Filed under: Policy
As I’ve written about before I have been streaming online for a little over 4 years now. From humble beginnings at East End Radio and a fledgling KONA Radio my station saw slow and steady growth to where it became the most listened to SL based radio station. The inclusion into the iTunes Radio listings helped tremendously also. But success came at a price. As my listenership increased so did my costs. The Licensing fees were $45.00 a month, the Shoutcast server was $18.00, and my SL tier was $8.00. On a good month I would have enough in sponsorships, advertising, and DJ tips to cover the costs. As time went buy it started to become a burden, a hassle to scrounge for the money. While it felt good knowing that thousands of people around the world liked my station enough to tune in at least once a week it just didn’t pay the bills. I do have a few hardcore fans who tune in everyday and perhaps my best fans were my sponsors. They forked over the money knowing well that their contribution did more to keep me broadcasting than it ever helped their bottom line.
As many of my predecessors and current colleagues will tell you, you ain’t going to get rich broadcasting online. Count yourself lucky if you can break even. The current royalty scheme is very much leveled against the little guy. There is simply no way they can get ahead. It’s like we pay them the privilege to broadcast their music. For those who can’t find a sugar daddy to cover our costs or have enough disposable income to cover the costs we all reach a point where we fold up and move on once our drive to share is spent.
So, where to now? I have already dropped my listing on iTunes which contributed to about %60 of my listener hours. I will also drop my current Shoutcast server too. If you wish to keep listening please use the email link on the main page to contact me. I will let you know when and how you can listen to me in the future.
Rav
Filed under: Nuts and bolts
At times I need to take my station off the air and fire up the remote AUTO-DJ. Ideally the streams should be identical in encoding. My stream is 64Kbps, 22khz, stereo. The fall back file is also 64/22/stereo. The Auto-DJ should also be 64/22/stereo. Somehow the encoder in the Auto-DJ has the sampling rate at 44Khz, not 22Khz. This mismatch will cause issues with most listener players and cause the stream to sound like a cartoon squirrel or tortoise. Simply restarting your player (clicking the PLAY button) will resolve the issue. I’ll try to ensure the Auto-DJ’s encoder is properly set.
Due to a surge in popularity I’ve had to rethink my strategy in financing the radio station. Since April listener hours have increased from 16,000 to almost 24,000! This of course increases the amount in fees I would have to pay. After some consideration I decided to switch to SWCast primarily due to lower fees and the freedom to run advertising spots over the air. I’m hoping this will increase my monthly revenues so I can stay solvent. My apologies if the method of tuning in is a bit clunkier now with extra pop ups. I would strongly advise you to bookmark the URL in your media player to make tuning in quicker and clutter free. Alternately you can still tune us in via the iTunes software and save it as a favorite. Additionally you find KONA Radio on Shoutcast.com
If you desire to advertise or sponsor KONA Radio please leave a comment here or email me Ravishal@konastream.com
Advertising on KONA Radio
KONA Radio is now on a commercial model! Under our new licensing rules we are now allowed to run advertsing on our audio stream Starting in July 2010. This is welcome news to those who wish to support our station and in turn generate traffic, name recognition and sales for their businesses. Here’s some background information on the station you’ll want to know:
Demographics: We serve two main audiences. Second Life and iTunes. Based on my personal observations and interactions with my listeners the age range for my typical listener is between 30 and 55 years old with slightly more women then men. SL listeners are incredibly varied in their RL and SL interest, activities and are world wide. Listeners from iTunes are typically office workers and stay at home parents primarily in North America and Europe. The vast majority are fluent in English. KONA Radio is currently the most listened to SL based radio station with well over 20,000 Total Listener Hours a month.
Content: KONA Radio has a wide and somewhat deep collection of tunes that if played back to back would take over 2 weeks to play. Primarily we play mainstream pop and rock music from the 60s, 70s, and 80s with a sprinkling of other formats thrown in (country, parody, soundtrack, mashups). We also carry several syndicated shows produced by veteran DJs throughout the week.
