Things to consider if producing an internet radio show

How we do it

Running an internet radio station is great fun but also for small operators like us at Affinity Radio it can be very time consuming. Live shows from the studio are bounced up to our Cloud server then out to the world, this enables the Cloud to fill in any gaps if the LIVE broadcast drops out, so you should never hear dead air. Prerecorded shows are usually sent to us via Drop box, we-transfer or other file sharing system. We then have to remove all dates, editions etc so that the file title is set to a predefined format (defined by us). We then drop these (mp3) files into our presenters folders then the clever stuff happens.

Automatically add meta data

Data from each show gets transmitted with the music and is displayed on our on line player so we need to make this sensible for the listener, this is often not done by show presenters. 

We used to do this manually which as you can imagine took ages.

We use SAM Broadcaster Pro as our broadcasting software since 2010. We have found that this software can also re write the files with the appropriate data in seconds so that the listener will be able to see the artist name, the show title, presenters picture or Affinity Tile. There is additionally space for website links and much more.

Upload to the Affinity Cloud

Once the metadata is correct we upload the completed mp3 to the Cloud server. The server analyses the file and normalizes the volume so that it is in keeping with the other output on the system so sound levels are at a constant output volume. This is great however if the presenters voice level is low, the system can't compensate for this.

Scheduling

Each show has its own slot (or slots) on the server so times are set automatically when the show is uploaded. 

Things To Consider

So, you have made your show, recorded it onto mp3 and sent it out, fantastic. Making the program for free is amazing, stations like ours are self funding so we can't pay as it costs us a small fortune to keep on the air. Here are a few things to consider when doing your shows.

• keep file naming consistent
• make sure the microphone level brings the voice volume slightly above the maximum music level
• remember to keep the file size to the station maximum output "quality", in our case 128 kbps as it keeps files small and some cloud systems have upload "caps" that prohibit files above certain levels so, again the poor old station manager has to convert these down to an acceptable size.

Contact Us

If you found the information useful, would like to get a show on air, or would like to know more, please email me at studio@affinityradio.net and put "Blog" in the title and I'll get back to you.

Cheers

Dave Kelly

Presenter and Technical Manager

Affinity Radio

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