How To Build Radio Station Studio Design and Build It Right First Time
Build a radio station studio using free software and insider tricks to guide your radio station studio construction. A radio station needs a transmitter, an antenna, and studio. This can be one of the most fun and rewarding parts of your radio station build.
When you record your voice does it sound bad? Well, you can fix that with proper recording techniques and better presenting skills. Most people hate the sound of their own voices but that is often because it's just recorded incorrectly. If you are a budding radio presenter or voice artist and you would like to know how to have a radio voice in 3 easy steps or would simply like to make better recordings then this is for you.
Simple changes to the way you do voice recordings can make a huge difference. The way you speak also has a huge impact.
Learn to speak like a presenter or voice artist by recording yourself and then editing the recording by cleaning up the audio problems like pops and sibilance.
Your projection also has a lot to do with it. Try to speak from your chest more and not from your throat.
Inspire Radio Presenter Club Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/641464564286111
Twitter: https://twitter.com/InspireSoundPro
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aW7xHbIbrDo
FM Radio Station Antenna Homemade For FM Transmitter . This antenna is an FM dipole which is a half wave antenna. You can make it yourself from basic parts that you can find at a hardware store. DIY antenna build with instructions on how to put it together. Easy FM antenna construction and a great antenna for radio broadcasting. This antenna can handle a lot of power but it has not been professionally rated so don't use more than 30 watts with this antenna.
#fmantenna #fmtransmitter #piratebroadcast #pirateradio #transmitter #fmbroadcast #fmradio #radiostations #antennahack #fmdipole
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rhB3DMMSW8
n this video I will show you how to get free streaming for your radio station, how to get it up and running with software that is also completely free. I will also show you how to get around some tricky problems that can stop your streaming from working. These problems can be very frustrating and can cause you to give up all together. So let me walk you through step by step to get your streaming station up and running. This way of setting up your streaming is actually very easy even for a complete beginner if you follow what I show step by step. You don’t need any prior knowledge or experience with streaming.
Let's start by getting the software. For this type of streaming, you will need a program called Winamp. A link is in the description to download it. Winamp like many pieces of free software does have some missing parts. These include Lame MP3 plugin and shoutcast or Icecast streaming plug-in. There are links in the description to download these too. So download these first. Then extract the files and put these lame mp3 extracted files into the winamp files in the shared folder of your winamp installation. An important note here. Even if your PC is 64-bit you should use the 32-bit version because the 64-bit version can cause problems. This is one place it can all go wrong. Most people have 64-bit computers now but the Lame MP3 encoder often goes wonky in 64-bit. The great news is that the 32 bit version works great in Winamp even if your pc is 64-bit. So if you find the 64-bit just does not work and you keep seeing this message then use the 32-bit version. If your pc is 32-bit then you shouldn’t run into this problem. Coming up I will show you how to use just Winamp for your whole radio station. Hopefully, this plugin step will have saved you hours of frustration. If you follow many videos on YouTube that show how to install the plugins many of these YouTube videos don’t show that the 64-bit Lame version sometimes just does not work even if you do everything right. This can cause you to give up altogether when it is just a simple fix of using the 32-bit. To install the Shoutcast streaming plugin simply run the installation program you downloaded and make sure it installs into the Winamp folder. Coming up I will show you how to run a separate music player on your PC so you don’t have to use Winamp as your player but just using winamp as your streamer.
Once you have these set up you will need a virtual cable if you intend to run the music from the same computer you are streaming from with a separate music player. There is a link in the description for a free download of that too. If you have an external pc you run your music from or have a studio that you can send the audio from then you just need to plug the audio from that studio into the streaming pc thought your audio car line input. The down side of this is that no meta data about the songs will go with the stream. If you stream for example from Radio DJ software you can send all the song info with the stream. The same applies with Winamp.If you play your music from Winamp the meta data goes with it too. The downside of using Winamp as your music player is that you will not be able to use the mic talk button to speak but can only play pre-recorded links and music from the Winamp player. If you are running a separate computer you will have to send the meta data from that pc to your streaming service or just not send it at all.
