Learning how to use a CFD, or a Contract for Difference, can help assess the current value of an asset in the financial market. CFDs are contracts between two parties that can help determine which way prices are moving, and thus, help decide the value of a certain asset. As such, using a CFD as a financial tool may be helpful as you navigate through the trading industry.

What is a CFD?

A CFD, or a Contract for Difference, is a financial product that can be purchased by investors, but has no monetary value. While CFDs are considered financial instruments, they are merely requirements specified in a particular contract in relation to financial assets. As such, using a CFD can help investors find which way prices are moving in the market by using the CFD as a derivative.

How Does a CFD work?

A CFD is a contract between two groups that regulate how much a group will pay the other group. The two parties are often called the buyer and the seller. As such, the CFD determines the difference between the current value of an asset and its value at contract time. Therefore, if the asset’s value is positive, the buyer will pay the seller. On the other hand, if the value of the CFD is negative, then the seller will pay the buyer. As such, if a CFD is greater than the current value of the asset, then it suggests that the current value of said asset has decreased.

Why Use a CFD?

A Contract for Difference allows traders to take advantage of fluctuating prices. Whether the prices are increasing or decreasing does not make a difference. CFDs are also used to speculate in the market and may provide a general understanding of the direction in which the price is moving. Most CFDs are used more for speculation than for investment purposes.

While there are some positive benefits of using a CFD, keep in mind that they are not available in all countries. Currently the only countries that allow CFDs are New Zealand, Spain, Ireland, France, Japan, Canada, Sweden, South Africa, Singapore, Australia, Italy, Switzerland, Portugal, The Netherlands, Poland, the U.K. and Germany. CFDs are not allowed in the United States and other countries due to various limitations set by security and exchange commissions. Navigating through CFD trading can be quite difficult, unlike UFX Markets’ Money Origami on Econmatters.com. However, nothing is impossible if you concentrate and learn as much as you can about both the positives and negatives of CFD trading.

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Are you one of those trail blazers who is destined for greatness? There are a few things you need to become familiar with and comfortable doing. Learn how to master these basic business skills and you’ll be well on your way to becoming your own boss, and probably the boss of many other workers, as well.

Technology

College is the best time to familiarize yourself with the latest technology, and to get a firm grasp on where the future of technology is headed. Even if your interests lie outside of technical fields, computers and software are the driving force of any type of business today. Learn about the latest gadgets, apps and software packages. Know why these are successful, and how you could improve them. Most of all, know what tools are the best for your type of work and become an expert in using them.

Travel

Web cams, conference calls and emails are great day-to-day business tools, but if you are really going somewhere with your ideas, there are times that getting things done requires meeting investors and potential clients face to face. This means being familiar with how to travel both nationally and abroad. According to statistics, college students are already doing a lot of travel. Take a look at this interesting graph.

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Learn your geography. Familiarize yourself with national and world economies. Understand why the automotive industry is drawn to the South, why the Midwest is the center of biofuel technologies, why a lumberjack’s life insurance costs more in the Pacific Northwest and why businesses in the U.S. are opening production factories in India.

Business Basics

The best idea in the world is no substitute for basic business practices. You may not want to tear yourself away from building your dreams to focus on mundane tasks like writing a business plan, incorporating and establishing solid accounting records, but no business enjoys success without these things. Take at least a few business and accounting classes so that you are building your business on a solid foundation.

The college years are a unique time in life when you are on your own, but not yet burdened with mortgage payments, the responsibilities of raising a family and worrying about retirement plans. Use this time to gain an understanding of how the world of business works. Then use this knowledge to build a business that is rooted sound principles, yet aspires to be everything you dream of as an entrepreneur.

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There’s a popular saying about technology: “there’s an app for that.” For those who like to listen to the radio while in the car, but would prefer the variety and features of Internet radio, that saying will soon be true. Livio Radio is an application available for both Androids and iPhones that puts Internet radio in your car. It does require some additional hardware to be installed in your vehicle, including a Dice Car Kit (which simulates a satellite radio receiver) or a Bluetooth adaptor, one of which will be necessary to make this work. Both products are still in development.

The primary advantage of using the Livio app is that it does not require a monthly subscription fee like Sirius XM satellite radio does. Instead, a purchase of about $100 for the hardware and $19.99 for the smartphone app will have you set up, with no fees required in order to keep yourself in business. Whether or not the sound quality matches a satellite radio receiver is questionable, and while early testers are reporting good results, we’ll likely have to wait until the products hit the actual market to get some real data.

The good news is that innovations are still being made in the field of radio and portable music. While MP3s and iPods have been considered the death of the physical album, that doesn’t mean that the music industry has really suffered. Indeed, the converse is largely true in that the work of many more artists is available to a much larger fan base than in decades past. Here’s to hoping that trend continues to grow.

