The Coming Digital Radio Rollout
Reading time: 29 minutes
Alternatives to banned and throttled YouTube channels include operating analog and digital AM/FM radio stations, like the extra digital channels existing broadcasters don't know what to do with.
Or piggybacking off of existing stations for pennies on the dollar instead.
As I discussed in previous blog post (one of 255 posts so far) about reaching a million listeners for $18 a month, there's an unexpected opportunity that's much bigger than anything we can do on the internet alone.
Especially when you know how to negotiate based on their actual costs rather than accepting their expensive value-based pricing, which is essentially electricity which has been marked up more than jewelry.
See, mass media helps when we're rebuilding the culture from scratch.
Today you'l learn How To Put Your Podcast on AM or FM Radio NOW!
But why do we need media? For the same reason Jesus spoke to a multitude to attract his disciples, modeling what we should do. Media is a fisher of men that reaches millions in the blink of an eye.
So far, we've depended on publicity. Publicity is much better than obscurity, but it's like having a soundbite-sized public access show. You can't say very much.
When those cameras are rolling, saying "love your enemies" or "pray for those who persecute you" is pretty much the only soundbite we want the masses to hear.
Yes, we can and should still invite our audiences to come in out of the cold and welcome them into the orbit of our podcast worlds, email lists, blogs, or YouTube channels. In fact, just because you can afford to strike it big with a terrestrial broadcast doesn't mean you can afford to stay there.
Let me explain it this way. Imagine you've got a public access show like Wayne's World with your buddies in your mom's basement.
You're just a simple man with a dream.
Like a fuzzy, half-remembered dream that probably somehow involves guitars, chicks and beer. And maybe airplanes. And I think Heather Locklear was there.
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| You're not a super star. You're just an ordinary guy with a dream |
All you know is the internet is your big chance, and it's going to change everything. You've got some fans who love you. And you've got enemies who think you suck.
You just know your glory days are still ahead of you if you can catch a break. You can feel it. You can almost taste it.
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| "We're listening." |
It's like the day public access TV showed up, and because there's public access, anything can happen, because complete idiots can be kinda sorta famous.
And you're not a complete idiot, so it should be easy. So you gave it a shot.
Just one problem. It turned out it wasn't as easy as you thought to do Wayne's World for a living.
You probably know lots of people who always wanted to write a best-seller? Well now, you could promote it on the internet. The internet. As if the internet isn't just made up of lots of people.
Sure, it's all the same people you met in high school and middle school. But now, they have a computer.
So they have to like you!
And one day, you're just know you're gonna meet Aerosmith. And it's going to be awesome.
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| Nothing is more awesome than meeting Aerosmith. Except playing a sweet guitar with Aerosmith on your own TV show. |
If only you could get your book on Oprah, it would be a best seller.
Well, it's true. It would be a best seller if it got on Oprah. The problem is it's not that easy to get on Oprah.
Until your big break, you're just a loser guy in a basement making minimum wage at a part time job with a crazy girlfriend, combing oatmeal out of your mom's beard. No? Just me? Ok.
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| Deep down, we know we're scum, we suck, and monkeys really might fly out of our butts. |
But one day, something amazing came along...
Something that's even better than the internet.
I know. Imagine telling Wayne and Garth there's something better than public access TV.
But I'm about to tell you about some dreams that came true. Dreams much bigger than popping open a beer with Aerosmith, hanging out on your bed naked with Heather Locklear. Dreams that became a reality. A way of life.
I'm going to tell you about hitting the big time, doing it professionally.
I'm going to tell you about something that makes your public access show, your blog, your podcast, your Red Ice YouTube channel look like small potatoes.
It happened for a guy as shy and soft-spoken as George Lucas.
The era when iconic rebel filmmakers were born by the half dozen.
An era that brought us a new slate of film directors of pictures like Scarface, the Godfather, Star Wars, Indiana Jones and his almost magical bullwhip, Raging Bull & Taxi Driver, Jaws, ET, and Dirty Harry.
During a similar window of technological and political opportunity, while the world was saturated with pessimism, with the crowds crying out for something optimistic, George Lucas brought Star Wars to the masses and eventually became a powerful, influential billionaire that shaped the spirit and the souls of a generation.
A stand-out even among his peers, he practically re-defined the movie business with his ability to tell a story. A hero's journey.
Much like the hero's journey you're reading like now. A story of suspense starring you. A person about to meet your Mr. Miagi. Your Master Yoda... and yes...
Your Rob Lowe
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| I can guide you to greatness. Because I've done it before. |
These kinds of opportunities don't come along often. But when they do, they don't just make moments. They make icons. Great moments make the great legends of our times.
During a similar window of opportunity, Elon Musk co-created PayPal, launching his career in technology. He also did some other stuff.
Maybe you've heard of it.
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| How many Kayak-chuckers can a Kayak-chucker chuck? |
When the technology shifts like the tectonic plates, when the seismic and sociological moment is right, when the world is ripe for conquest, most people sit around scratching their heads wondering what to do with all the new gadgets, bells and whistles.
In fact, people going about their daily lives unaware is the surest sign that great victory is within our reach.
Because that's the sign of a massive change. There's always a calm before the storm.
The iPhone was on the horizon while the masses mindlessly checked their emails or played Solitaire on their computers, unaware of the impending earthquake just below their feet.
When social media showed up, people thought "surely this is the kind of tool that can liberate our people."
