Setting up an in-house radio station for company. Getting started... - Radio

Sesay2000 · 13-05-2005, 16:00

I'm currently part of a team that is proposing to set up a radio station to broadcast to our offices at 3 locations in the UK. The plan is this radio station increase employee satisfaction and unite the different sites together (which should increase productivity). This was proposed after the positive feedback we got from one of our offices after music was played over the PA system there. We currently are putting together a business proposal to get this started so we are going around gathering info.

What we have thought of so far...
- Music (try to be as diverse as possible as we have a large mix of people from different ethnic backgrounds)
- News (obviously company news, but we'll probably include national news as well)
- Interviews
- Regular spots (info on support, training courses, work related tips, team awareness)
- Charity Drives (this I reckon will immensly help are yearly charities we support as well as the smaller charities people support individually)
- Covering work events (eg. big parties, charity events etc)

Obviously this isn't everything as we haven't defined our proposal yet. We plan to make sure it is in house. We have suggested that we can, as well as broadcast the station over the PA system, we can also stream the station via our intranet service - this would be great as it would give employees some freedom if they don't want to listen.

I will be scouring the internet for info but my first port of call is these forums as there are lots of people on here who work in or have worked in radio and will know a damn sight more than I do! This is a whole new experience for me and some of the others, and know doubt something great for my CV.

So, what advice and tips do you have for setting up a radio station? Costs? Experiences? Equipment? Programming? Any other things I haven't mentioned?

Thanks in advance.

Max_wood · 13-05-2005, 16:21

I think you should get more experience in radio, programming and the business side before you try to set something up...
I can recommend Hospital Radio for anorack teaching and/or local commercial radio for professional experience.
Max

The Wardster II · 13-05-2005, 16:27

I firmly suggest you visit the sites as listed in the link below.

http://www.intellectual-property.gov...collective.htm

You will find that the costs for broadcasting music based on having to pay royalties to the various companies involved are going to be quite high.....

HTH Wardster

Station ID · 13-05-2005, 17:01

It sounds like you've taken on a big challenge with this and i'm not clued up on the business side at all but it seems that you are looking for a proper radio station and not just a speaker playing music so I would seriously get in some profesional help from someone who has been involved in setting up a station from scratch.

For a start I would say that the music you play is the most important factor if the station is to increase productivity. You'll need to decide how many songs are going to be on your database, ho wmany catagories of song you will have on the station and what rotation those songs will be on - that means how many times will the song be played in a set period. This is before you begin to look at things like news and features.

PaulOConnell · 13-05-2005, 17:59

I can recommend some very good music playout software

OtsDJ

Plays mp3 and WAV files as well as ots own format for albums. Not cheap, but well worth it.

As has been said, the copyright and royalty paymets / licenses are likley to be expensive.

Good luck

Sesay2000 · 13-05-2005, 21:11

Ooops, I forgot to mention that a couple of the guys on our team have already set up stations in the past, one of them to still runs an online station. So we already have some experience in the field to hand.

Also, I think we may already have a loyalty agreement in place. But I'm not 100% sure. I believe it was discussed and one of the guys is going to talk to a friend he knows who works for a local radio station to get this clarified to us. I'm sure this will be raised again at our next meeting.

We are also planning on some of us to visit a local radio station at one of the universities nearby to give us some feedback on how they run their set up. If we need to we can consider one of the bigger local stations as well - I'll take a look into that.

Thanks for responses so far.

andygrif · 14-05-2005, 22:27

I used to be the Creative Director for a company that does in-store multimedia, including broadcasts for retail, business TV etc.

There's many reasons why companies came to companies like mine to get what you're talking about, with no disrespect to you and your online friends, and they include quality, content, distribution and copyright.

Quality:

Without trying to sound harsh, you will not be able to make a 'station' sound as good with limited rescources. I specified a £1/4 million playout system, based in Holland (reasons you will see below), storage space for 100,000 tracks, complete system redundancy and the tightest segues you've ever heard!

