buzz95 Posted May 24, 2009 Share Posted May 24, 2009 what is the big secret with gaining listeners.I would be so happy to have 150-200 regular listeners.So whats the secret? How do you achieve this? I have got listed in directories, search engines..I have even in the past tried adwords with google..any advice advice or suggestions? or is it just a matter of time of being on the air then the listeners will come? We broadcast modern rock just to let you know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
THREETEN RADIO Posted May 24, 2009 Share Posted May 24, 2009 It takes time plus you have to have enough who like that style at the right time. I don't get those numbers, I get anything from 20 to 100 on my main stream and 15 to 80 on my 80s only stream. As far as I am concerned any listeners is good but to have at least 20+ makes it worthwhile to a hobbyist like me. Some people who want to run "professional" stations will want hundreds of listeners. Getting listed in as many radio directories as you have been does help. Good luck and I hope you achieve your listener goals. :biggrinthumb: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Posted May 25, 2009 Share Posted May 25, 2009 Advertising - You need to keep on advertising, keep a word of mouth and treat people who are willing to advertise your station with extra niceness Getting Listed - I am compiling a list with as many radio directories as possible, add your station to as many as possile. Also add your station to the most popular ones like (itunes, wmp, real). With iTunes, you will need to increase your listeners, they instantly jump up to around 50-100 listeners so be prepared. I cant exactly think of anything else, but i will add some more tips when i think of them Studiio - All-In-One Radio Communication Platform SMS | Phone Calls | Social Media | Content Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GKIye Posted May 25, 2009 Share Posted May 25, 2009 Hi Buzz 3 | 10 is right It takes time to achieve aka to urn listeners In general its easier to get more listeners if the station format is fixed to 1 genre .. for example only 80s or only oldies or only Top40 etc etc With an Adult Contemporary format its more difficult .. even with a CHR-pop format it ain't that easy to get high ratings Registration of your station into all possible radio directories is the best way to get some exposure to your project. Some friends of Me who run an internetradio at The Netherlands since more than 6 years told Me once it took at least 2 years before they're "discovered" by the majority of listeners to internetradio ... So be patient .. We all have to do this .. I suppose Visit and listen @ BW ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brutish Sailor Posted May 25, 2009 Share Posted May 25, 2009 Ask yourself a few questions. 1) What makes your station stand out from 1000 others of the same genre? 2) What would make your station more intriguing than people going to pandora? 3) What are you offering you listeners? Prizes? When I offered prizes, I had 30-40 and rising... I cut them out and I lost A TON of ATH... 4) How are you gving them the ability to interact on your site? Are you giving them a place to leave comments? are you responding to them on the radio? are you acknowledging their feedback? 5) how are you getting the word of your station out? If you hit your genre in a wordsearch of google, what pops up? Are you going to that site and asking to directly advertise with them? Much cheaper than adsence. 6) Whats your metadata cloud like for your site? enough build up that people will find you? 7) When your on to something, you will have a few dedicated listeners hell or highwater. FIND THEM. Talk to them. Make widgets avalible to them to mspace and facebook. 8) Google your site every once and a while. See if its mentioned at other sites or forums. 9) When talking to others in forums about your station, your not an advertizer, your a guy recommending to check something out. Hit a site, park for a bit, then drop the punchline. This way you wont make the Mods feel like your an advertiser. Talk a little bit on their forums before you drop the station name. 10) Stay updated with your genre and the industry around it. Find out if one of your favorite plays are planning a tour. Make it known to your listeners. Thats something Yahoo launch doesnt do and your listeners will appriciate. 11) Keep your station playlist updated. 12) ALWAYS ANSWER STATION MAIL! Especially from listeners. Let me take a break and I'll post more. KNSJ.org / 89.1 FM San Diego Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brutish Sailor Posted May 25, 2009 Share Posted May 25, 2009 Chris Popp was a GENIUS of internet radio, and if you are a typical genre station, your first battle should be locally. Snagged from one of the first Fronts of internet broadcast (now untouched for YEARS) known as caster club. By Chris Popp (Over the past four years, Chris has co-created one Internet Radio conference and created another and spoken at both on the best ways to get your station known, as well as programming the station. Chris has been featured on CNN Headline News, Online Tonight with David Lawrence, Cyber-Line with Mick Williams, 100X FM (Madison), WGN - AM (Chicago), in The Capitol Times (Madison, WI) and on various Internet Radio talk shows.) We at CasterClub think its best to listen to Chris 1.) Put your station name and website on your email signature. You send emails to family, friends, TRL, whatever - why not use that space in your email to pimp yourself? 