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| 7 Million People Will Watch Me Today, Homie. |
Some said, "Maybe with a big enough audience, I can make a living on the internet."
And social media is a game-changer. It can do all things.
But not on its own. Not directly. Not without the right people, the right message, the right audience.
And not when it's tightly controlled at the center, not when it's easily shut down from above, and not when it's attacked from all sides while it's still small and fragile.
You might think PewDiePie is a pretty big deal. And he is. We know this because we know exactly how big his audience is. We know how many watch his videos every day.
Like Wayne and Garth, He's got network TV star potential.
And he is. 101 million subscribers and 7 million people watched his video yesterday, tuning in for at least 30 secons. (About 2 minutes, on average.) Keep that number in your head. 7 million people watched for an average of 2 minutes.
And 2.8 million people watched Tucker Carlson last night to talk almost absent-mindedly about politics in a rather droning voice. On average, they spend 4 hours a day watching TV and almost 7 hours a day on the internet.
Isn't there competition?
Yes. Tucker Carlson competes with the other TV channels, but even before he shows up to work, he's already been set up to win.
The game is rigged. PewDiePie competes with 23 million other YouTube channels.
Just because the internet is the biggest opportunity we've ever seen doesn't mean it's YOUR biggest opportunity.
It's where the bottom feeders face the crush of constant competition and the big dogs eat your lunch. On the internet, there's always something better on.
But on the radio or TV, it's basically you or the Matlock reruns. It's you or Top 40.
You get a bigger share of the pie simply because you showed up.
On the radio and TV, there aren't 5,000 guys dismantling all your argument in the comments section. There's not a thumbnail next to your talking head that says you'r e a huge scam.
There aren't 10 thumbnails luring your audience away. You don't have to share the spotlight with 23 million other channels.
It's all you, baby! You made it!
Because outside of the wired internet, and even outside of the wireless internet, there exists something exquisite and extraordinary.
Something digital. Something powerful, efficient, and new.
A chance to make your case. A chance to fully unfold in every detail everything we know.
How do I know about the power of this magical medium? Because it's already changed the world.
Because it's the one medium that can.
It's the king of all media.
Sound familiar? It should. Because you've heard that phrase before. You've heard it somewhere, but where?
It's a medium that changed the world and drove the hippy boomers beyond the brink of insanity. It's the medium that launches businesses, celebrities, and it continues to be the boot-loader for ideas.
It packs a powerful punch of sweet emotion and tough talk
It wasn't the music itself that raked their souls over the coals. The music was just the drug. But that drug had a delivery mechanism. It had an injection device. It had a way to mainline that drug for the ultimate rush.
The music was the drug. But the drug reached their system in one way, and only one way.
Terrestrial radio.
The fastest business launches in history came from the internet, right? Nope. From TV, right? Nope.
The fastest billion-dollar company launch in history was stated with a marketing campaign. You might not know it, but Priceline exposed a need and changed the way we book flights forever.
And the man who helped launch that company didn't use radio to launch one juggarnaut business, but two. Priceline and FreeCreditReport.com. Both of these rapid launches happened almost unnoticed. And suddenly, it was everywhere.
The need was there all along. The pressure was built up. The stress was nearing the breaking point. The earth itself shifted and made way for the inevitable.
People finally got fed up with the crooks stealing their lives, their credit and looting their pockets with over-priced air fare. Once they saw the right option in front of them, they jumped on it by the millions.
With Fred Catona's direct-response expertise, radio advertising was able to generate 2.2 million responses in 14 days and a billion dollars in revenue in 18 months. and it brought back William Shatner's carreer, making him wealthy just for being the spokesman.
Catona's radio marketing roll-out created the second most popular e-commerce brand in the world in 120 days.
Catona used basically the same strategy that's worked for more than a century. If you can test an offering in a few markets that are known to be representative of how America is likely to respond, you can quickly roll it out everywhere.
If you're a big hit on public access, or on a podcast, or on a YouTube channel where the cut-throat competition is biting your ankles every minute, day and night, then you can be a superstar on terrestrial radio or television.
Whether you're buying ad time or doing a show, if the crowd loves you, nothing else matters. Nothing.
Even if they hate you, you can be as big as Rush Limbaugh or Howard Stern.
What if you're not a hit?
You're still a lot bigger than you'd ever be online. Like Knight Rider's David Hasselhoff. His music wasn't much in the US, but Germans loved it. That's all that matters. Since then, the Hoff found a spot on American Idol and that's what it takes.
Finding where you fit could take decades. Or you could be an overnight success.
It's the same with the find products your audience wants to know about. Like a high quality work boot, for example.
You can still target the markets that match your message, or match the message to the market you want, but if it doesn't test well, it's just not going to be the next ShamWow or Snuggie.
On the other hand, if you've got yourself a young Justin Bieber with that look, that voice, that swagger and confidence... if it works on YouTube, then you can roll him out on the radio, then TV, then the movies and everything else.
Consider a child star in Hollywood. I'd never send a kid to Hollywood, of course. But a child star has time to develop a following, and less competition because there's fewer children working in Hollywood.
Because everybody goes to acting school and then they're an unknown with twenty thousand other guys the same age to compete with, no track record, no audience, no agent, nothing.
If you're a little kid, you have a shot. You have a track record. You were in that commercial. You were little Christian Bale in that movie about Henry the Fifth. You have a credit to your name. A speaking part, no less.
