Web Radio

Web Radio

by Chris Priestman
Released December 2001
Publisher(s): Routledge
ISBN: 9781136029219

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Book description

Anyone wanting to set up a low cost web radio station will benefit from the advice and information provided by this book. Not only will you gain technical and practical know-how to enable your station to go live, but also an appreciation of the legal and copyright implications of making radio, potentially for international audiences and in the rapidly evolving environment of the web.

To succeed, your radio content will need to be carefully planned and your station properly promoted. Advice is given on taking advantage of the scalability web radio introduces for building audiences in line with your resources, for scheduled live output and for making programmes available on demand, including music, news, speech radio and audience participation. Case studies from around the world are provided to demonstrate how different radio organisations are applying the new flexibility web radio has to offer in a wide range of situations.


Together with its associated website www.web-radio-book.com, the book also acts as a starting point for locating a range of sources for further advice and lines of research.

Learn how to:
- go live with your own low cost web radio station (either managing the server yourself or using a host service)
- assess the right server set-up to handle the number of simultaneous listeners expected
- get the best sound quality to your listeners
- take account of the range of devices available for receiving web radio
- plan your station, programming and associated website
- identify and reach your audience
- build audience feedback and data into your station's strategy
- tackle the additional legal and ethical dimensions of radio on the web
- source more detailed information

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Half Title
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright Page
  5. Table of Contents
  6. Preface
  7. Acknowledgements
  8. 1 What is radio on the Web?
    1. What's new about the New Medium?
    2. The Internet on the phone system
    3. The Web floats on the Internet
    4. Bringing radio to the Web
    5. Radio was an interactive medium
    6. Vertical versus horizontal radio communication
    7. Radio listening was shaped in the Broadcast Century
    8. A note on DAB
    9. Summary
    10. Further reading
  9. 2 ...And what web radio isn't
    1. Convergence of digitalized media technologies
    2. Divergence of media uses
    3. Radio's relationship with the music industry
    4. The many forms of audio on the Internet
    5. Streaming
    6. Downloading and shopping for music online
    7. Downloading radio programmes at high sound quality
    8. Web radio's relationship to other radio transmission routes
    9. Radio in the visual world of multimedia
    10. The website is the web radio station's 'front door'
    11. Websites with additional audio
    12. Interactivity and the visual
    13. Web TV
    14. A summary of intersections for web radio
    15. Further reading
  10. 3 Stream receivers and how the listener listens
    1. How streaming works - an overview
    2. 'Packet switching' technology
    3. A note on 'embedded' audio files
    4. Starting the stream
    5. ISP connections, bandwidth and connection speeds
    6. The common tools of compression - streaming software products
    7. Desktops and laptops as radios
    8. Off the shelf dedicated web radio devices
    9. Portable radio around the house
    10. Web radio back in the ether?
    11. Summary
    12. Further reading
  11. 4 Streaming radio output
    1. Scalability
    2. Who runs the server?
    3. Host streaming services
    4. Running your own server
    5. Selecting your audience
    6. Measuring your audience
    7. Encoding and streaming server software products
    8. Managing the server
    9. The streaming studio
    10. Summary
    11. Further reading
  12. 5 Established radio broadcasters on the Web
    1. Interactivity on the station website
    2. Virginradio.co.uk case study
    3. The simulcast stream of the terrestrial output
    4. Radio Netherlands case study
    5. Archive streams of parts of the terrestrial output
    6. CFUV FM case study - a small Canadian university and community station
    7. The addition of 'side channels'
    8. Summary
  13. 6 Internet-only stations and other adventures in web radio
    1. Interactivity and the website
    2. RadioValve case study
    3. Using a host to handle radio streaming
    4. Pulse Radio case study - Global Dance Radio
    5. Exploring speech radio alternatives
    6. Radio Voix Sans Frontières (Voices Without Frontiers) case study
    7. Web radio across the digital divide
    8. Kothmale Community Radio Internet Project (KCRIP) case study
    9. Summary - web radio is an experiment
  14. 7 One voice in a very large crowd: getting heard
    1. Some audience principles - push and pull
    2. The hyperlink is the key
    3. Web radio portals or aggregating sites
    4. Other online radio tuners
    5. Web radio directories, large and small
    6. Outsourcing promotion
    7. Registering your own domain name
    8. The front end - web page design
    9. Reputation
    10. Offline promotion
    11. Building a brand
    12. Summary
    13. Further reading
  15. 8 Copyright on web radio
    1. Established music copyright arrangements for terrestrial broadcasts
    2. Music copyright in the digital environment
    3. National versus international agreements
    4. The precautionary approach
    5. A copyright checklist
    6. Ownership versus consumption models
    7. Non-musical copyright
    8. Protecting your own copyright
    9. Summary
    10. Further reading
  16. 9 Free speech on web radio
    1. Reasons for regulating radio
    2. Problem areas
    3. Zoning and filtering
    4. Horizontal media and centralized control
    5. Case study: Radio B92, Belgrade
    6. Summary - is freedom of speech safe on web radio?
    7. Further reading
  17. 10 Redefining radio content
    1. Music presentation on web radio
    2. Factual speech on web radio
    3. Non-factual speech on web radio: drama, comedy, entertainment
    4. Audience participation and talk on web radio
    5. Experiments in horizontal radio on the Web
    6. Summary
    7. Further reading
  18. 11 Scheduling for redefined audiences
    1. Programmes versus programming
    2. Patterns of listening
    3. Time shifting
    4. The locality of the listener
    5. Global communities
    6. Addressing a community of interest
    7. Individual programmes for specific communities
    8. Feedback and the effects of accurate audience measurement
    9. Summary
    10. Further reading
  19. 12 So how is web radio different? A checklist
    1. Review of the characteristics the Web adds to radio
    2. Web radio as part of the mosaic of radio platforms
    3. Ways of being a web station
    4. Regulation and control
    5. Content
  20. Appendix 1 Glossary
  21. Appendix 2 Useful websites
  22. Appendix 3 Bibliography
  23. Index

Product information

  • Title: Web Radio
  • Author(s): Chris Priestman
  • Release date: December 2001
  • Publisher(s): Routledge
  • ISBN: 9781136029219