When we think about Internet radio, Pandora comes to mind as one of the largest and most popular of such services. Pandora apps are also available for Windows, Android and iOS mobile phones and devices as well as the web-based service access via computer. It is not uncommon to walk through any office today and find cubicle inhabitants all listening to their own personalized Pandora stations through ear bud headphones. Of course, Pandora isn’t alone; other web-based radio providers include Yahoo Music, Google Music and Last.FM are all giving Pandora a run for her money, especially in the North American markets.

The future of the music industry, including satellite radio, traditional AM / FM radio and Internet radio, is difficult to predict. We have seen so much in the way of innovation and new technology over the last decade that it is nearly impossible to ascertain a future direction. One can only be assured of the fact that there will always be some type of radio, in one form or another, and that this entertainment venue will never die.

Cover of Howard Stern

Once upon a time, Americans received the bulk of their news and entertainment via the radio. Then came television and big budgets movies, followed by video games and the Internet. Traditional radio was suffering from a serious lack of interest. At the same time, those syndicated radio programs that were able to generate advertising revenue were being hamstrung by FCC regulations concerning adult-themed content. In order to revitalize the concept of completely auditory entertainment, radio needed some big changes.

These changes arrived with the advent of satellite radio. Two companies, Sirius and XM Radio, vied for the entirety of the market before merging into one holding company, Sirius XM Radio, in 2008. The popular syndicated programs of Anthony and Opie, Howard Stern and Blue Collar Radio are now free to do as they please, at least, up to a certain limit. Additionally, the recent innovation of satellite radio receivers being included as original equipment in most makes of automobiles has expanded the market considerably.

Of course, not having commercials means that the satellite radio providers must have a source of income in order to be profitable and stay in business. That means a subscription based service in which those who want to enjoy satellite radio programming must pay a monthly fee and have a satellite radio receiver. Receivers can be portable or stationary, as well as being installed in a vehicle. Many of these receivers are also capable of recording live broadcasts for playback at a later time, allowing satellite radio to compete even with MP3 players.

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The radio has completely changed the ways of the world. Once the radio was invented humankind was able to transmit sounds from one place to another allowing people a more effective means of communication. From being priceless during the times of war, the radio also evolved as the singular most important means of entertainment as well. This could be for game shows, music, news and anything else you can think of.

The history of the radio is a quite colorful one and it has gone through several technology-based improvements over the years. Today in fact, it is quite a portable device, being made available in our iPods and our cellular phones as well. Radios are relatively easy to own. All you need is a means of receiving a transmission and you are good to go.

Radios today have developed to such an extent that they are even available in digital form. There are several radio stations that are broadcast by major broadcasting organizations. There are several advantages to having these. You have a great variety in terms of entertainment, there is something for every member of the family, the services are free and you have complete freedom in controlling the way you listen to the music.

Digital radio stations are plenty and the fact they are popular shows that the interest in radio is not something that will wane over a period of time. Tuning in is simple and once you have done so with your receiver, you do not have worry about it anymore. In fact, even if you move, your receiver will tune itself to the stations of your choice.

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Digital radio versions of all your favorite shows are available online. Every major network has them and they are easily available. All you need to do is log into a digital radio site, type in your postal code and you are good to go. The great thing about digital radio is that there is a variety of shows that you can listen to and enjoy. Therefore, there is something for the entire family.

The advantages of digital radio are plenty. The quality of sound you get is crystal clear and it comes with the added advantage of text being made available. This means that you can read all about the program that is being streamed. You can browse through online guides to choose programs of your choice and should you want lyrics to a particular song that you are listening to, they are available to you as well. If you have newer versions of a digital radio receiver in your home, you will find that the means of controlling them are all the more varied but simple enough to use. This makes things a lot easier for you.

In addition, if you happen to be moving out of town, then there is absolutely no need for you to retune your receiver. All you need to do is plug it in and play. There are also several free stations that you can tune into making your experience even more pleasant. Amongst the several advantages to having a digital radio station, the variety in terms of choice alone should be good enough for you to consider it.

There are several advantages to having digital radio stations. You have clear sound and a large variety of radio shows to tune into and enjoy. Since you are online, you will also be able to see information related to the song being streamed. You will also have access to a program guide that will give you an update on programs.

The text that appears along with the broadcast can give you visual information on what you are listening to, lyrics of songs you are listening and more. The choices available when it comes to digital radio stations are plenty and you can be assured of something good for everyone in the family to listen to. The ease of using the digital radio stations is what makes it all the more exciting. You do not need to be technologically skilled to be able to tune in and listen to the shows of your choice.

Once you’ve gone through your options, pick the one you’re going to stream your digital radio station on. Majority of these hosting services do have a fee you’ll need to pay every month. Some also have tiers that could potentially affect the options available to your digital radio station. These options could include the amount of simultaneous listeners you’re allowed to have and your data storage. These are important decisions that could affect your decision on which service provider to go with.

Next, download and install the software you’ve chosen. Some might not require downloading since they’re a web-based platform.