We develop celebrities the same way. In an absence of competition. All eyes were on Miley Cyrus when she had her own show for 4 seasons. 98 episodes. What launched her wasn't the number of shows, but the size of her audience.
Starting out today, she'd be nothing. We all know that.
And it made all the difference. You probably didn't even know she has a sister dragging a guitar case around.
When you have a big platform, people want access. When you have a local radio show, even if you're nothing special, you're their local Oprah. You're the institutional power. You're the gatekeeper and the taste-maker.
You're like the Disney channel for new talent. You're the Yoda, the Mr. Miagi and the Rob Lowe scouting for new talent. They come to you. Your the big break for the next Aerosmith. The next Pearl Jam. The next Justin Bieber. The next Rocky. The next big thing.
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| YouTube can make you a star, kid. But the big time is on radio and TV. |
Whether you're the next star or the next star-maker, whatever you have to offer, if it can't pass the YouTube test or the radio test, it's not going to work in that form. But if something does catch on, and the numbers make sense, then the sky's the limit.
Once they love you, they love you forever. Motley Crue is still on Tour. The Rolling Stones is still on tour, now that Mick Jagger has recovered from heart surgery. For heaven's sake, Sylvester Stallone is still making Rambo movies.
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| Have You Got The Stones To Hit The Big Time? |
Turns out a little fame is forever if you nurture it.
You could be the street performer that takes the world stage.
Monster hits like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Rocky, Sham-wow, Snuggie, Priceline and FreeCreditReport.com don't happen all that often.
But when a chart-topping hit shows up, the first place it shows up on the radio.
Radio is the #1 super-star maker in America.
The stats are clear. And they're clearly the opposite of what you think you know because nobody talks about it.
Why would they? They don't want you competing on their turf!
- The typical listener has the radio on for 1.8 hours per day on that long commute.
- Radio reaches 90% of adults in America every week.
- It's everywhere. In the restaurant, at work, at the grocery store.
- It's second only to TV in its behavioral influence.
- There are more than 15,000 radio stations in North America.
- 52% of new cars sold in 2018 have the latest digital radio technology that's silently sweeping the country unnoticed, delivering great stereo music over those old AM radio stations.
- 71% choose the radio while driving because it's easier than all the other options.
Ok, ok. But do digital broadcasters even reach the masses?
Yes. 78% of radio listeners already tune in to digital-enhanced radio broadcast stations. And they're listening to AM/FM radio more than in the past.
It's not just convenient. It's free.
More and more listeners want to feel like they're in touch with their local community (instead of getting force-fed the agenda of global elites, no doubt) which is an overwhelming and growing reason why they choose radio.
And gen Z listens to radio on their smart speakers from Google Home to Amazon Alexa.
Isn't Radio Dead?
They'd like you to believe that, wouldn't they? While they're busily buying up tens of billions of dollars of radio stations just to keep them out of your hands, pretending to lose money.
That's just not how capitalism works, guys. They buy up a bargain-priced media by lying to you.
Broadcast and banking aren't the weakest industries, but the strongest and most valuable.
Saying that radio is dead because we have internet is the same category of error as saying that movies are dead because we have DVDs. We have TV, radio, movies delivered in many different ways than before, but all the new tools are still being used to receive our favorite people, characters, stories, music and information from old media.
In other words, no matter how they get their information, people still want to know what the weather's going to be like, what the traffic is going to be like.
The President of the United States isn't gone. He's just on Twitter now.
Newspapers didn't disappear. They just get delivered to people's mailboxes instead of their doorsteps.
Just because you pick up your milk at the store instead of on your front porch doesn't mean milk disappeared.
The cashier swipes her card and un-screws up your order at the self-checkout. But she's not gone. And the other cashiers still have jobs. They're just doing a slightly different job now.
The Taxi drivers still exist. But now they're driving for Lyft and Uber.
The Bed and Breakfast still exists. It's marketed on AirBnB.
And radio still exists. And TV still exists. And Hollywood still exists. News and politics didn't die with the Roman empire. And just like the old days, those politicians still have a lot of powerful influence.
So does radio. It's just 30 times cheaper than ever to get a signal to the end user that sounds 2 to 4 times clearer.
I keep saying it sounds clearer. But what does that even mean?
Want to Know How good AM-quality digital signal sounds like?
The maximum quality you'd get on the AM dial with HD Radio, in fact, is pretty damn good.
And switch yourself over to the FM dial, and the digital radio quality only gets better.
Resources:
This article contains priceless resources designed to help you take back the country, city-by-city if necessary. It's not the work of one man that makes a difference, but the efforts of many pulling in the same direction.
But I won't leave you with a list of links and no idea what to do with them.
Maybe you already know AM digital stations comes through in much higher, static-free quality. That it works automatically. That the audio is digitally compressed, but had no idea how much reach it can have.
Because that signal is digital, it costs 30 times less to transmit, and it allows you multiple channels of audio in a single broadcast.
Those extra stations are a toe-hold into radio and radio syndication. The industry can't suddenly swell to 3 times its size just because they have 3 times as many channels. The opportunity is there. It's huge, and needs people and shows that appeal to narrower, more distinct, more fanatically dedicated interest groups.
Radio is not about one-size fits all anymore. With 3 times as many options, radio now requires a more tailored approach than ever.
The revenue model is more forgiving on the "extra" channels. At 30 times lower broadcast cost, FM now has more room for talk. Not just music.
