Radio Nosferatu - A query
Mar. 15th, 2004 07:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
docwebsterAs most of you know, I (and the rest of our merry band) have been running Radio Nosferatu for about two years now. In all that time, I think our highest number of listeners has been six. That's a whole lot of money and a whole lot of time put in and for next to no listener feedback.
Most times, the only listener is our own Smoky, and that because it's his machine out there on the left coast that's our dedicated machine.
I'm forced to ask myself, is it because of our format? It's 90 percent gothic/industrial, with a few other bits and bobs thrown in. The reason I ask myself about that is, there's ten million other stations out there doing exactly what we're doing (and doing it as well or better than us in most cases), and most of those have very loyal dedicated listener bases that just aren't going to switch.
My question is this - and bear in mind this is only a question - do you think we'd reach a broader audience if we played a broader range of styles? For a long time now, my friends and I have been doing "Radio Free Callahan's" on the weekends as a venue for playing our favorite tunes and have been having a lot of fun with it. As I sincerely doubt Spider would let us make money with the Callahan's name (and rightly so), I thought why not make it "Radio Harmony". It would be thus be named after the planet a certain member of that splendid fiction and their family come from and would thus pay tribute to the series without unduly impinging on Mr. Robinson's copyrights. It would also more closely reflect a quality I think is desperately needed in this benighted day and age.
This would open the station up to a far broader range of styles and listener bases (and thus advertising revenues, let's not kid ourselves) and fulfill a dream I've had for quite a long time now of having a sort of public access station for pretty much whoever wants to submit a program that doesn't irritate the hell out of me.
I'm in the process of getting the station all nice and legal via a licensing co-op, so just about anything could be played without getting our asses sued off.
I ABSOLUTELY NEED TO STRESS that I have not gone out and unilaterally changed the station. I wanted to throw this out for discussion, but I feel down deep in my heart that this would work better. But I absolutely want to hear what you good people think.
Most times, the only listener is our own Smoky, and that because it's his machine out there on the left coast that's our dedicated machine.
I'm forced to ask myself, is it because of our format? It's 90 percent gothic/industrial, with a few other bits and bobs thrown in. The reason I ask myself about that is, there's ten million other stations out there doing exactly what we're doing (and doing it as well or better than us in most cases), and most of those have very loyal dedicated listener bases that just aren't going to switch.
My question is this - and bear in mind this is only a question - do you think we'd reach a broader audience if we played a broader range of styles? For a long time now, my friends and I have been doing "Radio Free Callahan's" on the weekends as a venue for playing our favorite tunes and have been having a lot of fun with it. As I sincerely doubt Spider would let us make money with the Callahan's name (and rightly so), I thought why not make it "Radio Harmony". It would be thus be named after the planet a certain member of that splendid fiction and their family come from and would thus pay tribute to the series without unduly impinging on Mr. Robinson's copyrights. It would also more closely reflect a quality I think is desperately needed in this benighted day and age.
This would open the station up to a far broader range of styles and listener bases (and thus advertising revenues, let's not kid ourselves) and fulfill a dream I've had for quite a long time now of having a sort of public access station for pretty much whoever wants to submit a program that doesn't irritate the hell out of me.
I'm in the process of getting the station all nice and legal via a licensing co-op, so just about anything could be played without getting our asses sued off.
I ABSOLUTELY NEED TO STRESS that I have not gone out and unilaterally changed the station. I wanted to throw this out for discussion, but I feel down deep in my heart that this would work better. But I absolutely want to hear what you good people think.
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no subject
Date: 2004-03-15 10:38 pm (UTC)But a question for you, there's umpteen million stations broadcasting "any old stuff"... What's your unique selling point ?
What would make a listener tune into your's, rather than someone else's station ?
Answer that, and you might have something that'll stand a chance.
Niche broadcasting works, provided you can find a select target audiance that'll get their content from you, and a few to no-one else.
It's the same really with any marketing. You can either try and compete with the mainstream boys, and get a small slice of a very big pie. Or go for the unique and fringe cultures, and try to get a very big slice of a small pie.
RFC might work as a PBS, so that people could dabble their toes at being internet radio jocks without the hassle of actually becoming one. [deaing with technical stuff etc.] Hell, I'd give it a go myself!