Coming up I will show you how to get free streaming that plugs right into your winamp software.
If you want to talk on air using another piece of audio software like radio DJ as your music player , you can use the Winamp talk button or another free piece of software called meter banana. I will do an entire set up of this in another video so be sure to subscribe for that. To keep things simple though you can use Winamp as your streamer, and your way of speaking on your radio station with another media player for your music. Simply put your song list into the other media player like Radio DJ and then when you want to speak, use this talk button. You will need to click lock to keep it pressed down while you speak. If you have an external tricker plugged into your PC you can use just the talk button then once the trigger is released it will release the button. You will need to set your levels here to make sure your voice input and music are at the same level. You will also need to set your music playlist of your other media player to stop when you want to speak or it will go straight from one song into another. This is fine if you want to talk across the mix. Most non-automation software players do not use intelligent crossovers like Radio DJ software so the song will simply stop and the next song will begin like a normal music player and not a professional music crossover.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_hJC4IUQAU
Want learn how to do a radio link like a professional?
If you are new to radio presenting or did not go through good radio training before you became a presenter you might not know what a radio link is.
So before I show you how to do a professional radio link we first need to clear up what a radio link is.
Essentially if done right, every time you speak on radio as presenter or DJ you are doing a radio link. That is because your speaking is always linking one thing to another. These things that you are linking are things you personally are not doing. For example a song, the news, adverts, jingles or other co-host activities which you yourself are not doing or saying.
The distinction has to be that you are not doing it because you for example can easily confuse for example an interview as something to link to or even a competition.
The parts being linked are not you speaking live. It can be a recording of you for example doing an interview earlier that day.
So with that out the way, lets look at the structure of a radio link.
If you have watched my video on how to make a radio presenter demo you will have seen this diagram.
This is commonly referred to in the radio industry to as the Mexican bicycle. It has nothing to do with Mexico or bicycles but simply the shape of the structure.
There is not other connection to it than that. It’s simply a name for a radio link.
Now if we look at this structure what is missing is what is on either side of the Mexican bicycle.
These are the parts being linked to.
So it can be two songs, a song and the news, a song and an advert.
It can be from other things besides songs but the best practice for a radio station is to very seldom be linking from anything but a song. The reason is that the music is the most desirable thing to listen to and often people will wait for the news or adverts etc to finish so that they can hear the music. So it is often best to go straight from for example the adverts to a song. It is undesirable to do the opposite which is to go straight from a song to an advert.
At this point it is important to understand that this is a style of radio that works well for most listeners. It does however not mean you can’t do it differently. In many cases you may even be working on a radio station where the station manager or programs manger wants you to do something different. It’s always best to follow the direction of the managers as they are the ones who will have the biggest impact on your job and ultimately your career. So even though going straight form a song to an advert is not a good idea, it may be what the station manager wants. So it’s best to do what they say, even if It’s technically wrong to do.
The reason it is wrong is that the first part of the radio link is what is called back announcing. This is where you talk about what has just happened, such as saying the song name and artist. Even if your FM or AM radio station puts out what is called RDS which is data showing the song details or even a streaming station where the song name and artist are clearly displayed, the listener might not be looking directly at their screen. They might be hearing it over a PA system in a shop or driving so they cant look at the radio screen. If they hear a song they like and want to know the artist name or song name, they will be listening right to the end of the song waiting to hear you announce it. If you go straight to an advert, the listener can get very angry.
As a presenter you want your listeners to be as happy as possible. Now you don’t want to belabor it and go on and on about the artist or song. If the other listeners already know the song name and artist, they want you to move on. So simply say the artist name and song name and get into your content of what you will be speaking about. If you are not going to be speaking on any content, simply saying the artist name, song name and radio station name is enough to move to your linked item such as an advert or recorded program.