What do you get for your advertising spot? Advertising spots are sold in 60 second blocks. You are allowed to use 2-4 segments out of that 60 seconds for your spots. Say you elect to to have 2, 30 second spots. You can have 30 seconds of speech to advertise your product and/or service. Or you can have 3, 20 second spots or at most, 4, 15 second spots. That time is filled with the spoken word and production elements I put in (sounds and music). I require a minimum of 2 spots to avoid repetition. Hearing the same ad run every hour is tiring for me and your potential customers. Contact me for specifics on audio formats. In addition to audio ads you are also given space on my website for a link to your website. If you have no website I can create a sub page for you on my site. Just send me your graphics and promotional material and we can create one for you.
How often is it played?: Currently we play spots once each song rotation cycle. Each cycle is currently 90 minutes which equates to 15 plays a day. It may be less in cases of special programming. In the event we change out song rotation schedules your advertising will not be shortchanged and it will be played at the same frequency if not more.
Costs: For an SL based ( or other virtual world) business one month is $10 USD. This can be paid in Lindens at the going rate or via Paypal. If you want me to voice your advertisements it will be an extra charge of $300L ($1.25) per spot. While some say I have a good voice I beleive it’s better for you to try and read your copy. It’s your product and you have a passion for it. That passion and interest works better for you in the long run as the listener canhear your enthusiasm. You can also easily find another party with good vocal skills to read for you also.
If you’re a small business (non virtual world) entity the advertising rate is $15 USD and the voice read is $2.50 a spot. If you’re a corporate entity please contact me to negotiate a rate.
If you’re not a business but want to support KONA Radio we do gladly accept donations and sponsorships.
Contact information:
Ravishal Bentham
Ravishal@konastream.com
Since my last blog post in the winter KONA Radio has experienced a lot of growth. Listener levels have increased a whopping 40-50%! This of course will cost me more in royalty fees. I do have a few sponsors who help defray my costs but it’s going to come up short. I am investigating changing licensing organizations which will allow me to run advertisements. I know, I know, ads aren’t what people want to hear but it will keep the station solvent. I’ll compensate by making the music sets a bit longer. If the change comes expect it by July.
I’ve added more programming to the line up to include an old favorite of mine; Cheeze Pleeze. It’s sort of a Dr Demento show with moose antlers. It airs Sunday nights at 7pm Eastern. Takin’ You Back with Kurt David is a nostalgic look back at the music of the 60s, 70s and 80s. TYB is aired Monday, Tuesday and Thursday at 8AM and 8PM Eastern respectively. And of course our old favorite Saving The 70s with Mike Walker is aired Wednesdays at 8AM and 8PM Eastern. And of course the longest running event is our very own Sunday Listener Party where I hand pick a few tunes and play some music history podcasts at 730pm Eastern right after Cheeze Pleeze.
Filed under: Nuts and bolts
Expect minimal or no downtime as we transfer the station to a new location.
Filed under: Nuts and bolts
The physical location of KONA Radio will be moving very shortly There should no down time as internet is currently up at the new locations. When the time comes I’ll fire up the computer at the new place and shut it down at the other. We’ve been streaming from this current place since October 2006 with mostly satisfactory results. The new place is on Comcast cable so we’ll keep our fingers crossed as to its reliability.
I’ll post here and on Twitter when the change is almost due.
Rav
Filed under: Nuts and bolts
Previously we were listed in two categories in iTunes, Golden Oldies and Hits of the 70s,80s,90s. Apple has gone through the listings and limited stations to one category and we now are only listed in the “Hits” section.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Sorry for the lack of updates as there wasn’t much to report the past few months. The new computer for KONA is still working great. Our music Library is now over 7,200 tracks. The summer doldrums is lifting and listener rates have been climbing steadily the past few days.
Filed under: Nuts and bolts
Having some connection issues with the ISP today. I’ll try to launch the AUTO DJ if I can access it via other means. Sorry for the interruptions in service.
Filed under: Nuts and bolts
Thanks to your listenrship KONA Radio has now surpased 12,000 Total Listener hours per month. In addition to our inclusion on iTunes in the Golden Oldies section, we are now listed in the “Hits of the 70s 80s and 90s” . Thanks for your patronage!
