What started your interest in Internet Broadcasting

[saint]

What started my Interest in Internet Radio were stations that would stream content over CuSeeMe ( a forerunner of skype / msn / ym ). I enjoyed one particular station that broadcast from a technical college in Mexico. This was back when jumping from 14.4 to 56.6 was awesome. Later came Shoutcast then Live365 and finally Winamp Television. Peer to Peer broadcasting seemed to have some promise at one point - but that really has not taken off.

 

I think the coming integration of IPV6 will open up more access to Multcast abilities - which will really make things spin for multimedia delivery That has always puzzled me why multicast never really took off in North America.

[andhow]

I had worked a number of years in radio but left to pursue more lucrative career options. I had been spinning records since the 70s when I was a kid and ended up working in a number of night clubs in the 80's & 90's. When I realised that I could open multiple instances of Winamp, I knew right away that I had found a new format! The next thing you know I was producing 14 live radio shows a week out of my house with various talent from all around the area.

 

In 1997, I had a friend who ran a BBS and had gotten into the ISP business and he helped me get a streaming server setup (RealPlayer), in a matter of a few months, we had become quite popular and the local media took interest in what we were doing, as we were on the news a couple of times. Eventually another ISP took interest in what we were doing and fronted us the bandwidth and IT support that we needed to keep things running. We took requests via ICQ & Email and streamed in 20Kbps before bumping up to 32kbps streaming.

 

The problem with going commercial back then with an independent radio station was that I could not get licensing at that time (it did not yet exist) and you needed to be licensed to sell advertising.

 

Frustrated, I ended up selling just about everything I owned, packing up the whole station and moving from Texas to New Zealand, where I have been ever since. Eventually when licensing did come along, it was a lot more reasonably priced here than it was in the US.

 

After a few years or chasing a dollar with the radio station and managing on a couple other FM/Internet radio projects, I decided that doing it for the money took all of the fun out of what I have essentially been doing since I was 6 years old. So I am back to financing the whole thing myself, doing it for the love of the music and enjoy every minute of it!

 

That is the abridged version of the story. The rest will be in my memoirs! =)

[billh]

It's all Johny C's fault I'm in broadcasting. All I did was post a demo of a character voice I was working on and that was it, it turned into "The Hillbilly Yank Show" I never planed on doing it at all.

[djgary72]

Ive always had a passion for my DJ work ....

 

I got my first computer some 10 years ago and explored the possibilties.

 

Got involved with Goldradio http://goldoldies.com

 

Worked for them for a few months and then left owing to health problems.

 

Then set about creating my hobby station BaldyRadio. Which has been a labour of love since 2003.

 

Quoting john miles "Music was my first love .... and it will be my last"

[jamesdean]

Done it a while back with a couple of internet stations but it's behind me now but happy days. Involved elsewhere in the industry still but in a different way so like to see some of the internet stations here that play what I like.