Get your music collection together and organize your files. To keep your station going 24/7, you’re going to need a good size music collection. Make sure you convert all of the music you own to MP3 files for your software. You should be fine when it comes to copyrighted music as long as you purchased your music legally. Then categorize all your music by genre. Then take your music set list and load it so that your digital radio station will play it.

Lastly, it’s time to launch your digital radio station. Make sure there’s enough music so you won’t have to worry about dead air from happening.

To some, broadcast journalism is seen as a job that’s full of glamour and fun. You get to be on the air each and every day delivering important and interesting information to your viewers. It takes a lot of hard work and determination to make it as a great broadcast journalist. But it can be done.

First you will need to develop strong writing skills. Most of the time you will be writing your own reports. Many broadcast journalism schools will require you take some reporting classes to develop some writing skills.

Know about the subjects you’re going to be talking about. It’s your job to report the news. Be sure to check the spelling and pronunciation of all the names.

Hone in on your communications skills. In order to make it as a broadcast journalist, you will need to be an articulate speaker that can speak clearly and everyone is able to understand what you’re saying.

Get an internship at a news or radio station. Most companies in broadcast journalism won’t even bring you in for an interview without ant internship experience.

Apply everywhere you can. There’s stiff competition out there and you’re definitely not the only person applying for the job. Make sure you have a lot of backups and be prepared to the possibility of relocating.

Take any opportunity you can get. You have to start from somewhere and you can always work your way up. No one ever gets a high paying, glamorous job just after graduation.

Before setting up an online radio station, make sure you brush up on the Digital Millennium Copyright Laws. The law requires that you pay any royalties if you want to play songs on your radio station. I’m guessing you’re planning on playing music. If you’re just doing a talk online radio station than you should be fine there.

Next, set up your server that’s going to host your online radio station. Finding a hosting for your website isn’t super difficult if you’re good with the technical side of starting your own online radio station.

Read all the rules about what you can and can’t do. You don’t have to have any problems with the servers. Also read all the information on the hosting site you go with. Some will have a monthly fee and this fee will cover the royalties of some of the songs you’re looking to play. Cover your basis.

Be sure to have the amount of bandwidth that can support a large number of listeners. You don’t want anything to happen if you have more listeners than what your bandwidth can hold.

Lastly, set up your music player. Doing this will be based on which server you’re going with. If it’s your own server than you can just link all your music to your website.

Digital radio is differs from of traditional radio in that its information is encoded on its carrier waves differently.  AM (amplitude modulation) or FM (frequency modulation) radio is a little bit weaker than radio stations using digital signals. These two options will use kilohertz or megahertz as opposed to gigahertz that majority of the digital radio stations will use.

Analog signals usually have a hard time knowing the difference between signals that are either desired or undesired. This is why you sometimes turn to a radio station and there’s a ton of static. You won’t experience this with digital radio.

In order to work, all radio stations will have to manipulate the electrical charge that are found in the air. To send out your radio signal, all that’s needed are an antenna and some electricity. What happens is that the electricity will make the particles vibrate and in return they will create an electromagnetic field.

For the most part satellite digital radio will be a bit stronger than your regular signals because the signal come from space and there’s less interference from there as opposed to getting the signal from the ground where there could be a ton of interference.

The great thing about satellite digital radio is that the waves are a lot longer and stronger than ground-base so sending digital signals all over the world without a ton of problems.

Digital radio is going to be huge in the upcoming years and it’ll be interested to see how well it does in the near future.

Even in entertainment-based industries on the Internet are you able to make money. If you are able to launch an application on Facebook, in the area of online gaming, for instance, this can be very intriguing. Your hobbies on the Internet can make money over time. One certain area in entertainment is found in gambling. If you enjoy playing casino games, you could head to an Online Casino to play your favorite games and make some extra money. There are other options that can be financially-worthwhile as well, here (such as sports betting).

Many money-making ventures online are about getting an audience. To take a previous example, if you want to start a website based on hobby, you could make money with a gardening site. Ad space could be respectable once you have a following; combine this with affiliate marketing and other options, and you could be on your way to obtaining a decent income for what you put into the project.

Online business models can certainly vary in depth. Whatever you choose, do your research in your specific niche. You will need to understand your market and what it will take to start, from a free blogging platform to costs for a website, design, etc. Once you gain an understanding, you will be ready to begin.

Technology is a wonderful thing. It creates a ton of different creative jobs to work in, but it made the competition only harder for you. The glamorous side of broadcast radio is what draws people in. Who wouldn’t enjoy talking to celebrities or sports players each and every day?

In order to land a job in broadcast radio you will need your degree in broadcasting or journalism. You’ll also need some exceptional work experience. For example, a great internship working at a radio or television station will look great on your resume. You should also have experience working at your college radio station. This is a perfect way for you to get real world experience and to see if you can handle the pressures of the job.

Your first job will more than likely be an entry-level position at a smaller radio station, so be prepared to the possibility of relocating to another state. You might not land your first job in your dream city or hometown. If you’re not willing to relocate than this might not be the job for you.

