Should you buy a dynamics or condenser microphone? Some consider this a preference decision. Dynamic microphones typically provide a more vibrant sound with a more casual feel, and condenser microphones are usually more clear but can pick up ambient noise as well. If you don't have a soundproof studio, you may hear hums, cars passing etc.

Thinking of adding a news service to your radio station. Running a station is hard work and making things effective but yet simple is a goal that we broadcasters always want to achieve. Associated Broadcast Consultants have put together popular news services from Internet and LPFM radio stations. IRN / Sky News Perhaps the most well known radio news service, IRN/Sky deliver a ready to air hourly bulletin 24/7. The service also includes regular audio and scripts on entertainment news, finance, technology and sport, including match reporting rights on the Premier League. Quality Quality is generally good – plus exclusively UK voices as far as we have heard. However we hear regular complaints

We've discussed this several times over the past few months. This is very dependent on the format you're programming and the audience your'e programming to. Several days ago, I "popped" on our local LPFM station here in Rehoboth Beach. They are now starting to include some local programming in their format. There was the parking or transit commissioner on (I believe that was her title) talking about parking problems and plans for the future in downtown Rehoboth Beach. I kept my radio tuned in. Why? because I am an active member of our community and interested in topics that affect me directly. This interested me as it would other members of our community. I was impressed by the interview and

When you run an internet radio, there really isn't much down time if you want to run a quality station. Sure you could set everything to run through your automation system and let it go on endlessly. You should be always thinking of ways to keep your programing. fresh. This could be just updating the imaging from time to time. changing the music rotation periodically, adding new music, or doing some advertising. Programming should be consistent but should also sound fresh. Keep thinking of new things that you can do to increase your audience. It will pay off!

As radio internet radio broadcasters, we rely on getting our stations listed in as many directories as possible in order to get the word out. Tunein and Itunes are one of the biggest internet radio directories. If you're a new station, you cannot submit your station to Tunein or Itunes until further notice. The reason is very unclear at this point. It you've been on the air awhile and are listen on Tunein or itunes, your station will remain in their directory. You can still make changes to your station on Tunein but cannot make any further changes on iTunes. If you are an existing Tunein broadcast and have a station listed there (your station starts with an ‘s’ followed by some numbers), the

As new music takes over the radio landscape and we grow older,the older songs have become a rarity on the radio. When I was growing up, we listened to top 40 radio and my parents listened to what was known as "middle of the road." These were stations that played primarily pop vocals like Andy Williams, Jack Jones and Steve Lawrence but also played pop standards like Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and Tony Bennett. These formats also thrived during the 50s and 60s along with rock and roll. As the music changed during the 70s and 80s, middle of the road formats were heard less and less on the radio and became what is known as "specialty formats." Some stations featured this music for a few ho

Under a change adopted by the FCC last fall, stations will no longer be required to abide by the decades-old main studio rule. In a 3-2 vote in late October 2017 the FCC approved the reversal of the 1939 decision that has required stations to operate a main studio within 25 miles of a station’s city of license. It also did away with the requirement that the main studio have full-time management and staff present during normal business hours. The trade off for that flexibility is a dictate that’ll be easily fulfilled by the phone company. The FCC says any station that moves out of its city of license will need to maintain a local telephone number in their community of license or else have a t

Today, I bet you that you cannot name one single radio personality on a music station that you must listen to everyday. Sure there are many hate spewing crazies out there that I'm sure you could name if you're into "hate radio." Growing up in the 60s and 70s, the air personalities playing my favorite songs were extremely special individuals. Why? Because they had the ability to entertain without being sarcastic, demeaning, shocking etc. They pulled their audience in by their warmth, and the ability to relate to simple everyday life. They were companions who followed us everywhere by playing great music, making us laugh and providing us with interesting information. Their timing was impeccabl

Over the years, Internet broadcasters were always faced with high payments to the PROS for the use of musical recordings. A few years ago Live 365 one of the largest services for internet broadcasters had to shut down their operations because of these rising and somewhat unfair costs. On Wednesday, the President signed the Music Modernization Act which can cause an additional rise in our costs. The new law is supposed to ensure that artists get paid for their work. One new additionis that we will now have to pay royalties for music prior to 1972. The law is supposed to level the playing field for royalty distribution but what will be the affect on streaming services? We will find out soon.