On most radio stations you often won’t be playing more than three songs in a row and on many commercial stations you will be lucky to play more than one in a row.
This is because the airtime is sold off for sponsorships and advertising. On smaller stations and community stations you might be playing many more songs in a row as there is not much more going on.
Either way it is best to announce all the songs played, not just the last one. The middle song of the three play might be the song name the listener is waiting for. If don’t have much to say in your content, saying all the song names also gives you a bit more airtime to speak.
To carry on learning about the radio link, click on this next video to see part 2.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWl1_wKk0V8
Part 2 of How To DO A Radio Link.
If you have not seen Part 1 go back and watch that firt or this will not make any sense.
Looking at the structure of the radio link you can see that you do all the back announcing then move onto your talk content then front announce into the next linked item.
It is often not a good idea to say the artist name and song name at the beginning of the song because you will be back announcing the song at the end again and the repetition is not great. If you are playing three songs or more in a row then its OK because it will have been a long while since you mentioned the song name.
What you should be doing is giving a reason for the listener to stay listening while you play the next linked item even if the next thing is a song.
For example you can mention a competition or an artist you will be interviewing.
Often listener don’t want to hear adverts so when you do a link form a song to an advert they might turn the volume down or even change stations. So you need to give them a compelling reason to stay or at least return.
So for example if you have a competition coming up you could say all your link content and the before you play the advert, say “coming up I will be giving away a thousand dollars in cash to the first caller who can answer my question” or “Coming up the greatest Rock musician in history will be in our studio in just a short will so keep listening to find out who he is.
What ever your reason, it must be real or you will disappoint your listeners and it must be something that will actually keep them listening through the adverts. So for example saying “coming up is my co-host who wants to say something” is not as attractive as “Coming up Taylor Swift is in our studio right now and wants to speak with you so be ready”. Also it is important to not mention the adverts as if it’s a feature.
So don’t say right now we have to pay the rent then play the adverts. Or even worse saying “right now some adverts for you”. Pretty much everyone knows that the reason adverts are paid for is because nobody actually wants to listen to them so it is something you need to get the listener through by offering some thing attractive afterwards. Think about how your mom might have said, if you eat your vegetables I have some yummy pudding for you. This is the same idea. Get them through the necessary to get to the delicious stuff.
If you want to learn more about radio links and more about radio presenting, be sure to subscribe to be notified when my complete radio course is available.
So from the structure you can see back announcing and station ID etc then move on to the content which could be a story or a competition or even some other information you have. Then you front announce into a song or advert or news etc.
Now that we know how to structure the link lets look closer at what goes where.
The basic flow is like this:
Brian Adams Summer of 69 on Best Community radio 98.7 with Taylor Swift before that with I’ll write your name and starting of the triple play with a classic from 1978. The Grand Band with set me Free”
Then you can segway into your content if you can work out a good way to say it. For example if the song mentioned has the word free and the information in your content is about someone being set free, you can do it something like this.
And starting off the triple play with The Grand Band and set me Free. I tell you is happy to be free right now is Bob James or whoever you are talking about. He was just released this morning etc etc etc.
Then you can move on to the front announcing. You can also segway this link by saying for example its amazing to have Bob James finally free. Great news for our community. Speaking of that community feeling here are the Beatles and come together. Try not to segway your back announcing and your front announcing in the same link as this also brings in an element of repetition.
When you do the front announcing of a song you can talk up to the vocals but under no circumstances should you speak over the vocals. Also if the song starts with a very recognizable and important part of the song you should not speak over that either. This, once again is to not anger your listener. And if the intro to the song is very long like a minute or so don’t speak all the way across the intro. It is very irritating for the listener. Also don’t say a station ID and then play a recorded station ID. Either say the station name or play a sting of the station name. Don’t do both.
Even if you do a short link to go to, for example, the news it is important to keep the same structure. For example “Brian Adams Summer of 69 on Best Community radio 98.7 at 5PM and it time for the news” Then play the news jingle.
