The first thing to know about community radio is that it is different from commercial radio in three key ways, because it is:

1. Local
2. Nonprofit
3. Independent

Community radio is a labour of love: something you have to be passionate about.  

Unlike commercial stations with professional DJs and lots of ads, most community stations rely on donations and volunteer DJs and content contributors. That means they usually run on shoestring budgets, but offer a richer variety of programming than commercial stations beholden to mainstream formats. You’ll hear music ranging from jazz to underground hip-hop, classic rock to experimental modern music, along with local news, quiz shows and even some types of theatre on community radio stations. If you are looking for a way to share your interests and concerns with others in your area, community radio offers an unrivalled platform for creativity.

Sometimes community means a community of interest, like a specific musical genre, artist, politics or hobby. But most of the time, community means a local area. However you define community, the station’s programming should serve the people in it. What do they need to know? What stories are not being told by other media outlets? How can your station be a voice for those who don’t have one? (Another key principle of radio is that it is probably the most democratic medium in the world: see this UNESCO handbook on community radio for more background and fascinating case studies.)

Once you start answering those questions about how your station can serve your community, you’ll be well on your way to a programming schedule that is entertaining, informative and also popular.

Setting up a community radio station

Now that you understand the basic principles of community radio, you can start tackling the practical questions. How do you go about setting up a community radio station? What equipment do you need? And what legal permissions or licences are involved?

In some countries, community radio stations can be licensed to operate on low-power transmitters that broadcast over a limited range; the typical radius would be less than five kilometers. This is a good option if you want an FM signal based in a physical place. However, the procedure to acquire such a licence can be almost as complicated and time-consuming as for full-power stations.

Luckily, there is an alternative. 

Using an internet radio platform like Airtime Pro is a fast and easy way to set up a community radio station. There are minimal upfront costs, less licensing hassle and more creative control. (Note that doesn’t mean there are zero costs or that you can say or broadcast anything you want on your online radio station! In many countries there are laws about what you can say or do on the airwaves. Also see our blog post about music licensing rules to find out about the music you can play.) 

To sound professional, you will need a studio space to broadcast from, as well as some basic equipment like a laptop, microphone and headphones. (For the full list, see our blog post on 10 Essential Pieces of Equipment for Online Radio Newbies).

You should also think about your programming: what kinds of shows you aim to broadcast and the days and times you can cover. For more on setting up shows, see our blog post on starting your own online radio show.

Setting up a community radio organisation 

Now, you could do all of those things by yourself if all you wanted was to have your own internet radio station. But for a community radio station, you need a group of people. Ideally, your group should be diverse enough to represent the people who live in your area, so that your programming speaks to their needs and interests. Having a group is also key to making your station a legal entity that can interact with other nonprofits, businesses and local authorities on a professional basis. On the risk-management side, it means you yourself won’t be legally or financially responsible for the station.

On the more positive side, becoming a legal entity means your station will be eligible to receive funding, especially if you take the extra step and write a business plan (see this useful template put together by Radio Regen in the UK). 

Community radio stations on Airtime Pro

These days we see a lot of people looking for information about community radio using the search term “community radio near me”.  When it comes to online radio, however, your neighbourhood expands to other cities and towns and even other countries. At Airtime Pro, we consider our platform to be a community in its own right. Some of the community stations we are most proud of include:

• The Lot Radio
• Worldwide FM
• Balamii Radio

One final thing worth mentioning is that most community radio stations would qualify as nonprofits, making them eligible for a 30% discount on any annual plan from Airtime Pro. (See the full details here.)

Want to see how Airtime Pro can support your community station? Start your free trial today.

The post How to Start a Community Radio Station appeared first on Airtime Pro.

Our internet radio broadcasting software comes with a responsive Radio Page, which you can access by logging in and going to “Settings” and selecting “Radio Page”. If you don’t already have an online radio station, sign up for our free 7-day trial, which requires no credit card.

Built in Icons for Twitter, Facebook and YouTube

In “Radio Page Settings” (see below) you will find dialog boxes for Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. To maximise the visibility of your station, we highly recommend creating unique accounts for all three of these third-party social media platforms. By default, each of the three is set to Airtime.pro’s social media channels, but you can easily replace them with your own by typing in the handles. So, for instance, simply copy the URL for your Facebook page and paste it so that it replaces “airtime.pro/” in “https://www.facebook.com/airtime.pro/”, then click the “Save” button.

When you go to your station’s Radio Page, you’ll see (below) icons for Facebook, Twitter and Youtube in the upper left corner of the page. You can see that the change occurs instantly by waving your cursor over the icon, and the new address will be highlighted in the bottom left corner.