And mainstream music listeners are more likely than ever to stumble onto a different kind of radio. Something that turns their mind on, instead of turning it off.
Talk no longer has to sit at the kid's table on the AM dial.
It's America's introduction to nuance. Like when the TV went from 3 TV channels to cable, there was something for all tastes, for all ages, for all sides of the spectrum. There was time for imagination, for story, for exploration.
For the first time in history, multiple content streams can share the same frequency without interfering with each other.
Someone learning on their high school, college, or church's low power FM station can make the small jump to the right AM digital channel on the right time slot, giving them a pathway to mastery, giving them time and opportunity to hone their craft, to develop their talent, to learn to lead, to amass a following, to summon the disciples from the masses.
To be the breath of fresh air on the dial. To be the one who's sharp, crisp, clear, and sensible.
Instead of Giving Them The Same Commie Trash, You Can Give The American Majority What They've Been Starving To Hear All Their Lives
Now's the chance to a growing market everyone else thinks is dead, so they're staying away while you with your podcast or blog or email list or channel can drive them online to connect more intimately and more deeply in a longer form.
To make a bigger difference in each of their lives.
The Nature of The Digital Signal
Unlike making a copy of a copy of an analog signal or an analog record, a perfect digital signal can be exactly repeated or re-copied with bit-for-bit accuracy over a tremendous range complete, intact, and without noise.
It can be transmitted either by wire or by air, so that a low-power digital-only channel with a short range of only 3 miles could be boosted to reach a viewer 70 miles away or 17,000 miles away. So could a podcast or a Tweet or anything else.
A series of radio towers can reach a whole region, or a national news can pick up a breaking news feed from a local station like an affiliate chasing OJ in a white Ford Bronco, interrupting your regularly scheduled program.
That's how fast a signal can get picked up and go national. It happens in real-time.
In turn, the signal beamed by internet or satellite could reach the opposite coasts of the country or the other side of the world within seconds, each listener receiving a live signal of equal clarity at the same moment as a European listener hearing the same message as an American listener.
In its current form, a digital broadcaster gets 3 or 4 radio channels for the price of one. To go from analog to digital costs about $100,000 to $200,000. But that cost is amortized over time. Sort of like a monthly mortgage payment. Other than the installation and licensing the technology, the incremental cost is 10 times lower than sending the analog signal.
Depending on the station, hard costs to broadcast the digital signal might be something as low as $900 to $9,000 per year, depending on wattage. And divide by three to get the annual hard cost of broadcasting that channel.
So if it runs about $10,000 per year for installation and burns another $10,000 of juice, you've only got to recoup about 76 cents an hour to feed a pretty powerful signal. And with a 30 mile range, lots of things could more than recoup those kinds of costs.
There are fees to license and install this technology. These will be passed on to the end user. Usually an advertiser pays the freight and the broadcaster's signal attracts a crowd scanning stations at drive time.
But You Don't Have To Pay For Any of that Stuff
By renting instead of owning, taking responsibility for content and ads, by buying the channel for wholesale, we're theoretically bringing operating costs of radio down to very nearly the cost of the electricity itself.
When you rent, you still don't pay. You pass on all your costs to the advertisers. Like I said, it's free. And if the audience realizes you're like Tucker Carlson, but better, giving them optimism like George Lucas, fulfilling their own dream like Wayne and Garth, it's something the electrifying optimism, vision, and indominability and novelty of genuine, masculine moral fortitude really draws a crowd.
The Format
With terrestrial radio, you can't just do whatever you want. And that's a good thing. It means you don't have to re-invent the wheel.
Due to the regulations the terrestrial broadcaster operates under, the reputation they've created, a given digital broadcast station may put reasonable limits on content, such as use of profanity, adhering to standards and format.
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| Example of a format for a terrestrial radio network intended for syndication, giving the local broadcaster 8 minutes per hour to insert local ads, traffic and weather updates, local interest to shows. Also includes time for national ads and teasers. |
The national broadcaster only needs to provide about 44 minutes of program showtime spots per hour in 4 segments. The rest of the time is spent directly promoting the local station and its needs, promoting the network and its national advertisers, the other syndicated shows.
If you're pouring everything into 9 to 12 minute sprints, you can script it out, you might rehearse it or just wing it, preparing questions to ask a guest. Preferably these will be questions they actually want to answer.
Segment 1 of a two hour show is typically the monologue. The "effort post." What the audience came to hear. Typically a commentary on current events. It sets the tone, follows a predictable format and style.
At the tail end of the monologue, you say, "Stick around. We've got a great show. Our guests will be X, Y, Z." The monologue can be pre-recorded or you can do it live. You're just reading from the page.
If you have a 2 or 3 hour show, you've only got 88 to 132 minutes to fill, usually with a guest or two doing most of the work. When broadcasting live, the time between show segments gives you time to conspire with the guest to provide entertainment value in the next segment.
But to ensure a high level of quality and prevent embarrassment if something goes off the rails, these shows can also be pre-recorded. Evening shows are often recorded the same day. Morning shows are more likely to be done with a live broadcast.
There's a well-oiled machine that rolls into action every day to make these live shows happen.
The content production machine is largely independent of the content syndication machine. These are different personality types with a very different philosophy about life. There is an engineer and an artist working together, trying to achieve the same goal an a and unforgiving schedule, tied to the relentless pressures of the clock, with a manager trying to keep peace between the two.
So it's a rush.
But it's certainly nothing Jared Taylor couldn't live with.
