Author Topic: Growing Concern - FM quickly becoming a dinosaur  (Read 1299 times)

Offline meman

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Getting my FM signal really became an issue for some folks this year. Many people don't understand that we broadcast from a personal FM transmitter in our garages/workshops and spend half the show trying to get the music to play via internet radio on their phones, or devices in their cars. Golf carts, hayrides, etc. were all listening to FM streams, and Millennials don't even know what terrestrial radio is. I don't know how to cope with this. I have tried to research the possibility of real-time streaming via my own website, but not finding any "how-to" guides.

Has anyone else tried to tackle this issue?

Thanks,
Mike E.

Offline sabie

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Re: Growing Concern - FM quickly becoming a dinosaur
« Reply #1 on: December 25, 2016, »
not yet fm seems to work fine in mississippi
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Offline NavyGator

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Re: Growing Concern - FM quickly becoming a dinosaur
« Reply #2 on: December 26, 2016, »
Do you have a sign with the info on it for your station?

Offline caretaker

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Re: Growing Concern - FM quickly becoming a dinosaur
« Reply #3 on: December 26, 2016, »
I think a major problem you would have streaming is latency. Only other thing I would thing that could possibly work would be bluetooth and I see that as a hassel from the get go.
Jeff Squires
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Offline meman

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Re: Growing Concern - FM quickly becoming a dinosaur
« Reply #4 on: December 28, 2016, »
Thanks Caretaker...you understand the issue.

Guys, there is no problem with my FM broadcast. Sign is lit, signal is strong and people with "radios" are receiving it and enjoy the show just fine.
The problem is that "those people" are quickly being replaced by Millennials that don't know how to function outside of their cell phones. They don't even use car radios anymore. They listen to their favorite FM radio stations via streaming apps on their phones or dash mounted media tablets. When they see my sign, they Google 102.1 on their phone and start trying to find the station that is broadcasting "MY" music. But it doesn't exist on the Internet.

Fortunately, this same post generated 4-5 pages of brainstorming over on the DIYChristmas forum. A couple of ideas to explore are shoutcast or a dedicated wireless access point that only dishes up a link to the audio stream (like the page you have to agree to at some hotels before you can use their internet). Latency might be manageable with something local like that instead of using the public Internet.

Mike E.

Offline DanHouston

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Re: Growing Concern - FM quickly becoming a dinosaur
« Reply #5 on: January 02, 2017, »
Shoutcast looks interesting....going to test with it?
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Offline taybrynn

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Re: Growing Concern - FM quickly becoming a dinosaur
« Reply #6 on: January 03, 2017, »
It seems that trying to fix stupid is basically impossible.   I put "TUNE TO 93.9 FM" all over my display and on a 25' wide matrix in 1' high letter .. and still, people texted us asking how to listen to the show, or what the frequency was.  I DO think your right, younger generation doesn't listen to radio ... so probably find tuning an FM radio they never use ... might be somewhat difficult maybe?

I remember what the topic is 'tune to' signs or 'donation boxes' ... some folks just CAN'T figure it out no matter how obvious you make it.      LOL
Scott - Castle Rock, Colorado   [ 2 homes, 100% RGB in 2016; since 2008; over 32k channels of E1.31 ]
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