The competition in the radio industry is tough. Everyone wants to land a job working on the radio. The hardest broadcast radio position is in the entertainment industry.

The competition is stiff, but with great credentials you shouldn’t have too much trouble getting your foot in the door. Just be prepared to relocate and work your way from the bottom until you reach the top.

Scoring that internship is just as hard as landing your perfect first job post graduation. It’s your job to do what you need to do to make yourself stand out from all the other college students applying for the same internship. Here are a few tips on scoring an internship in broadcasting.

While many journalism colleges will send out emails about potential internships, you can also find some using websites like Craigslist, Journalism Jobs, Media Bistro and Entertainment Jobs. Also do a search on the website of your local news station. They’ll have their internships on their career page.

Speak with the coordinator at your university that deals with internships and see if there are any available positions in broadcasting. A lot of colleges will have a partnership with certain companies so they will know who is looking to bring on some interns.

Create a resume and put together some clips that you’ve done in school or at another internship that you’re really proud of. While you most likely don’t have a lot of experience, still include regular jobs you’ve had. Even though it has nothing to do with broadcast, this will show that you’ve held a job so you do have some work ethic.

Fill out an application material that company requests. Be sure to follow each and every instruction. Failing to do so could cost you the internship. Send the material well before the due date. Sending it early could help improve your chances.

Now it’s a waiting game to see if you’re scored an interview for the internship.

Broadcast journalism is basically another type of news media that gets broadcast online, on television or on the radio. While reports rely mainly on the story, those working in broadcast can use the information, videos and photos to report the news. Broadcasters report the information in a more conversational tone.

Back in the day people went to the Radio to hear about the news and listen to “talk programs” and to hear some music. Things changed in the 1940s when it became news and drama programs. Television became popular in the 1950s and color television sets hit the market in the late 60s.

Broadcast journalism is meant to provide viewers and listeners with a service. This service is to give people up to date information about any news that could potential affect their lives.

There are multiple forms of broadcast journalism. One is a newscast program that’s about 30 to 60 minutes long discussing all the news for the day. Each newscast could include weather, entertainment, sports, local, world and offbeat stories. Then you have a more magazine-style segment that will have a few topics that will be discussed in better detail. These are headline stories, but they might not have necessarily made headlines that day. Last is blogging and interactive broadcasting. These are stories being posted within minutes of happening and as new information is presented the content will get updated.

The industry is one of the most competitive industries to get in. It takes a lot of hard work and determination to truly make it as a broadcast journalist.

Before starting your own HD radio station, make sure you have your money in order. This could cost quite a bit. Then write up your business plan which will includes our goals for the station and how and why it will be a profitable one. Submit this business proposal to private investors and banks that could help fund your radio station.

Purchase a licensed broadcasting radio station. Just know that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) do require that you back up this request for new license. This could be years before you’re actually approved. Make sure you fill out the FCC form 314 in order for it to get approved.

Then you’ll want to take the radio station and convert it to digital format. There are HD transmitters editing programs, microphones and everything else you could possibly needed available to purchase.

Pick which format you want your HD radio station to be in. This means what will you be doing? It is just a music station, a radio show, etc? To really stand out make your radio station a unique one.

Next complete the small tasks of choosing a name and slogan. Be original and make sure the name isn’t taken.

Get your licenses to play your music. You can buy the rights to any music you want to play. Make sure it’s in order; you don’t want to get sued for playing music.

Hire engineers to help run your radio station and anyone else you think could be beneficial to the radio station.

Advertise your station. You’ve got your niche so go spread the word!

You need to state to your potential employer reasons why you are the ideal candidate for the job at their company. But note, make sure your cover letter doesn’t sound “cutesy” or too wordy. Your cover letter shouldn’t be more than a page long.

Before applying it’s always good to do a little research on the company you’re applying to. Knowing what the company is about and what they value will help you if you’re called for an interview. The company likes it when people know their information on them. It shows you’re interested in the position and the company.

Read through the job description completely. Understand all the job duties you would be doing and make sure the skills listed match yours. If they’re looking for a specific type of person, include writing samples that go with what you would be doing in the position.

Use a standard cover letter example to see how you should write the cover letter. It won’t tell you how to write it exactly, but you can follow the example to how it should look.

Use the paragraphs, no more than four, to talk about your skills that relate to the position. The cover letter is proof that you know how to do the job and you have the experience. Each graph should only two to three sentences long. Remember; short, sweet and straight to the point.

Your last paragraph should just be a sentence or two stating you’re looking forward to speaking with them about the position and your qualifications. If requested, this is where you would include your salary requirements and where they can reach you by phone.

Broadcast journalism was hugely important for doing play-by-plays of certain sporting events like the Olympics. People didn’t have to wait until the next day to hear what happened, they got instant replays.