You can also remove any of these three icons by unclicking the respective “Show link” checkbox just below their dialog boxes. But we recommend signing your station up for all three, maintaining an active presence on each, and prominently displaying these icons on your Radio Page so that visitors will be able to quickly navigate your social media loop.

Deep Integration With Social Media

Airtime Pro also has deeper integration features that allow your station to directly interact with these social media platforms.   

For Twitter, once you’ve linked your account, go to Settings > General and scroll down to the Twitter Settings (see below).  Here, you can select options to auto-tweet so that followers will automatically get a Twitter alert at the start of each track or when a new show is starting. These auto-tweets can be customized by pulling info from the song or show’s metadata using brackets — i.e. {show_name} is starting now! Listen live here: {stream_link} — which can be used alongside your own writing to craft messages that are on target with your brand.

You can also tweet directly from Airtime Pro’s interface by clicking the blue Twitter icon on the top of the page (see above). This lets your DJs and show hosts interact with their listeners, announce contests, run promos, and tweet out breaking news. 

Your listener’s can also quickly share the songs you play with their own followers by clicking the “Share” button on the bottom right corner of your Radio Page. When clicked, they can select Twitter and then approve an auto-tweet with an invitation to “Check it out!” that includes the song currently playing and a link to your station. This feature works the same way for Facebook, and the same info can even be passed along to individuals via email by hitting the “Share” button and selecting the email icon.
Learn more about signing up and integrating Twitter.

Put a Player Widget on Your Station’s Facebook Page or Any Site

Link your station’s Facebook page in the same way, by replacing Airtime Pro’s address with your own. We also have a special widget that allows fans to listen to your radio station directly from your Facebook page. To set it up, go to “Widgets” and select “Facebook” (see below), and then click “Add to my Facebook”. One caveat, Facebook recently changed their policies regarding third-party apps, so you now must  sign your station up on a business account or as a community page, and the widget won’t work there unless you have a minimum of 2,000 followers.

But you, or any of your fans can display a player widget for your station on any website by using an i-frame embed code. To enable this, and make the code available on your Radio Page so visitors can find it, go to the bottom of your Radio Page Settings and select “Show embed button.” Now, “Embed <>” will appear in the bottom right corner of your Radio Page. When clicked, a box will pop up with the embed code, and it can be copied and pasted into any web site so that listeners can tune into your station from there. We also have a more sophisticated, responsive player (“Introducing Player Widget 2.0”) that can be embedded in the same way.

Don’t Forget About YouTube

Promote your YouTube channel on your Radio Page the same way: select “Show YouTube link” and type in the address you registered your station under. YouTube is sometimes overlooked as a social media platform, but it has an enormous amount of video content for songs, concerts, interviews and news that you can share to attract a following and bring new listeners to your radio station. You can also, of course, create and upload your own promotional videos to your YouTube account, which is a perfect way to build your brand and audience.

Built-in Integration with Spinitron, TuneIn and Soundcloud

Airtime Pro also has built-in integrations with three other music and radio specific platforms: Spinitron, TuneIn and Soundcloud. Sign up for them individually and you can transmit a constant stream of info about your programming, making it highly discoverable to fans of the particular genres or styles of music that your station focuses on.

Once you’ve signed up, go to Settings > General, and in the middle of the page you’ll see settings for these three. Again, you will need to sign up with these third-party services individually, and we highly recommend doing so.

For TuneIn and Spinitron, once you have an account, you will get an access token or partner key, which you input here to link your station to their platforms and share your data with them.  With both, you’ll want to share the track metadata for the songs you play by clicking “Publish my track metadata.”

TuneIn lists more than 100,000 radio stations and has a reported 75 million active users worldwide, so it should be a priority sign-up. Users of their app can conveniently listen to all of these on any device or computer. But check with TuneIn.com, because they’ve recently limited the sign-up of new stations, and only offer sporadic windows of time where you can submit an application. Learn more about TuneIn Integration with Airtime Pro.

Spinitron is focused mainly on U.S.-based college, community and educational stations, and has great music tracking features. You can look at shows and DJs for each station, and see everything they’ve played since they’ve been on the site. It’s an incredible music discovery tool in its own right, as you can also quickly see what more than 200 of these independent stations are playing live (and have played) at any given time. For more information, check out Integration: Spinitron with Airtime Pro.

Soundcloud is an excellent option for getting your audio programming out to the online masses. When you upload podcasts or show recordings to Airtime Pro you can simultaneously send them on Soundcloud. After you’ve established an account there, link your station by going into Settings > General and click the Connect button under Soundcloud. Just be sure that you either own or have the rights to share all of the content you upload there, as they’re very strict about copyrights. Read more about Soundcloud integration here.

