You must have in one or several days of your life wondered how the radio broadcasts you listen to get to your terrestrial radio receiver.
The process is without doubt a very technical one, but simply put, audio content (the voice of your favorite radio talk show’s host, the music, adverts, news etc.) from your favorite radio station, is broadcast from a land based transmission station. That content is converted to a signal via transmission equipment, and made to travel along the land, all the way to your terrestrial radio set on an allocated radio frequency e.g (Afro 105 FM).
Indeed for a very long time especially in developing and third world regions, people have only known the terrestrial radio receiver/sets at home, in the car, or even most recently in the mobile phone, as the ways of listening to audio content from radio stations.
The terrain is changing. Serious broadcasters are increasingly embracing new means of growing the listener base thanks to technological advancement, especially in Information Communication Technology (ICT).
The internet has opened a very wide window of opportunity through which creative minds in the broadcast industry are working hard to maximize on its potential as a super leverage for growing broadcaster's audience base.
Although the availability of internet has given birth to new digital ways of delivering audio content to the expectant listener in the global village, there are broadcasters who are yet to take advantage of the internet leverge to grow their footprint beyond the traditional geographical location/s restricted by assigned radio frequencies.
Broadcasters in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, South Sudan, etc. should seize this moment and make it much easier for their nationals living or working outside the frequency coverage areas, are facilitated to listen to radio back home from wherever they are.
In 2020 and beyond, broadcasters in the East African region have an opportunity to access stream hosting as well as an unlimited bandwidth for their terrestrial radio station/s or online radio stations. Getting your radio station online has never been this sipmlified.
In addition to the free quality streaming that is enable to use both shoutcast and Icecast platforms with unlimited listeners and bandwidth, a broadcaster will get a management portal containing realtime stream analytics, Facebook Live Integration, integration to an increasingly growing listener base, ability to record your live stream and convert the recording to podcasts for on demand listening - all these at no extra cost. Sounds good?
There is so much a broadcaster in East Africa can do with the content once it gets online. The stream can be delivered to the listener wherever they are via a Call-to-Listen number (in the USA, to call the CTL number to listen to a radio is free of charge).
The stream URL could also be submitted to online radio directories or to mobile applications giving a broadcaster's content exposure to millions of listeners. The same content would also be available on the broadcaster's website or their mobile application.
Beyond the usual terrestrial advertising income stream, there are also other ways that your station's stream can be monetized to gain more from your online presence. An additional revenue for your station from your online presence would make more sense than just being there only to be heard.
Other broadcaster are doing a little more and are adding attractive & valuable coins to their treasury. The room for broadcasters in the East African region to grow their audience footprint in 2020 and beyond.
East Africa Rep - Zeno Media
Comments