If you want to learn more about radio links and more about radio presenting, be sure to subscribe to be notified when my complete radio course is available.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ft8CNzic5Cs
This video will show you how to choose the RIGHT transmitter for your radio station. I will also show you how to tell which transmitters are good value for money, which ones sound better and which ones give the best signal range.
OK so Choosing the right transmitter for your radio station can make a difference to your sound quality, your signal range and more importantly if you will cause interference with other signals.
So when you decide on a transmitter, it should not be just because it looks cool or is cheaper or has some high power level claim.
Having the strongest transmitter is not as important as you think and might actually be something you don’t want. I will explain this more as we go so keep watching.
Firstly there are two types of transmitters. They are FCC compliant and
non-FCC compliant.
If you have a license to broadcast you must have an FCC-compliant transmitter.
In many countries, the transmitter does not have to be FCC approved but it must at least meet the minimum specifications which are normally at least as strict as FCC regulations or you can lose your license. If you don’t have a license and are running a hobby radio station then you are better off having an FCC-compliant transmitter anyway because non FCC-compliant transmitters can be very bad as far as causing interference and going out of the specifications allowed by the laws in your country. Even if you are below the signal strength allowed in your country, if you interfere with some other people's signal you can run into some serious shit.
I'm talking about legal and civil cases.
Coming up, how to know if the sound quality will be good even before hearing the transmitter.
But if you just want to have fun and not really make a radio station, then the best and most fun can be to just buy a little cheap FM transmitter kit. These normally only put out about 30 Mw or so, which may seem like a tiny amount but you will be shocked how far the signal will go.
I will do a video in future to show the build of one of these little transmitters. Also, keep in mind that because of the laws in your country you might not actually be allowed to even use these low-power transmitters.
So be sure to check that first but in many countries, little transmitters like this can be used from about 25 milliwatts to 100 milliwatts.
I will put links in the description for transmitters that are good for licensed stations
And even non-licensed stations and even ones that well let's just say…use at your own risk. Seriously don’t buy this stuff but hey if you have a thing for cheap junk and have a bit of a death wish…who am I to stand in your way.
If you are not just wanting to play with FM signals and want to choose a ready-built transmitter for your radio station there are four factors to keep in mind: They are how far you want to transmit, the reliability of the transmitter, what quality of sound you care about and the cost of the transmitter.
Let’s start with sound quality. That’s what a lot of people care about and rightly so.
Most FCC-approved transmitters will provide an audio response graph like this. If you have not seen one of these before it just shows how the audio section of the transmitter responds to the input audio frequencies across the frequencies of 20 Hz to 20 KHz, which is the frequency range of the human ear and therefore all audio equipment.
What you want is a very flat curve. If there are big spikes or bumps it means that the sound equalization is not good. The idea is to not enhance or defeat any frequency. You might be thinking WHAT? No man I want a transmitter with some fat base and some sweet treble. Ah well no. That would be a bad transmitter.
The equalization where you boost the bass and treble and so on is something you should be able to choose with the use of a graphic equalizer or a multi-band processor. So you want the curve as flat as possible.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsLOQu7Xy0s
This Part 1 Of How To Do A Radio Link.
I have re-uploaded this video to avoid confusion. Many people as watching Part 2 first by mistake as a result of how the videos are promoted.
So if you have come from Part 2 then watch this video first then go to Part 2.
Want learn how to do a radio link like a professional?
If you are new to radio presenting or did not go through good radio training before you became a presenter you might not know what a radio link is.
So before I show you how to do a professional radio link we first need to clear up what a radio link is.
Essentially if done right, every time you speak on radio as presenter or DJ you are doing a radio link. That is because your speaking is always linking one thing to another. These things that you are linking are things you personally are not doing. For example a song, the news, adverts, jingles or other co-host activities which you yourself are not doing or saying.
The distinction has to be that you are not doing it because you for example can easily confuse for example an interview as something to link to or even a competition.