2.) Contact your local newspaper. Newspapers are not just a group of people waiting for a 3 alarm fire to happen. There's business writers, tech writers, etc. that are always looking for content for a story. YOU, my friend, are a PIONEER! How many people do you know that OWN a RADIO STATION? Think about it! How many people have heard of INTERNET RADIO? It's INTERESTING STUFF! It's also FREE PR (Public Relations). Don't sit there and think "I'm not some company with money, a suit to wear and a office - they won't talk to me!" Henry Ford started his first gas powered engine in his kitchen! Apple Computers started in a Garage (and Woz HATES suits!) I called up a local paper here in Madison, WI (#97 market in the US) and talked to a business writer. She came to my apartment, interviewed me for 2 hours, send a staff reported to take pics of me broadcasting, and WALLA! Front Page of the Business section. And that paper has a circulation of 110,000. Smaller town? They're more itchin to get your story! Can't write about the guy who parks the wrong way on Main Street every week! 3.) Newsgroups and Website forums Ya found this forum. Great! now, go to GOOGLE, do a search for your genre and use terms like "Fan" "discussion" "forum" and "Message Board". See what sites come up. Example. If I go to Google, and type in "Pink Floyd" (my genre is Classic Rock), "Fan" and "message boards" I will come up with plenty of fan sites. POST THERE! Contact the owner of the site and ask to have them put a banner ad for your station on their site. Give them a plug on air as a return for the favor or put them on your site. Yahoo Groups is a great place. I did this a few months ago and hit over 60 groups in one morning (I stopped - I had other stuff to do) and posted in each an invitation to listen and offer feedback to me of what they thought. The more constructive (READ: LONGER and INTELLIGENTLY WRITTEN) the post, the more likely you will be treated like a person that knows their stuff and a member of their community and less like a spammer ---- NOTE! DON'T SPAM! SPAMMING can equal DEATH for a station! ---- 4.) Got $5? Make a quick flyer up on your computer. Something that is 1/4th of the page in size. Put four of them on a page and go to a UPS Store or Kinko's and make copies (These places are CHEAP for making copies!) and have them cut them or do it yourself. Then go to a music store (NON-CHAIN) or the local place that has baseball cards and those Magic cards. Ask to please put those little flyers on the counter next to the YU-GI-GOH! display and offer the owner a spot on your site or some advertising on air (AIR is CHEAP for the return on the investment and you got plenty of it). People will grab the flyer and take it home - curious about what they just got and look at your site (another topic completely) If you make real nice nice with the owner, he'll make the copies for you and put them in the bags with the purchases. He's getting advertising, remember and will reach those customers for repeat biz. ---- NOTE: Don't talk to "Jimmy" behind the counter. Ask for the OWNER. If the owner never comes, ask for the Store Manager (not manager on duty - that might be Jimmy). and do the deal with them. Having "Jimmy" do the ok for the placement of your flyers can result in the owner/manager coming in and saying "What the hell is this?" and throwing your stuff away. Opportunity Lost, my friend. 5.) Get out there and talk yourself up! There's plenty of ways you can ride another's PR. You see people do it all the time on TV. There's a LIVE SHOT of a reporter at a basketball game at a high school and there's kids behind them. Get in that crowd and hold up a sign with your logo and URL. Wear a HAT with your logo and URL. SAME with a SHIRT. It costs the cost of the clothes to be a walking billboard. (www.cafepress.com can get you individual orders of such merchandise - no big orders necessary. Also check out the guy in your nearby mall that makes those embroidered hats) I entered a Texas No-Limit Hold 'em tourney that a local FM Classic Rock station had. Wore my 9412 hat and shirt. Carried cards with the URL, logo and what the station was. People asked - I handed it out. Talked to the FM guys as well and let them know that I was on their level. Also talked to a few beer vendors that sponsored the event and the owner of the pub about having a banner placed in the pub. There's no rules about what you can wear so be proud of what you do! Go TWO steps further. Visit the local Radio Shack, Best Buy and locally owned computer store (every town has at least one of these three) and talk to the manager and sales staff. Let them know who you are. You are a resource for people to enjoy on a NEW COMPUTER with NEW SPEAKERS and that Internet Connection they want. Pitch to the sales staff that you are one of many cool things the customer can experience with the new PC on the sales floor. People never heard of Internet Radio will go "Really??" It's real cool when the sales guy has a copy of the newspaper article of you and your station to give to the customer to go with his or her pitch. ------------------------------ There's a lot more you can do! If you are a country station, see if you can advertise with a 4-H club or FFA chapter. Religious station? Talk to the churches in your town about space in the weekly bulletin and offering to run the pastor/rabbi/iman 's sermon on air (you need material, right?) Rap station? How about going to clubs and clothing stores and getting them to put up a sign? Top 40 stations? Talk to a tavern in town (if you are over 21) and see if you can broadcast from there LIVE The bottom line is take a few hours and put some work into promoting yourself. Get out there, let people know in the real world about your station - not those that already have a grasp of what Internet Radio is. Thanks for taking a few to read this. Hope it helps. Good luck with your station!. KNSJ.org / 89.1 FM San Diego Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orestoneradio Posted June 2, 2009 Share Posted June 2, 2009 a lot of great info wow... That is some great info there. This should be made sticky... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigloo Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 I used to work for Chris at his station - he and I opened our respective stations about the same time in 1999 (July 19 for me) on Live 365. ________ Lou Bigloo Christian Radio http://www/biglooradio.com/ digiSTREAM SHOUTcast Hosting http://www.digistream.info/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fozzy Posted June 12, 2009 Share Posted June 12, 2009 Itunes Is a good way to get people on only been on itunes for aweek or so and its picking up Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jnorth Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 iTunes is great but I wish it were a tad bit more exclusive. The lists are growing a bit too large now for my liking, makes it even harder to get noticed in there. Also, being with a dance station, I see some 'Top 40' and 'R&B' mix stations showing up in the iTunes dance category... makes me sick! iTunes