Conforming to the necessities of terrestrial broadcast is similar to the standards and limitations we've faced on YouTube and other platforms.
If you've ever done a YouTube livestream with a guest across different time zones, even if they're a seasoned pro, there will be technical difficulties. You need backups. You need a landline and cellphone and Google Hangouts and Skype all up and running just in case.
Of the few interviews I've done, Southern Dingo was the best at making sure we were on the same page, making sure I felt welcome, making sure I knew what was going on. Only once the show was live and I was being bombarded by questions and unexpected turns did I realize there could be opportunity for improvement.
If the absolute geniuses and courageous heroes who run our favorite broadcasts have room for improvement, then someone like me could one day might somehow make a meaningful contribution to the cause.
And I've sat and watched a rare VIP livestream that was deleted just as soon as it went up. If at all possible, I would have dropped two of the people from that stream, helping them save face by publicly thanking the offenders and making their excuses on air after dropping them, probably edited out certain parts to salvage it and rebroadcast it.
This requires the person hosting or producing the stream to know exactly who he needs to drop and in exactly what situations. On video, flashing the signal to cut the feed (scissors), to drop the guest (a trap door hand sign). On audio, using code words that essentially mean the same thing, like saying, "We sure are in the scissors of a cutting situation" lets the producer of a livestream know what's up. Or "Boy, it's like be trapped and then the bottom drops out" and "like a fox caught in a trap gnawing off his paw" can send a strong hint that a coyote ugly guest needs to be muted immediately.
Of course guests won't always show up on time.
Southern Dingo did it best, so I'll pass on what he'd do if he went nation wide and turned full-time broadcasting pro.
I'm sure he'd personally stay in constant communication by DMs with a countdown starting about a week before. Maybe a Monday night text of "Can't wait to talk on Sunday night" is followed by "I'm looking forward to having you as a guest on Sunday at 8PM your time." With messages each day, then every hour for 3 hours prior, then every 15 minutes for an hour prior to arrival, which should under no circumstances allow less than 15 minutes to get the technical SNAFUs ironed out.
Tech problems can be bad enough to delay a guest for 90 minutes. This happened to me on my one and only appearance on Exodus Americanus. I was using some kind of weird, open-source software I wasn't familiar with that I'd just installed and had to restart my computer. That didn't fix anything. I had to systematically go through every single switch and setting until I found the problem because calling in to the show wasn't a good option.
All of the tech in the pipeline has massively improved since then. I've got my high def audio, my high speed internet, an audience that wants me to keep me working for the cause no matter what. So naturally, at a time when I couldn't possibly be more prepared, nobody wants to interview me on their podcast.
What If You're Pigeon-Holed in Between a Rock and a hard Place:
To my detriment, I tend to stay right on message. One message all the time. I'm known for it. You could ask me about my cute hairstyle, and I'd probably tell you what Jesus thinks of it.
Which is all fine and dandy, but the Jesus-casts don't want me because I challenge the orthodoxy of the day and the traitors in the church. (To say the least, not every church loves Christ.) And, of course, the anti-Jesus nationalist casts definitely don't want me because in their minds, Jesus = Jews. As for everyone else on earth, you're either anti-white or finds nationalism too hot to handle.
I can't even get a messenger pigeon out of this small a pigeon hole. So as someone who has a thousand times smaller niche than a typical, run-of-the-mill laissez-faire pagan white nationalist, I feel your pain.
You might even think the masses aren't ready for our message. But there's hope. Even if you're a broadcaster who's not in the strictly Zionist quadrant of the political spectrum.
For example. 80% of Germans want to "put the history of persecution of the Jews behind them."
The "just shut the hell up" contingent is not a minority view, it would seem, but an overwhelming majority. It's strange that zero broadcasters and zero politicians seem to express any sympathies for the very, very, win-in-a-landslide type of ultra-mainstream view.
But broadcast is powerful indeed. It doesn't just work for the mainstream views.
Broadcast Media Allows very Unnatural Views to Catch on Like Wildfire.
Like the idea of dying out as a people. Or the idea of messing with your junk. Or the idea of implanting animal parts in human beings. And not in a good way.
In the mid 20th century, an unlicensed physician (some might call him a quack fraud) called John R. Brinkley who according to malpractice lawsuits, implanted goat testicles in humans for sexual dysfunction, virility, flatulence, and eventually a total of 27 ailments.
Still, the implants weren't everyone's cup of tea, carrying such a high risk of mortality and all. He solved the prejudice against his pioneering medical procedure and built up his thriving medical practice by educating the public, absolutely no one he couldn't bribe in Mexico standing between his microphone and the listener's radio speakers.
He got rich (for awhile) by buying himself a radio station across the Mexican border and broadcasting his manly goat gland signal into Texas. Eventually, the Mexican border blaster launched two campaigns for Kansas governor, one of which was nearly successful.
The best way to shut me up would have been to let me keep my YouTube channels. All of them. To keep me busy on little corner of the internet playing podcaster. But our enemy doesn't always learn too good.
For example, smashing Napster with the courts only led to the unsmashable, de-centralized Pirate Bay syndicate that's held sway for years, to Mega Upload, to a full-fledged peer-to-peer rennaissance.
Failing to conform potentially means fines or fees, suspension, or potentially being booted off the station in that market. Once again, thees are largely things we've faced on other platforms.