Majority of those working in broadcast went to a great journalism school. According to reports, the best journalism schools are Northwestern, Syracuse University and University of Missouri, just to name a few. Finding the best journalism school is important because they’ll help you find amazing internships. Those internships will be what will ultimately help you land a job after graduation.

The very first broadcast for sports was during a Philadelphia Phillies game on the radio in 1921. A college football game was broadcasted on television for the first time in 1939. NBC was the hot sport for sports broadcasting, but FOX, ABC, CBS and the popular option, ESPN, are all great options for broadcasting sports coverage.

The biggest compliment you can receive doing sports broadcasting would be being named in the Broadcasters Hall of Fame. This is a huge accomplishment and achievement when working in this field.

While ESPN is considered a dream job for those in broadcast journalism, you won’t score a job there right after graduation. Many journalists will work their butt off and work their way up to the top of the broadcasters food chain. But once you make it, it’ll be well worth all the hard work and not so glamorous jobs.

Before landing any great job you’ll have to prove that you can handle the job. Prove it by showing off your top-notch writing samples and amazing references. If you can prove you can handle moving up the food chain than do that. You won’t go anywhere in this industry if you don’t speak up for yourself.

Before getting an audience you’ll need to figure out who you want your audience to be and what type of radio show you’re looking to start.  There really isn’t any need to have another top 20 radio station, but if you can narrow it a little further, you’ll do great.

You can also figure out your show by getting more specific with the demographics. For example, you can think about gender, age, education and geographic location. If you’re living in say Southern Calif. than try and target those who enjoy fishing, swimming or surfing. It’s a tight niche and there probably aren’t a lot of radio stations like that out there.

Content development is important. It helps you decide what to add to your show. For example, think about the show above, adding some weather and surf conditions with beach traffic and some music and you’ve got the potential of a really great show. Once you’ve got your specific niche, finding segments for your show won’t be too difficult. The hardest part is actually finding your core audience.

You’ve got your audience, now who do you want as advertisers? Choose advertisers that relate to your core audience. For example, find retailers who sell fishing, surfing and boating equipment.

Create and build a website for your radio show. Use a .com domain for your radio show. Be sure to add a request page, list of topics and songs playing. You want the site so you can promote your radio show and interact with your listeners. The tricky part is creating a domain name that’s not taken.

If you’re show doesn’t make, try bringing your radio show to the Internet. There are a ton of opportunities for online radio shows. Don’t get discouraged the first time around.

Many people who start their own online radio station often found that using two computers is the best option because you can use one for audio production and stream using the other. Using a computer for production is only needed if you’re planning on running your radio station 24 hours a day. If you’re thinking about just doing a daily show that’s three to four hours than you’ll only need one computer.

The computer you use for production won’t need an Internet connection. All that’s really needed is audio software for recording production. Something like Garage Band is the most popular option, but it does cost quite a bit of money.

Create your library of music for your radio station. Once you’ve got the format for your station going, make a list of audio that’s going be the theme for your station. Create commercials, announcements, promos and anything else you’re going to use to promote your station.

Create your playlist on iTunes. This will be the cheapest and easiest way to mange your music and keep it organized. Being unorganized will make this a little harder for you and can create some problems. There’s MegaSeg DJ software that many DJs and radio stations will use for their music.  You’ll have the option to set up a list of music and they will play each one after the other. This way if you’re not around or busy, you’ll be able to avoid any dead air.

Stream your music to he Internet. Make sure you have everything needed to stream your music. You don’t want any problems the day you launch your radio station.

Promote. Promote. Promote. Use social networking websites to promote the launch date of your radio station.

Live365.com is a website that basically works as a transmitter for you.  Their packages start at 5.95 a month and go up to 100 dollars a month.  Live365 also offers a Pro package that you can customize.  The Pro package allows you to broadcast live or pre-recorded material.  You control the advertising.  The price per month for this is dependent on your customization and therefore you should contact Live365 for exact pricing on the Pro package.  In order for you to play popular music that we all hear on the radio, you have to pay royalties to the singers and record companies.  All royalties are included in your price.  You can not only play music but you can put your own voice out there as a broadcaster.  You can also earn revenue with this website.

Ubroadcast.com allows anyone to broadcast television and radio to any audience all over the internet.  Your broadcasts can be embedded to be shared on Facebook, MySpace, or virtually any web site.  For just a basic broadcast all you need is a microphone, camera and the internet.  It can be as simple or as complex as you want it, but give that free trial a shot first.  The cost for this ranges, but ubroadcast.com does have a free account.  This website pays no royalties; it will only broadcast music you own the rights to.

The Federal Communications Commission oversees the licenses for ham radios in the United States.  There are local clubs that may give classes on how to operate ham radios and what questions may be on the exam.  You will need knowledge of the ham radio in order to pass this exam.  If you cannot find a local club, there is a lot of information on the web, or you can visit your library for study materials.  It may be a good idea to find an experienced operator to teach you and show you what tricks he knows.