Content:

We used some of the best known everyday presenters on the circuit. There's a reason we used them, professionalism. They can do in one take what it will take you ten to nail down. Therefore it's quicker, cheaper and sounds a hell of a lot better.

We also had access to 500,000 digitised music titles, in 5 different countries, all databased, sound processed and seg points marked.

Distribution:

Aside from being able to access songs from the other side of the world, we had a satellite broadcast facility at Holland's state communications company. The network was monitored 24/7/365. If you're planning on using the internet to distribute your audio streams, you will find the IT Director beating you up with a stick for using all his bandwidth, and the ISP to the company putting the prices up beyond belief.

Copyright:

Again, with all due respect, you don't know how to deal with the various (and for your project you will need FOUR copyright licences) bodies.

To copy music from a CD to another format (such as another CD), you need a dubbing licence from PPL and the same again from MCPS. PPL will also charge you extra (20p per track per year from memory, but it might have changed by now) for the right to store music on digital media such as hard drive or CD-ROM.

Then, as you're going to 'broadcasting' you will need a broadcast licence from the PPL and the PRS. You should try and get them to agree to a narrowcast licence, but as you're using internet streaming to deliver it's unlikely you'll get one.

Your dubbing licence will cost tens of thousands a year, in addition then you will have to pay a percentage of revenue, in the event of there being no revenue then you would agree to a minimum fee per year.

Oh and should you think about downloading music from your own collections or off filesharing systems, you must be able to demonstrate that the company doing the 'broadcast' has in it's grasp the original CDs...and PPL do like to 'drop in' to have a nosey evey now and then!

So...now you know why companies like yours come to people like me for this kind of product.

If you want to know more my fees are very high LOL ;-)

13-05-2005, 16:00	#1
Sesay2000 Forum Member Join Date: Aug 2000 Location: London Services: Freeview+; Sky+; 3; Be*Internet Posts: 1,828	Setting up an in-house radio station for company. Getting started... I'm currently part of a team that is proposing to set up a radio station to broadcast to our offices at 3 locations in the UK. The plan is this radio station increase employee satisfaction and unite the different sites together (which should increase productivity). This was proposed after the positive feedback we got from one of our offices after music was played over the PA system there. We currently are putting together a business proposal to get this started so we are going around gathering info. What we have thought of so far... - Music (try to be as diverse as possible as we have a large mix of people from different ethnic backgrounds) - News (obviously company news, but we'll probably include national news as well) - Interviews - Regular spots (info on support, training courses, work related tips, team awareness) - Charity Drives (this I reckon will immensly help are yearly charities we support as well as the smaller charities people support individually) - Covering work events (eg. big parties, charity events etc) Obviously this isn't everything as we haven't defined our proposal yet. We plan to make sure it is in house. We have suggested that we can, as well as broadcast the station over the PA system, we can also stream the station via our intranet service - this would be great as it would give employees some freedom if they don't want to listen. I will be scouring the internet for info but my first port of call is these forums as there are lots of people on here who work in or have worked in radio and will know a damn sight more than I do! This is a whole new experience for me and some of the others, and know doubt something great for my CV. So, what advice and tips do you have for setting up a radio station? Costs? Experiences? Equipment? Programming? Any other things I haven't mentioned? Thanks in advance.

13-05-2005, 16:21	#2
Max_wood Forum Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 133	I think you should get more experience in radio, programming and the business side before you try to set something up... I can recommend Hospital Radio for anorack teaching and/or local commercial radio for professional experience. Max

13-05-2005, 16:27	#3
The Wardster II Forum Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Ŝĥĩţ Creek Services: Full service : £125, Oil & Filter change : £65 Posts: 1,189	I firmly suggest you visit the sites as listed in the link below. http://www.intellectual-property.gov...collective.htm You will find that the costs for broadcasting music based on having to pay royalties to the various companies involved are going to be quite high..... HTH Wardster

13-05-2005, 17:01	#4
Station ID Forum Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 408	It sounds like you've taken on a big challenge with this and i'm not clued up on the business side at all but it seems that you are looking for a proper radio station and not just a speaker playing music so I would seriously get in some profesional help from someone who has been involved in setting up a station from scratch. For a start I would say that the music you play is the most important factor if the station is to increase productivity. You'll need to decide how many songs are going to be on your database, ho wmany catagories of song you will have on the station and what rotation those songs will be on - that means how many times will the song be played in a set period. This is before you begin to look at things like news and features.