To give you an idea of the scope of what you can get away with, these were format and language standards even Opie and Anthony could live with, with all the commercial breaks and pauses for station identification. These days, many of these details are managed by automation.
LRN is an example of the kind of radio network that's possible. They've gone ahead and shown us the mechanics.
Below is a technical guide, access to resources, and a level of vision and truth mere egg-headed libertarians simply aren't capable of.
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Digital Radio: 30 Times More Energy Efficient, Clearer
All my life, you could only to high quality stereo music on FM radio. AM didn't have the oomph. It simply didn't have the bitrate.
But as a podcaster, I'm aware of new audio compression methods and bitrates and what they're capable of.
For example, opus is the new MP3, but it's ten times more efficient. With 56 kilobytes per second, you'll get great-sounding stereo music. With 26 kilobits per second, you'll get really good mono sound, good enough for music.
So when I heard AM stations can achieve 40 to 60 kilobits per second, I said to myself, "With Opus compression, that delivers nearly FM-quality stereo on an AM signal!"
The problem is the listener needs a specialized receiver. They cost about $30. Too bad. You can't get someone to buy a receiver with nothing to receive. Can't ask a broadcaster to send a signal no one can receive. It's a chicken-and-the-egg problem.
Changing over could take decades, won't it?
Actually, it turns out America's been gradually switching over it's fleet of radios shipped with new cars and including a digitally-enhanced broadcast signal since about 2002. That's nearly 20 years of development. This fruit is nearly ripe.
But it's early days. Nobody knows what to do with it. Until now.
As broadcasters are pushed off YouTube and other platforms, the chicken and the egg problem has been solved. 78% of listeners already tune into digital-enhanced radio stations.
52% of all new cars sold in 2018 came with factory-installed HD Radio receivers that switch to the strongest signal automatically, whether it's digital or analog.
Listeners don't have to know what it is to use it. It just works. When scanning stations, the radio simply taps into the best signal it can find, whether it's digital or not. In America, if you're seeing album art or text on your car radio, then you've got HD Radio.
How's the quality and coverage?
The quality ranges from good to great. How many bars do you have? Just like 4G on your mobile device, the stronger the signal, the better your bit rate.
The digital signal cuts out in some areas, in tunnels, inside buildings. Some receivers buffer the signal, allowing you to re-wind a live audio stream.
The signal is fairly robust with error-correction, the US standard doesn't allow quite as much "skip protection" as our old CD players used to have.
Not enough to get you through a tunnel. In contrast, a a podcast works by buffering several of your favorite shows in case you want to listen, even allowing you to start streaming the show while it's downloading. With a podcast, you could be down a mineshaft for days without missing a beat.
So why do most (and a growing number of) drivers prefer AM/FM radio in 2019?
Ease of Use
Some of the experts will say, "Listeners will never figure it out. It's too complicated." Not true.
To the end user, Digital TV stations work the same as the old stations. But better. You didn't need a Ham radio license to figure out how to watch digital TV. Far from it.
The engineering wizards have figured out that the general public can't program a VCR. If it doesn't automatically work out of the box, don't even bother to ship the box.
You might never have noticed your digital TV has sub-channels. Why would you need to? You just hit the button and see if something else is on. Even my mom can do it. And that's really saying something.
I didn't know what digital radio was. I just put the key in the ignition, started the rental, and picked a station that sounds good. That's it. I didn't know or care what it was. I just kept hitting the button until it sounded good.
That's what listeners do.
It's not the old days, when you had to learn to drive standard, stick, or Model T with high and low clutch, handbrake and the gas throttle and spark on the steering column like a motorcycle.
You don't know or care if you're watching channel 5, channel 5-1, channel 5-2. Or what those things are or who owns them. But when you flip channels, you're already being trained to use HD Radio, which works the same way. Sub-channels sent out by one broadcaster, within each channel working seamlessly.
And used cars are often sold (or up-sold) with premium audio upgrades that include free HD Radio and subscription-based SiriusXM satellite capability.
When something is free, you get what you pay for. I thought we'd save money with a digital TV antenna, but you end up buying so much stuff advertised on those free TV stations that "desperately need your prayers and support in these trying times", that we might have been better off keeping the cable.
The Future Is NOW
Digital Radio is the next generation of radio broadcasting. It's the future. But that future is already here.
AM Example 1 - Wait for it. It's dramatically better, especially when the signal hits 4 bars.
AM Example 2 - Doing what AM radio has never done before.
FM Example 1 - It's still compressed audio, but it's sharp, clear, and near CD Quality.
New generations of the technology will be dramatically better as processor costs and speeds improve, as RAM memory gets cheaper, as the spectrum opens up to send multiple bands of digital signal to the left and right side of frequency, increasing the usable bandwidth and therefore the bitrate, as analog eventually becomes obsolete.
As it is now, you can already squeeze 4 times more channels of audio into AM and FM broadcasts, sent at much higher quality with lower power and no interference.
Digital transmission allows error correction, cuts out interference allowing clear FM-quality radio over (expensive) shortwave radio receivers.
It's a massive improvement to the pops, hisses, static, squeals and moans in long-range reception of shortwave signals over hundreds or thousands of miles. It's a world radio. Which means if you're in a totalitarian state like North Korean or China, you don't own one. No way. Shortwave would allow Russian collusion, heresy, and the penetration of Gospel scripture into every town on earth.