The days of going to a radio station and doing a radio show are really changing. With the digitization of the industry, your morning guy may be in Atlanta while your afternoon DJ my be in Los Angeles. Fifteen years ago, I would never be able to conceive of this concept. Edgewater Gold Radio is run from my home studio. Here's an example of how remote broadcasting works. I use Nextkast as my radio automation program. It runs all of my radio programs. The database is on the system and so is a voicetracking module. Whether you are doing a music show or talk show, it still can be done from remote locations. Remote DJ's and radio personalities can be connected using Nextkast ( or other automation

When I worked at a country radio station back in the 1980's, I was always told how dedicated country listeners are. They are committed to their music, listen longer than listeners of other formats and don't like it if a song doesn't sound "Country." Today things are a bit different. Country music listeners are still dedicated but the music has changed a bit. Country sounds more like country rock rather than traditional country. There are now several groups of country listeners. Mainstream country listeners, listen to the contemporary country of today. They account for the majority of country listeners. However there are "specialty listeners who prefer traditional country or country music of

Before computers took over most of the programming in radio, we had to rely on analog equipment and ourselves to produce a quality radio show. Way back when I was young in 1978, I got my first commercial radio job on a local FM station in Sussex County, NJ. All of the music was played on vinyl records located behind the turntables. Commercials, liners and jingles were played on tape cartridges located in a large carousel located next to one of the turntables. I did the 11pm - 6am shift on the weekend. One evening, as I was playing the 12 inch single of Gloria Gaynor's I will Survive, the catastrophe struck. I always loved that song and wasn't paying attention\to the fact that I had a commer

Radio listening statistics in this day and age are a bit more complex. Social media and internet radio has joined the force of radio and music listeners. Statista.com has put together some listening trends in 2017. Radio is the third most powerful medium in the United States, reaching 54 percent of the country’s population daily. In comparison, over 75 percent are reached by television, while social media accounts for 45.7 percent. Online radio is playing an increasing role in the radio market, with an estimated 61 percent of the U.S. population listening to online radio in 2017. American radio stations generated a total revenue of almost 15 billion U.S. dollars in 2016, of which 810 million

You get in your car and turn on your FM radio, Some stations have good sound quality but others come with thumps and vibrations blasting through your speakers. Is loud necessarily better? Absolutely not! Some stations sound garbled and loaded with base. Some almost sound distorted. I compare Edgewater Gold Radio and other Internet Radio Station's sound with "on the air" FM.s. In most cases the internet stations sound better. Why? because we concentrate on quality sound and clarity. We may not be as loud but loud is not necessarily better. There are processors that will enhance a stations sound but the key is the settings. It takes time to adjust the settings for that "almost perfect" sound

We turn on the radio and we instantly hear talk or music. Terrestrial broadcasting is very different than broadcasting on the internet. The audio is sent to the transmitter and is sent over the air where anyone in the signal area can pick it up. The drawback is a limited reception area. Internet Radio transmission is different. Here's how it basically works. The audio enters the Internet broadcaster’s encoding computer through a sound card. The encoder system translates the audio from the sound card into streaming format. The encoder samples the incoming audio and compresses the information so it can be sent over the Internet. The compressed audio is sent to the server, which has a high band

I once worked for a pop vocal/ big band AM radio station in the 90's and early 2000's. The station had private owners who really could not retain an effective advertising department. Another problem was that the station's signal did not effectively cover their official coverage area. It's 10,000 watt signal would reach into Long Island and Connecticut but was very unstable in Bergen County NJ where the stations studio's and transmitters were. Little by little infomercials began dotting the stations landscape. The music would stop at the top of an hour and an infomercial would play for at least a half hour.Dozens of listener complaints poured in. I expressed my concern to the Program Directo

In the late sixties when I was listening to pop music, there was a small country station in North Jersey, WJRZ in Hackensack that played country. The pizza place across the street from where I lived had it on all the time. I actually like it. Artists like Conway Twitty, Marty Robbins, Johnny Cash , Tammy Wynette, Patsy Cline, Don Williams would ring in my ear while sitting at the counter with a school friend and eating pizza.. That was my first introduction to country music. Few stations in New York played country during the 70s, There usually was one. I was re-introduced to country in 1978 when I got my first radio job of WSUS in Sussex County NJ. This station was called "town and country