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Radio stations

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Do you consider any of the radio stations that you can pick up on the dial ,not the net, to be of any use to you? In other words a large percentage of what they play you like, events are announced  that you are interested in.......

Setting-up a radio station...

In Reykjavik, our nation has less 250,000 people (roughly 60% reside in & around Reykjavik). The setup and licensing costs would be prohibitive and we would not have a sufficient number of listeners in our community to establish a gothic / industrial / ebm radio station. In Iceland, it is a dream, but at least we have the internet to listen to gothic/industrial radio from abroad :)

In Vancouver, your population is 3,000,000+. Canadian laws, equipment availability, a larger audience, and licensing fees make it easier to set up a radio station. A) Vancouver has radio stations specific to various languistic & ethnic listeners or western musical genres, so a gothic / industrial / ebm / hardcore station should be viable. B) If you follow the CRTC application guidelines, the CRTC can grant you with a "public radio" (process takes several years) licence to transmit 50W (approx 3 to 5 kilometer radius) to 2500W (approx 10 to 20 kilometer radius). C) In the downtown area, you should be able to find a tall building where you can place your antenna for good coverage). D) You can buy used transmitter & amplification hardware on Ebay, find someone qualified to set it up and maintain it (speak to UBC campus radio). E) Keep the startup costs low by setting up a simple digital studio in a small secure commercial office, using a computer, good microphone, and high quality soundcard to start with. F) Gothic / industrial / ebm / hardcore music is not categorized as TOP 40 music, so it would comply with the CRTC "public radio licensing" guidelines ("public radio licensing" qualifications: must play >90% non-TOP40 music, check the regulations to be certain). G) While waiting approx 2 to 3 years for the CRTC to approve your broadcasting license, you can make the best of the time by fundraising locally as much as possible - you have a large number of DJs or musicians who can assist you with this. The BC Gothic Society may also want to be a motivating force to help maintain the momentum for this activity, or to be the owner of the radio station itself...

Vancouver is known internationally as being a major centre for gothic / industrial music, spawned many musical pioneers, and the Vancouver scene has been active for nearly three decades, so yor suggestion of a radio station seems like a logical next step.

Well was interested to see what people thought  or say "hey listen to this station it's not bad".Starting a pirate radio station requires certain dedication of a certain kind and a licensed lpfm one would need tight organization and time. Thing about internet stations is not every one is on the net  or if they are they use dial up and you can not listen to one in your car, usally.

Buying a $5,000 van, and a finding a big freakin' antenna is an option. However, I personally think setting up a radio station online, and dumping $5,000 into google ads, hand bills, and spam, would work better. Unless you have ethical qualms about invading info saturated heads and contributing to the wreckless junk mail phenomenon steadily degrading the signal to noise ratio of modern communications.

Just out of curiousity, are you planning to start a radio station, or were you simply entertaining a thought?  

I'm confused. What were we talking about again? Yes, FM sucks. (except occasionally Brave New Waves only because it sounds like the AM dial with echo.)  :P

I find FM radio useless. The AM dial on the other hand is loads of fun. weoowwww...zzzttth...weooozz.www... you can make some pretty cool ambient tracks just recording the noise frequencies, putting them through some echo effects and viola!

But seriously, as far as concert announcements and playlists go, FM is about as relevant to me as say, watching an East-Indian Rap video on channel 20. If I'm in the mood I can tap my foot or shake my ass, but relating to it, even on a superficial level, it's hopeless.

Information for youmans.

Like swimming in an alien memepool. it's fun to splash water, but If you don't know how to dive, all you see are feet. Cute little feet.

er, please excuse my train of thought.

Carry on...