A ham license is good for 10 years and there is no cost for the license but you may pay a small fee for the exam.  The cost of the exam really depends on the examiner and your state.  There are three types of licenses and each one comes with more privileges than the other.  These licenses are Technician, General and Extra.

Ham radios are able to help during emergencies when telephone lines are down and no other communication is possible.  You can also use your ham radio to talk to astronauts in space.  You also gain knowledge on how to build radios and antennas.

Another cool feature RBDS has is that of auto tuning.  This is a great feature for those long car rides for vacation or holidays.  Typically when you lose the signal on your radio you need to manually tune in the radio to the station that has the strongest signal.  With the auto tune feature, your radio automatically finds the station with not only with the strongest signal but one that is similar to the station you were listening to previously.

Unfortunately not all of RDBS capabilities are being used here in the United States.  One of RDBS features are that it can interrupt programming, a CD playing or interrupt silence (when you are driving with your radio off).  It gives weather reports, road conditions, or other emergency related incidents.  There are companies that have developed software that can do this in certain cities, counties, and states.  However FEMA hesitates to do this.  Maybe for the cost the radio station would have to pay for this software.  FEMA is looking at new ways to employ RBDS to Emergency Alert Systems as a way to alert individuals during emergencies and natural disasters.

This system was introduced in the early 90’s to FEMA.  Why are they now beginning to integrate this technology when its use has been available for more than 15 years in the United States?

You want your radio to be user friendly.  You want something that is easy to handle while you are driving.  Make sure you play with the units you look at before purchasing the radio.  You want to be able to see the screen well when you are driving.  Look at it from all angles.  Are the numbers easy to read?  Make sure the buttons are big enough for you to see what you are pushing.

Do you prefer to have a radio that you take the face off to prevent theft?  Some models have fully detachable faces.  This allows you to pull the facing off of your radio and take it inside so no one will be tempted to take it.  Others have a semi detachable face or a face that you can flip over to hide the radio.  You paid good money for your unit; you don’t want some knuckle-head busting out your window for your radio.

A CB radio does not require a license by the FCC.  The FCC regulates that all CB’s transmits no more than four watts.  Any power additives that push it over the four watts are considered illegal by the FCC.

Let’s look at what features can come on the radio.  Depending on what you are planning to use the radio for will determine what size you need.  Some units come with what’s called mic gain.  This feature adjusts the volume of amplification in the mic itself.  You can get a unit that has a PA feature on it and this allows you to transmit on external speakers outside your vehicle.

You also have a squelch option.  This cuts down on the static noise when no one is transmitting.  You can adjust manually or some have an auto adjust feature.  Some radios have a talk back feature that allows you to hear your transmission through your radio.  This way if you need to make any adjustments you can do this.  If you plan to go off road you should look into the radios with the weather band options.  This gives you the weather for that area.

There are many brands of CB radios.  Cobra, Uniden, and Midland are top manufacturers.  Brands are like cars and it comes down to personal preference.

We’re going to go with the cons list first.  An FM chip in a cell phone would drain the batteries quickly.  Though there are a few cell phones who sell phones that can receive FM signal through ear buds.  Manufacturers like LG, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, and Nokia carry these phones with the FM chip.  An AM chip is impossible to place inside a phone.  It needs not only internal but external antennas.  These antennas would need to be pretty large.  It would add to the cost of the phone and take up space that could be used for new technologies.  Some are suggesting that this proposal is nothing more than a way to save a floundering business that consumers are abandoning.

Now let’s look at the pros.  It would not be hard to add the FM chip to cell phones.  The antenna would be either wired ear buds or a point of contact on the phone itself.  The technology does not harm the cell phones or their functions.  And we have already seen this in the cell phones carrying the FM chip.  In a couple of years you could see HD radio chips.  Although right now it’s a little expensive.  The NAB believes that these chips could save people’s lives, enabling them to monitor local weather and emergency alerts.  The NAB is encouraged over recent surveys that suggest if a chip was installed on cell phone consumers would use the feature.

Take the traditional form of broadcasting, for example. Traditionally tied to radio, television, or cable, broadcasting has come to encompass one more aspect in recent decades: the webcast. Now, anyone with a few ideas and some hard disk space to record on can create programs revolving around the two aspects that have always driven broadcasting: enlightenment and entertainment.

With a bit of determination and effort befitting a new business venture, anyone can pursue this new style of broadcast career. People like to have independent opinions in the digital age, and nowhere is this more evident than in the rash of new podcasts that have popped up on topics ranging from sex advice to stock picking. All that is really required, besides an internet connection, a computer, a microphone, and a few original ideas, is persistence to follow through on your ideas to such an extent that you build a large body of work.

From there, the income related step is straightforward. Simply reach out to any business that presently offers services related to the ideas which guide your broadcasts. Advertisers love to engage in focused, targeted selling tactics, and the new broadcast methods play right to their strengths. Just as pursuing online degrees is a new route for people the globe over, it makes sense to follow all of your dreams. So fire up a computer, roll up your sleeves, and get studying for your degree, while at the same time creating an unrivaled body of independent broadcasting work. Even if your broadcasting business doesn’t take off, employers in the field will be very interested!