There are other long range options like satellite radio and even TV uplinks. It all gets a little complicated and expensive. The local TV station's van has an uplink dish on top to get live reports from the scene, wherever that scene might be. And it makes for some interesting bloopers sometimes when they lose the audio feed.
The Present Technology: Internet in the Censorship Age
What's the internet good for? No uplink needed, baby! You don't need 10 grand of gear mounted on top of a purpose-built, kitted-out A/V truck with a spare genny to amp the wattage.
Not at all. These days, anyone with a modern smartphone can do the same thing without a satellite dish.
Even the mass shooters and rapists can report their crimes live from the scene themselves. Wirelessly. No audio/video crew needed. No external battery pack.
What an amazing digital age we live in! Mere physics can no longer thwart your dreams. No homing pigeons required to get the news to headquarters.
The Near Future
With 5G and ubiquitous WiFi, life's going to get even easier and cheaper for the dissidents who love life, breeding and raising kids that look a lot like our ancestors, peace, food, health, happiness, and the refuge of our Lord and Savior's word.
Trust me. The near future gets better.
Just imagine the Pulse Nightclub shooter live streaming 4K video at 60 frames per second with slo-mo instant replays of people's heads exploding on Facebook live in 360 degree full-surround 3D video and immersive quadraphonic sound.
Sigh. And to think it all started by using a 2400 baud modem to connect to a dial-up BBS (Now with email!), downloading progressive-scan JPEGs of Cindy Crawford's boobs on a monochrome monitor that someone captured onto a Mac from a magazine with a slow desktop scanner.
 |
| Turns out the internet can also be used for porn. |
Now that we live in Marty McFly's future, older ears may prefer the sound of static on the "warmer" analog stations spinning records of guys with guitars pushing tube amps beyond their limits, but younger listeners grew up on the tinny, metallic sound of low-bitrate MP3s. And the shark from Jaws still doesn't look real.
Digital radio reception is potentially much clearer, cleaner, and higher-quality than AM/FM, with no fuzzyness, static or interference.
FM or even CD quality sound broadcast on AM frequencies. And no limit to the number of stations. Digital means it's interference-free, so you don't need your own separate frequency as a broadcaster.
Similar to digital tv, you either have perfect reception or no reception.
https://www.radioworld.com/tech-and-gear/digital-radio/dab-digital-radio-sales-on-the-rise
Tens of millions of receiver units throughout Europe and the US.
But there's potentially a monopoly on the technology. Yet another gatekeeper.
THE BENEFITS
The reasons to switch to digital are numerous.
For the listener, AM radio will now sound like FM, with bandwidth somewhere similar to current FM monaural signals in the United States, improved reception quality, receiving stations on the same frequencies, new, low-cost, energy-efficient receivers and easy tuning by frequency, station name or programming format. You will also be able to get text information from the station that could include things like the title of the song you’re currently listening to and the name of the singer.
Broadcasters using the DRM system get the additional benefit of much lower broadcasting costs. DRM estimates its system uses about 20 percent of the total energy needed to produce an old-fashioned AM signal — in other words, they can now reach the same number of people at one-fifth the cost.
Both HD and DRM are free to the listener, in contrast with the only form of digital radio most in the United States are now familiar with: satellite radio.
But How does digital radio actually work?
Digital radio, broadcasts radio via a network of terrestrial transmitters.
Digital radio works by combining MPEG and COFDM technology.
MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group – the body that sets up the standards) is an audio compression system. The system basically discards sounds which the listener cannot hear. These include very quiet sounds which might be masked by louder sounds. Thus, the digital technology does not have to broadcast as much digital information.
CODFM (Coded Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) technology eliminates interference, which would disturb an FM reception.
Digital radio combines several service areas in a multiplex so that radio stations do not need their own frequency. The multiplex can carry audio, data and an in-built protection system against transmission errors.
Digital radio therefore sends program signals broken into fragments and digits. The transmitter sends each fragment many times so there is a lower chance of the signal being lost. The receiver then pieces together the fragments who have had a successful journey to make an uninterrupted program signal.
http://www.exaget.com/how-does-digital-radio-work/
According to Wikepedia,
Nearly 2,000 stations in the US broadcast with iBiquity's HD Radio.
To start a low power radio station (LPFM) costs about $15,000 plus $1,000 per month.
Let's say you want to go digital.
https://www.radioworld.com/news-and-business/ibiquity-illuminates-license-fees
To ease the entry into HD radio broadcasting, the radio broadcaster then pays a licensing fee of just $2,500 + 125 per month for five years.
With the same wattage, you're reaching 5 times as far. But only 10% of the public can potentially receive the high quality digital signal. So it's about twice as expensive, but something like 10 times better audio clarity with less interference.
However, Xperi claims 79% of U.S. radio listeners tune to stations broadcasting with HD Radio technology every week.
And there are 161 million hours of in-car listening to HD Radio stations weekly in the U.S., based on the Nielsen Nationwide NRD database, Spring 2018.
100 times larger. With 10 profitable, self-supporting terrestrial stations, a podcast could reach 1,000 times larger audience.
To create round-the clock content on these stations, there will be live & pre-recorded shows and re-runs.
That means dipping into your older content, because in 3 years, it might be a re-run. For your re-runs to sound competitive on these stations, you'll want to start recording your podcasts in CD quality sound where possible.
To Future-Proof Your Programs Now:
CD quality means 44,100 16 bit 172kbps
Broadcasters also pay 3 percent of incremental net revenue derived from HD stations, paid quarterly.
