You're not the only person contemplating the 'state of the broadcast state' these days.

I appreciate the comments about my efforts. To be honest John, we don't get much money here. Then again, we don't hound people for it either.

I've made a living off radio for 30 years. I was thinking about that while driving into work today.

I have worked for small stations and big corporations. I've labored with rookies and legends. Sales, management, on-air, sports, news, and just about every format...I've sampled it all.

And now, this thing called internet.

I put in an awful lot of time on this site. I have an understanding and supportive wife. In addition to my fulltime job, I do voiceovers, DJ dances and weddings, and provide public speaking consultation. In other words, Ultimate Oldies Radio is not an income, it is a 'passion'. My webmaster and I would like to see money come in. Not so much to make a killing off of people, but rather to cover expenses and maybe even expand the site to do more.

For some reason, we are one of the highest ranked oldies sites in the world. Some come close to us, most do not. We outrank nearly every oldies radio STATION website in the world as well. However, that and a buck fifty will get me a 16 ounce Starbucks special blend.

I've thought about google ads, but that would 'gum up' the site. We're looking at selling advertising. I'm thinking about maybe quarterly fund-raisers.

Bottom line is, we love the music and try to do something with it. To just put hundreds or thousands of oldies on a stream and call it a radio station makes it really more of a jukebox than a 'station'. We try to make it interactive, forefront, and entertaining.

Others deliver lots more stream listeners. Our thing has never been the 'stream'. We provide that as an extra. 97% of our site traffic comes from listening to the weekly on-demand shows and reading the pages.

Nowadays, other sites are copying us...in concept and even in logo design. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

The opportunity to make friends and meet new folks has provided the greatest joy for me personally since the site began. Don't know where we'll go from here, but we'll enjoy it along the way.

As for your aspirations, why not get some basic recording software, a mixer, and a mic and start producing your own shows? Have fun with it and develop a structure as you go.
Share that love of oldies with others and do what you want to do.

Best to you John.

Thanks for writing.

Bob

• RE: Good ol' Days - Radio and TV - John 03/08/2007 18:16:01 EST (0)