The parts being linked are not you speaking live. It can be a recording of you for example doing an interview earlier that day.
So with that out the way, lets look at the structure of a radio link.
If you have watched my video on how to make a radio presenter demo you will have seen this diagram.
This is commonly referred to in the radio industry to as the Mexican bicycle. It has nothing to do with Mexico or bicycles but simply the shape of the structure.
There is not other connection to it than that. It’s simply a name for a radio link.
Now if we look at this structure what is missing is what is on either side of the Mexican bicycle.
These are the parts being linked to.
So it can be two songs, a song and the news, a song and an advert.
It can be from other things besides songs but the best practice for a radio station is to very seldom be linking from anything but a song. The reason is that the music is the most desirable thing to listen to and often people will wait for the news or adverts, etc, to finish so that they can hear the music. So it is often best to go straight from for example the adverts to a song. It is undesirable to do the opposite which is to go straight from a song to an advert.
At this point it is important to understand that this is a style of radio that works well for most listeners. It does however not mean you can’t do it differently. In many cases you may even be working on a radio station where the station manager or programs manger wants you to do something different. It’s always best to follow the direction of the managers as they are the ones who will have the biggest impact on your job and ultimately your career. So even though going straight form a song to an advert is not a good idea, it may be what the station manager wants. So it’s best to do what they say, even if It’s technically wrong to do.
The reason it is wrong is that the first part of the radio link is what is called back announcing. This is where you talk about what has just happened, such as saying the song name and artist. Even if your FM or AM radio station puts out what is called RDS which is data showing the song details or even a streaming station where the song name and artist are clearly displayed, the listener might not be looking directly at their screen. They might be hearing it over a PA system in a shop or driving so they cant look at the radio screen. If they hear a song they like and want to know the artist name or song name, they will be listening right to the end of the song waiting to hear you announce it. If you go straight to an advert, the listener can get very angry.
As a presenter you want your listeners to be as happy as possible. Now you don’t want to belabor it and go on and on about the artist or song. If the other listeners already know the song name and artist, they want you to move on. So simply say the artist name and song name and get into your content of what you will be speaking about. If you are not going to be speaking on any content, simply saying the artist name, song name and radio station name is enough to move to your linked item such as an advert or recorded program.
On most radio stations you often won’t be playing more than three songs in a row and on many commercial stations you will be lucky to play more than one in a row.
This is because the airtime is sold off for sponsorships and advertising. On smaller stations and community stations you might be playing many more songs in a row as there is not much more going on.
Either way it is best to announce all the songs played, not just the last one. The middle song of the three play might be the song name the listener is waiting for. If don’t have much to say in your content, saying all the song names also gives you a bit more airtime to speak.
To carry on learning about the radio link, click on this next video to see part 2.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw46pK4D5Jg
If you are building a radio station studio for the first time you will need to know all the parts that go into making a on air studio. This includes the studio equipment and what to use in the room to make the room sound like a radio studio.
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A radio station on air studio is very different to a music studio or a voice recording studio. Different equipment is used and the layout is completely different. Apart from connecting the studio to the radio transmitter, you need to know what goes where and how to make the on air studio comfortable and easy to use.
Apart from he importance of sounding good, the studio should be functional and make the radio presenters job easier. There is a basic set up that works well for live on air radio studios. This set up needs to included all the necessary audio equipment but also be structured in a way that is easy to understand and user friendly for all in the studio including guests.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=im4lKwzrq4E
FM radio stations and streaming radio stations can make extra income online. There are so many more opportunities online for small radio stations than just advertising. If you want to grow your radio station income and make money online then check out the many ways radio stations have turn a small listenership into a big business.
#fmradio #fmbroadcast #makemoneyonline #onlineradiostation #streamingradio #radiobroadcasting #radiostreaming
Make money online with your radio station no matter how small. If you are wondering how to make money online and have a small radio station that needs extra income then watch this video and find new ideas about online income.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AcuOnSucHg