Following up my appearance on Flipside on TV2 last night, there were some questions that viewers sent in, which I’ve answered to the best of my ability via email to TVNZ. They’ll be posting that on the website today, but I’ve included my responses here as well for general information purposes.
Of course – feel free to email me and pick my brain further about any of this stuff, or simply leave comments below.
Can you give me some links to government website for how to take steps into developing a radio station and rules and regulations?
The actual rules at the Ministry of Economic Development website. This is the “General User Radio Licence for Low Power FM Broadcasting Short Range Devices”
Essentially, you can broadcast on these frequencies:
88.1 to 88.4 and 106.7 – 107.7MHz.
If you’re over 120km away from the Sky Tower in Auckland, you can add 88.5 – 88.7 to your range of options. You can only broadcast 500mW of power. That’s half a watt. Don’t interfere with anyone else’s signal (that’s just good manners) and let the Ministry of Economic Development know what you’re up to. They can actually be quite helpful.
Remember too that you’ll be subject to the rules about broadcasting standards. The BSA website might be worth having a look at just to make sure you don’t get yourself into any trouble over what you say.
Also – just to play it safe on copyright, get in touch with the nice people at APRA. Email Anthony Healy about licensing. He’ll be really helpful and explain music copyright way better than I could. And tell him I said hi.
What equipment do i need to start broadcasting and how do i do it? i have a computer and 2 cd players and headpiece microphone 4 computer.
All you really need now is a transmitter and somebody who knows how to put it all together. And something to say. If there’s a hobby electronics store near you – say, Dick Smiths or something like that – have a chat to the people behind the counter. They often know all sorts of useful stuff and might even be able to point you towards somebody that can help you put it all together. There are also professional radio technicians out there, if you want to go down that path, though obviously, that’ll be more expensive.
I have been running a station called The Noise FM for nearly 7 years now. I have been away for quite some time with no access to the equipment previously available to me and wish to get things up and running again. We have a website running which is www.thenoise.co.nz and i am wondering if there are any directions you could give me in order to help me get it running. The co-manager of the station is currently studing broadcasting in Auckland so that we have expeirience on site but we NEED to move now if we want to acheive our goals.
Good on you. I’ve got an enormous amount of respect for anyone who’ll just get out there and do it. You’ve also hit upon the most difficult aspect of running a radio station – how to pay for it? You mention goals. That’s a good thing. Make sure you’re absolutely clear about what those goals are. Write them down. Make sure you all agree on them. Then you need to plan a strategy on how to achieve them. You have to work out what you want to run a radio station FOR. Sounds simple, but most people don’t do that first.
Is it an expensive hobby? Do you want to turn it into a career? Do you want to get it going, so you can sell it later for a huge profit? Are you trying to cater to a wide audience, or fill a need for a niche audience whose tastes aren’t being catered to? How do you feel about ads? What sort of ads won’t you take?
Most importantly – who could possibly benefit from giving you money to take your message to the people you broadcast to. Start with that, get it all down on paper, then set up meetings with the people who have the chequebooks. If you want to run it like a business, you’re going to have to play by the rules the big boys play by. Good luck – and go for it!
How do you get hold of a transmitter thing?
Good question. I’m not sure who’d be best for you. I would start by searching online for FM transmitters for sale. Ring a radio station and ask to speak to their technician. Broadtech, a company that specialises in radio technical service might also be very helpful. That’s who I got mine from.
Why do you say that the internet and other broacast mediums are not radio and will never take off?? Hasnt the precise meaning of Radio taken on other forms, and why do they have to ‘not have a screen’? Companies such as philips have already created radios that connect to a broadband internet connection and connects to 1000’s of internet ‘radio’ stations from countries all round the world. People can connect to these same stations on the move using a palm top PC, and it will only be a matter of time before the cost of doing this comes down dramatically. Seting up an internet radio station is much cheaper to set up and operate and you get listeners that you can interact with from all around the world. Places such as www.shoutcast.com can help people with instructions on how to do it.
Shoutcast is a great system, and I listen to a number of stations online. I don’t think of it as radio, though. Radio is this thing that I can carry around with me, or listen to in my car – something that is transmitted using radio signals through the air. The internet is something else entirely. That’s data streamed over telephone lines that typically gets received through a stationary desktop computer.
Likewise, I also watch animations online – but I don’t call it television. There are a lot of new radios that have little screens on them, but I don’t think that’s necessarily an improvement.
Radio is not something that you focus on like a TV – it’s something you have on while you drive, do homework, hang out with your friends. Apart from any technical differences between internet audio and radio, the social uses of different media are important to notice.
How we use radio distinguishes it from any other medium. Radio is most often an environment, not a focus of attention. It’s just how we as listeners use it. I don’t think that internet audio will never take off. I think it already has – and I love it to bits. I just don’t think it’s radio.
Why are some stations closer together than others on the FM band, like channel Z is right beside edge and the oldies station, but others are spaced miles apart. Is there a general movement to fit them in closer as people get better radios that dont have the old analog tuning on them?
That’s part of it – but the main reason is this. The Edge is a very popular station around the country, but they weren’t on in Auckland. The company that owns them wanted to get the benefit of the huge Auckland listenership, and were really keen to get them on air. That company, CanWest, also owns Channel Z and Solid Gold (as well as a few others like More FM, Radio Pacific and The Rock). Now, they could have just switched off Channel Z and put the Edge on that frequency if they wanted to, but they didn’t want to.
Instead, the engineers at Radioworks (which is the name of that group of stations) figured out that they could squeeze Channel Z in between the Edge and Solid Gold if they were very careful. The only reason they could get away with it is because if it interfered with its neighbouring stations, it wasn’t disrupting the competition, only their own brands.
I believe it’s still being tweaked, and the Ministry of Economic Development are looking at it pretty closely. There are theories that say we could get a lot more radio stations on the band now that everyone has these accurate tuners – but my old car radio couldn’t hack it. Most people have no problem, but for me, Channel Z’s quite hard to find.
My sisters and I want to start up a radio but we don’t know were to start could you please point us in the right direction?
Well, the first thing you need is a plan. What will you play? Who will your audience be? What will happen between 3am and 5am – all those sorts of things.
If you just want to try it out, why don’t you get in touch with your local access radio station? There’s a hospital radio station in Timaru that might let you sit in and get involved with them. That can be tremendously satisfying. Setting up a whole radio station is a huge commitment. Dream big – but start small.
Above all, the most important thing I can suggest is that if you’re interested in radio – spend time at a radio station. Go visit. Ask questions. Meet the people involved and pick their brains.
Find out about courses in radio. Of course, I think the one I teach at AUT is great (Bachelor of Communication Studies) – but there are others around too, and these might be more suitable for your situation.
Read about radio. There’s a book called ‘The Shoestring Pirates’ by Adrian Blackburn at your public library. It’s about the early days of Radio Hauraki and how four guys who really wanted to get into radio and fight the system, went to sea and broadcast from a boat. Real adventure story stuff. People were arrested. People made great radio. There were shipwrecks. People even died. That story’s legendary around the world – and it’s a great example of kiwi ingenuity and a handful of people who were passionate about radio just giving it a go.
And more than anything else, listen to radio. Listen to all sorts of radio. Find radio stations online that stream on the internet. There are links to all sorts of radio resources on my weblog, where I talk about a lot of these issues. There’s a lot to take in, but if you’re passionate about it, go for it.
There’s nothing I’d rather be doing.