The first thing you need to do is to plug in some headphones or ear buds, any kind.  This is the antenna for your radio.  You can’t listen to your radio feature without them.  On the home screen of your Nano you will find the radio menu item or icon.  When you first click on the radio icon or menu item, moving the click wheel to the left or right changes the radio station.  After you have listened for a little bit and you are ready to move to another station, double click the center button on the click wheel.  This brings the tuner back up and allows you to move through the channels going left and right again.  When you are done listening to the radio, you have to click, “Stop Radio”.  You cannot use the play/pause feature to stop the radio like you do when you use the songs you have downloaded.

The Nano can use its built-in storage and FM tuner to record live radio.  Live Pause can be turned on or off from the radio feature.  It allows you to listen to up to 15 minutes of live radio.  You can then tag these songs for later purchase.

It is, however, important to remember that HD radio does not have any connection to HDTV.  HD radio provides enhanced features over the analog format.  The FCC will not force analog radio broadcasts off the air.  HD receivers are not mandatory to listen to FM/AM radio.  The analog signal backs up the digital signal.  In other words, if the digital signal fails, the analog will pick up.  Consumers have noted that there is sometimes poor sound quality because of this.  Playing an HD unit with a regular FM/AM device together will result in the “echo” effect.

If you go to your local electronic store looking for an HD receiver, do not expect to find one in stock.  Most stores will not carry the receivers because consumers favor internet radio options over the HD radio.  You can order a receiver online.  The cost ranges between 50 dollars up to a couple hundred dollars.  There are several major automakers that have made HD radio a factory installed option in their vehicles.  There are, currently, only a few handheld devices that allow HD radio.  Microsoft has the Zune HD and Apple has the IPod Nano.

Satellite radio is a paid subscription radio.  It is installed in newer vehicles with 6 months to a year subscription free.  While satellite radio is offering streaming music on their websites, you do have to pay a monthly fee for that use.  Satellite radio is stepping out of the vehicles and inside your home.  They have several portable devices that allow you to have satellite inside your home.  Keep in mind that you do have to pay for the subscription as well as the receivers.

Satellite radio financially has the upper hand over internet radio, obviously because of the paid subscriptions.  Internet radio has instant access to millions of songs with little to no commercials.  Portability is about the same for the two, although, both are making real progress in that area.  They both provide different types of stations from, talk, to music, to weather and news.  With the official merger of XM and Sirius in 2008 it definitely makes satellite radio formidable and financially sound.  But let’s face it free is free and most people will choose that over a paid subscription any day.  That could be why FM/AM is still ranked number one.

If you truly want a job in radio, do not limit yourself to just FM/AM stations.  There are internet stations and satellite radio, which are easier to get into than traditional radio.  You can even start up your own internet station for just a little bit of money.  It is great experience and looks good on a resume.  That is what is truly going to get you into radio, experience.  It does not matter if it is paid or not paid; the experience is what will be worth your time.

Get to know your local radio station.  Show up at promotions and appearances and get to know your local personalities.  Do not be weird about it though, that would be a good way not to get a job and land you in jail.  Volunteer your time, free help is appreciated everywhere.  Intern at a radio station, keep in mind that it is the experience you want.  Everyone has to start somewhere and you may have to take a different job within the station to acquire one in broadcasting.  Keep in mind that there is more to broadcasting than just the couple of hours a day on the radio that your hear.  If you truly desire a job in radio putting the time in and getting experience will be worth it in the long run.

Radio shows can do much more for a website than just bring in radio ad revenue. They can create a following that is hard to get with just a website filled with text and pictures. A radio show is a way to personalize content, making it more inviting than just providing text to read. If a site can create Internet radio content for its readers, it can get a far more loyal following than a typical website that doesn’t have an audio component to keep visitors coming back.

The drjays website uses its own Internet radio programs to attract attention of its visitors and to promote its products. The hip hop clothing and accessories sold on the DrJays website caters to a crowd that appreciates hip hop music, so that’s what the radio show is about. With radio journalist Boss Lady interviewing the hip hop artists that appeal to the demographic that is interested in DrJays clothing, the website can attract more people than just those who were seeking out the website for its clothing. And while those people are there, they will see the clothing and perhaps make a purchase. This expands the following of DrJays well past the hip hop scene of New York and places in on the global stage.

Like the boosted popularity of DrJays, if you can find a radio format that creates an interest among your demographic you have the potential to create an enormous following. Finding a format such as the one that Boss Lady uses, to interview people who have their fingers on the pulse of the industry that you are promoting is an important part of the process. Experiment with Internet radio shows that fill a need in your customer’s lives until you find one that fits your website and creates the following you are after.

With FM/AM radio you need to “tune” into your radio station.  In a rural area that could mean only three to four radio stations.  DAB automatically grabs radio stations in that area giving rural radio listeners more channels to choose from.