13-05-2005, 17:59	#5
PaulOConnell Forum Member Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Devon Services: Sky, Freeview, BT Broadband 2.2 MB, DAB Posts: 54	I can recommend some very good music playout software OtsDJ Plays mp3 and WAV files as well as ots own format for albums. Not cheap, but well worth it. As has been said, the copyright and royalty paymets / licenses are likley to be expensive. Good luck

13-05-2005, 21:11	#6
Sesay2000 Forum Member Join Date: Aug 2000 Location: London Services: Freeview+; Sky+; 3; Be*Internet Posts: 1,828	Ooops, I forgot to mention that a couple of the guys on our team have already set up stations in the past, one of them to still runs an online station. So we already have some experience in the field to hand. Also, I think we may already have a loyalty agreement in place. But I'm not 100% sure. I believe it was discussed and one of the guys is going to talk to a friend he knows who works for a local radio station to get this clarified to us. I'm sure this will be raised again at our next meeting. We are also planning on some of us to visit a local radio station at one of the universities nearby to give us some feedback on how they run their set up. If we need to we can consider one of the bigger local stations as well - I'll take a look into that. Thanks for responses so far.

14-05-2005, 22:27	#7
andygrif Forum Member Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Right Here...or maybe over there Posts: 816	I used to be the Creative Director for a company that does in-store multimedia, including broadcasts for retail, business TV etc. There's many reasons why companies came to companies like mine to get what you're talking about, with no disrespect to you and your online friends, and they include quality, content, distribution and copyright. Quality: Without trying to sound harsh, you will not be able to make a 'station' sound as good with limited rescources. I specified a £1/4 million playout system, based in Holland (reasons you will see below), storage space for 100,000 tracks, complete system redundancy and the tightest segues you've ever heard! Content: We used some of the best known everyday presenters on the circuit. There's a reason we used them, professionalism. They can do in one take what it will take you ten to nail down. Therefore it's quicker, cheaper and sounds a hell of a lot better. We also had access to 500,000 digitised music titles, in 5 different countries, all databased, sound processed and seg points marked. Distribution: Aside from being able to access songs from the other side of the world, we had a satellite broadcast facility at Holland's state communications company. The network was monitored 24/7/365. If you're planning on using the internet to distribute your audio streams, you will find the IT Director beating you up with a stick for using all his bandwidth, and the ISP to the company putting the prices up beyond belief. Copyright: Again, with all due respect, you don't know how to deal with the various (and for your project you will need FOUR copyright licences) bodies. To copy music from a CD to another format (such as another CD), you need a dubbing licence from PPL and the same again from MCPS. PPL will also charge you extra (20p per track per year from memory, but it might have changed by now) for the right to store music on digital media such as hard drive or CD-ROM. Then, as you're going to 'broadcasting' you will need a broadcast licence from the PPL and the PRS. You should try and get them to agree to a narrowcast licence, but as you're using internet streaming to deliver it's unlikely you'll get one. Your dubbing licence will cost tens of thousands a year, in addition then you will have to pay a percentage of revenue, in the event of there being no revenue then you would agree to a minimum fee per year. Oh and should you think about downloading music from your own collections or off filesharing systems, you must be able to demonstrate that the company doing the 'broadcast' has in it's grasp the original CDs...and PPL do like to 'drop in' to have a nosey evey now and then! So...now you know why companies like yours come to people like me for this kind of product. If you want to know more my fees are very high LOL ;-)