no doubt helps, but it could help a lot more to those who deserve it. I really wish iTunes had more quality control and only allowed the best of the best, and also removed old stations who are not broadcasting but are still in the directory (yes they do exist) Voiceover & Radio Imaging Production Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brutish Sailor Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 I agree. If they were smart, they would have a C-panel for stations to change their directory listings, (or so I hear, I really dont think Im cut for Itunes) KNSJ.org / 89.1 FM San Diego Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GKIye Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 I think anyone deserves it to get listed in any station directory iTunes no doubt helps, but it could help a lot more to those who deserve it Problem is : a directory such as iTunes was at first sight highly exclusive and restricted. At first in general lots of US only stations where listed at iTunes and it wasn't that easy to get listed as non-US station (same to the Win Media Player directory). At first the general pc user had Win Media Player, WinAmp, Real and iTunes .. so they where the only ones to offer station directories. Media Player and iTunes where at that time "very" exclusive These days there excists media players made by tons of compagnies and most of them offer a stationdirectory to attract users .. aka the more the better .. some of them offer even riptools etc etc So I guess a compagny such as iTunes has to follow the flow, if not there market share is getting lesser .. so they have to add more stations. Getting listed in any directory is still exclusive, for example to Reciva, Nokia and similar Wi-Fi 3G networks .. however in Belgium we have a saying for this = "because of the wood you can't see the "tree" anymore" Explanation is : that you are not able anymore to get spotted if the group is getting to big. Visit and listen @ BW ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fozzy Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 I Get lots off itunes only been on for aweek and 10+ on all the time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m3gab0y Posted October 24, 2010 Share Posted October 24, 2010 As most people said, it's a matter of time and it's a good idea to stick to a specific genre and make your station sound more professional. I know this from personal experience ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricVdM Posted October 25, 2010 Share Posted October 25, 2010 Hi Guys, I'm searching on the iTunes pages how I can add my radio station to that listing but can't find it, can anybody show me the way? If it would be possible to the Windows media player listing to. Thank you very very much because I'm lost at this moment. Eric :confused: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Posted October 26, 2010 Share Posted October 26, 2010 Hi Guys, I'm searching on the iTunes pages how I can add my radio station to that listing but can't find it, can anybody show me the way? If it would be possible to the Windows media player listing to. Thank you very very much because I'm lost at this moment. Eric :confused: http://www.broadcastingworld.net/broadcast/tutorial/1/ -James Studiio - All-In-One Radio Communication Platform SMS | Phone Calls | Social Media | Content Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricVdM Posted October 26, 2010 Share Posted October 26, 2010 thnx James, I did follow those guidelines but now answer from them :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Posted October 26, 2010 Share Posted October 26, 2010 thnx James, I did follow those guidelines but now answer from them :( They usually take about 2-3 weeks to respond. Sometimes you get a response within the first week, it just depends how busy they are. If you dont get a reply after a month or so, try again. Its not an instant thing, it just takes a few weeks.. Studiio - All-In-One Radio Communication Platform SMS | Phone Calls | Social Media | Content Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricVdM Posted October 26, 2010 Share Posted October 26, 2010 They usually take about 2-3 weeks to respond. Sometimes you get a response within the first week, it just depends how busy they are. If you dont get a reply after a month or so, try again. Its not an instant thing, it just takes a few weeks.. I did send them a mail a few months ago nothing so I tried it again yesterday, wait and see what happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJFeared Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 where do you got to get itunes for your radio station?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 where do you got to get itunes for your radio station?? http://www.broadcastingworld.net/broadcast/tutorial/1/ Studiio - All-In-One Radio Communication Platform SMS | Phone Calls | Social Media | Content Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJFeared Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 Thank you James.. Your the man!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ATHR Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 Directories, Directories, Directories PERIOD! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benjamin Ely Posted January 29, 2012 Share Posted January 29, 2012 Sometimes you can increase your listener base by advertising and helping. e.g. you could contact and group up with an educational org or similar provided they are small. In this case you and the org can grow together by given free advertising and help to each other, once you have become bigger you can then split. You could also run projects and things with these people online. I once ran an educational org at www.wix.com/iconeducation/home (this is the page just for reference) if you go onto the "About" page most of the partnerships I formed where with these types of groups, they are always happy to accept and give help all for free. Many Thanks Benjamin Ely Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
megafan Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 Thanks Brutish Sailor for your advices on this post ! It's great ! Facebook is a good place to reach people too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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