At this point, satellite and terrestrial digital radio are functioning like monopolies right now.
Half of new cars are equipped to receive the signal under 40 car brands, but that translates to only 10% of the cars on the road at this point.
There are 4,300 stations broadcasting digital in North America according to insideradio.com
http://www.insideradio.com/more-than-half-of-new-cars-now-equipped-with-hd/article_055842a0-3f18-11e9-af44-abb5c736f701.html
A handheld receiver (walkman) are available for as little as $30, and many users have been delighted with the sound quality, when compared to analog AM.
http://www.radiosurvivor.com/2017/06/08/whats-deal-lpfm-hd-radio/
Although KVCB’s HD signal is only 7 watts strong, Martin tells us that the signal is about as robust as the analog signal, often coming in better in places where the station’s analog signal is weak. In addition to the main HD–1 digital signal, which is required to simulcast the station’s primary analog signal, KVCB broadcasts HD–2 and HD–3 channels with alternative programming, with all student-created programming on HD–2, and HD–3 broadcasting school information.
7 watt HD signal is reaching places the 100 watt analog signal doesn't reach. The broadcast range is approximately 3.5 miles.
A transmitter this size and its antenna might cost $2,000 to $5,000.
https://electronics.howstuffworks.com/question330.htm
AirBnB style sharing enables terrestrial digital re-broadcasting. You could pay to reach a given 3.5 mile demographic for an hour a day for a one time set-up cost of $21 in hard costs and $1.38 in maintenance, or about $60 retail plus $4 per month per market.
For those who want to do 2 hours per week without re-runs or re-broadcasts, those who only need one audio channel instead of 3 or 4, who don't need or want the simultaneous analog FM broadcast, that works out to as little as 35 cents hard costs, or continuing costs of $1 dollar per month per market for a 2 hour weekly show.
With an app providing automatic scheduling and roll-out across all stations, you can use LPFM sharing to roll out go as big or as small as you want on the fly, hitting whatever markets you like best.
Which means someone like Red Ice Radio would not be limited by YouTube's algorithms or online censorship. If they receive $40 of new donations one month, they can re-invest that to expand into 40 new, untapped markets.
As long as they're targeting profitable markets, which, by the way is something that can be automated as long as you know what zip code donations are coming from, they can broadcast when and where they're wanted, with independent entrepreneurs profiting by renting out their local airwaves.
"On November 10, 2015 Cumulus Media’s stock price was valued in pennies, as in “27 pennies” per share"
"iHeart Media with a stock price of $1.50 a share had a market cap of $134,210,000, meaning each of its approximately 850 radio stations are worth approximately $157,894 a piece."
https://darrylparks.com/2015/11/11/wanna-buy-a-radio-station-really-cheap/
As of 2018, Americans averaged 106 minutes of radio listening time per day, with much of this time being spent while commuting.
https://www.statista.com/topics/1330/radio/
15,500 radio stations in the U.S. Reaches 90% of adults who listen 106 minutes of radio per day.
209,128,094 adults live in the US today
338,787,511.2 hours of combined annual radio listening
22,585 hours listened per station per day
12,547 potential listeners per station
157,894 listeners per station
Each radio listener worth $12 to the stock price of iHeartRadio
Some math may be wrong due to weekly vs. daily stats.
LPFMs or small community stations that also broadcast on a larger station’s HD2 channel in order to reach a somewhat wider audience. A more common use is to feed a translator repeater station that extends the station’s reach.
http://www.radiosurvivor.com/2017/06/08/whats-deal-lpfm-hd-radio/
Low power's HD2 can be rebroadcast on a higher powered host stations H2 or HD3 channels.
A high school radio station did a low power FM station that includes a HD radio signal and multiple sub-channels you can receive automatically on the newer radios in more and more cars, now in more than half the new cars made since 2002, and 78% of radio listeners listen to an HD station. 100W radio station, and 4 watt HD signal.
Cost of digital transmitter:
$5,000 for a ds300 transmitter
https://www.radiosurvivor.com/2017/06/06/podcast-94-high-school-station-went-hd/
"100w would quadruple the power" With digital, "we would need about 10% of the power for analog broadcasting."
HD would kick in where the analog was poor and vice versa. Combined range more robust at a low wattage. 3.5 miles is the reliable coverage.
The digital-only sub-channels are not quite as robust.
HD3, using extended hybrid, closer to the analog channel. News from school for parents, mono low-bandwidth for parents.
Example LPFM Radio Station:
Annual electricity cost (actual): $842
Total annual expenses: $16,600
Licensing fees paid to Performance Rights Organizations (PROs) who pass on money to artists and composers.
Cost For the Use of Music:
Licensing fees of $600 / year (Full-time broadcast)
+ internet streaming
Death To Old Media: Norway Goes Digital & Shuts Down Analog FM Radio Forever
Replaced with DAB - digital audio broadcasting, better sound quality at a fraction of the cost.
https://fortune.com/2017/12/18/norway-fm-radio-digital-audio-broadcasting/
Demonstrates HD Radio, HD2, and HD3 on your local FM channels with no monthly subscription fees in crystal clear CD-quality digital sound on your FM dial.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHfPvqA7sJ8
Minimum costs of starting a Radio Station:
https://www.prometheusradio.org/startup_costs
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How To Put My Podcast on AM or FM Radio NOW!
https://fuelresistance.blogspot.com/2019/11/when-loved-one-dies.html
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