Social Media: The Perfect way to Build an Audience

Each of these six social media platforms are easy to set up in Airtime Pro, and each has built-in advantages and specific marketing strategies. There are many online resources devoted to getting the most out of each platform. Maintain an active presence on as many of these platforms as you can, and you’ll assure that the widest potential audience will be able to find your station.

If you don’t already have an online radio station, sign up for our free 7-day trial, which requires no credit card. To see how easy it is for anyone to set up a station, read our step-by-step guide: How to Start an Internet Radio Station From Home.

The post How To Fully Integrate Social Media into Your Airtime Pro Internet Radio Station appeared first on Airtime Pro.

If you don’t yet have a station or are unfamiliar with our internet radio software Airtime Pro, we offer a free 7-day trial (no credit card required) that gives you full access to the software. Any changes, customisations or content you add during the free trial will be retained once you sign up and pay for one of our regular plans.

Step 1: Brand Your Station

To begin customising, log on to your station, then go to Settings and select the Radio Page tab from the left-hand menu. 

Starting from the top of this page, you’ll find fields for your station’s name and description. Your station name will appear on the top of the page (see image below) and can be different than the station ID you provide when you register. The station name can be changed at any time, but the ID is fixed and becomes part of the URL for your station. Enter a description below the station name to expand upon your station’s identity. By default, the description will read “Powered by Airtime Pro”, so it’s a good idea to change this and describe what type of programming your listeners can expect.

Just below that, you can get even more specific by creating and adding your own genre tags (jazz, pop, techno, talk radio, etc.).

Step 2: Integrate Social Media

Now, visitors will know exactly what your station is all about, and it’s time to start promoting it. Social media is one of the best ways to get the message out and attract listeners. Icons for Facebook, Twitter and YouTube appear in the Navigation Bar on the left side of your Radio Page and are by default set to Airtime Pro’s social media channels. You can remove any of these icons altogether by deselecting them in their individual dialogue boxes. Better yet, enter your own social media handles, and listeners will be able to conveniently stay in your social loop.

Step 3: Create A Visual Identity 

A visually striking logo is another great way to build your station’s identity and make a lasting impression on visitors. If you don’t already have one, there are numerous online sites (some are even free, such as LogoMakr) where you can create your own logo in minutes. Once you have one, click the Choose File button under Station Logo to upload it. After doing so, go to your Radio Page and hit refresh, and it will appear in the top left corner of your station’s page instead of the default, which appears as “RADIO”. 

You can further personalise your page by selecting your image of choice for the page’s background. Our default image is a picture of a radio studio with a microphone and on-air sign. Replace it by clicking the Choose File button in the Station Background Image section of your Radio Page and uploading any image you prefer.

Each show that you air on your station, including AutoDJ shows, is distinct and deserves its own logo or signature image. You can add them by clicking the Calendar tab on the left side of your station. Once there, click the +New Show button and scroll to the bottom, and you’ll find a Style Section where you can upload the logo. These images will appear alongside the show on your Radio Page.

Each song you play on your station can be visually enhanced on your Radio Page by adding its album cover art. To do this, go to the Styling section on the bottom of your Radio Page Settings and check the “Show album cover art” box. You will need to provide accurate metadata for the tracks when you upload them in order for album cover images to appear. Airtime Pro will do the rest by sourcing artwork from an online database, and placing it in the bottom left corner of your Radio Page alongside the title of the song as it is playing. 

Step 4: Add Accent and Background Colours

For extra visual pizzazz, you can also change the accent colour of your Radio Page to better match your logo or background image. Choose from orange, coral, green, blue or aquamarine, and this accent colour will appear in your Navigation Bar, Schedule tab and Podcasts tab.

The Navigation Bar on the left side of your Radio Page can also be customised by selecting either Dark or Bright. If you choose Dark and have opted to keep the default logo, the letters “RADIO” will automatically adjust to white lettering. With the default Bright setting, “RADIO” appears in the standard black font colour.

Step 5: Take Full Advantage of Airtime Pro’s Functionality 

On the bottom of the Radio Page tab, in the Styling section, you will find more options that will add functionality to your Radio Page. 

Check the “Show login button” box and a login will appear in your Radio Page Navigation Bar so that you or your DJs can quickly access your Airtime Pro instance.

Select the “Show embed button” box, and an embed link will appear in the lower right corner of your Radio Page, allowing anyone to access the code for placing your station’s player widget on their own websites.

Should you have any questions about customising your Radio Page, or about starting an internet radio station, our help section offers detailed guidance on this and many other subjects.

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