Much like digital television, when DAB signal is lost, it’s gone.  More than half the pixels are missing in the picture and there is no sound, right?  FM/AM analogue signal slowly corrupts and gradually loses the signal, like an analogue television.  It gets a little fuzzy but you can still hear it and make out the picture, and you eventually lose the signal.  Keeping that in mind, DAB sound quality is comparable to FM/AM analogue frequency.

FM/AM is very well established, the receivers can be made at a lower cost.  DAB is not very well established and its receiver can be costly.  However, DAB is more cost effective in terms of maintenance.

DAB is also able to send a radio text that announces the radio station and song playing along with a pause feature that allows you to halt live radio.  Some FM radios are able to do this as well but most stations are not able to broadcast this option.  That’s why you can see certain radio stations call letters on your radio.  And unless you have satellite radio you will not see the song name.

Combined analog and digital signals are transmitted. FM is limited as to how much information it can carry; therefore, the sound quality is lower than CD quality. AM (Amplitude Modulation) radio carries even less information.

The bundled signals allow data sent as text, such as, song titles with the song being transmitted. HD radio can send alot more information over the same frequency by digitizing the signal. FM stations have 150 kilobits per second (kps) of bandwidth available for HD radio with only about 96 kps used for digital audio programming.

The digital signal is compressed. As a result, radio stations can provide higher quality sound. In addition, this reduced bandwith can be divided into multiple programs, allowing digital radio stations to increase their simultaneously available content, or multicast, without needing more frequencies or bandwith. For example, an FM radio station can be tuned in on a specific frequency, say, 104.1. However, an HD receiver can indicate the station is multicasting so the radio dial can be set to an alternate channel , such as HD2 or HD3, which is simultaneously broad cast by the same FM radio station.

HD digital receivers can sort through reflected signals, reducing static and hissing. HD radio allow additional information to get sent to your radio via an HD receiver, without the same problems FM listeners experience, such as, background noise and interference from buildings.

In addition to all the other benefits of HD over FM broadcasts, digital radio is also free, it just requires an HD receiver.

Stations use their HD2 multicast channels to offer new music and news formats, offer programming in additional languages and even promote local artists. In light of the greater range of formatting stations can offer with digital radio, the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) created the NAB HD Radio Multicast Award recognizing stations for their ability to develop innovative programming on multicast channels.

In October, 2010, Wilmington, Delaware’s WSTW-FM radio received NAB’s HD Radio Multicast Award. It received the award for its HD2 side-channel, 93.7-2 Graffiti Radio. NAB cited WSTW-FM for their eclectic programming with exceptional musical entertainment. NAB finds creative side channels to represent HD Radio’s essence.

WSTW-GM’s Graffiti Radio station features a wide variety of genre, including independent rock, funk, synthetic pop and hip-hop. This variety offers a distinct listening experience for audiences in the Wilmington and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania areas. The station also provides an interactive website with message boards and DJ blogs, as well as daily updates on Facebook and Twitter.

This was the fourth Award NAB presented of this kind. Recipients in previous years included KBCO-FM Denver, WRIF-FM Detroit’s and side channel to Howard University’s WHUR-FM.NAB is a leading association for United State’s broadcasters. The advocacy group promotes radio and television interests in legislative and regulatory issues. Through advocacy, education and innovation, NAB helps broadcasters to better serve their communities and grow their stations.

Conservative talk radio, historically a strong platform, continued to dominate political talk radio, fueled by the Democratic White House and Congress, according to a 2010 report released by the Project for Excellence in Journalism.

Conservative commentators Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity ruled talk radio with 15 million and 14 million listeners, respectively, in spring 2009. However, Glenn Beck emerged as a strong contender, his radio audience reaching nine million in the same time period, triple the number of listeners he garnered a year earlier. Much of Beck’s new-found popularity has been attributed to Beck’s opposition to policies of the Obama administration, most notably the economic stimulus package the proposed overhaul of the healthcare system.

Not surprisingly, liberals lost ground in 2009. Top left-leaning radio host, Ed Schultz, lost some of his audience with just 2.5 million listeners in 2009. The other major liberal talker, Randi Rhodes, left Nova M radio in February 2009 and didn’t return to the air until May 2009 on Premier Networks, a subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications.Only time will tell if she is able to recover her audience.

One rising star among liberal talkers is Thom Hartmann. Although he isn’t seeing the rapid growth of Beck, he did have 2 million listeners in 2009, up from 1.5 million the year before.

In contrast to the draw of U.S. political, conservative talk radio on commercial stations, listeners turned to public radio for news and events that had a foreign focus. Almost 21 percent of National Public Radio (NPR) airtime was spent on news and events outside the U.S. Among the foreign news stories NPR reported on in 2009 were AIDS in Bolivia, organic farming in India and alcoholism in Mongolia.

Although Air America Radio, which is known for its liberal point of view, stopped broadcasting in January 2010, The number of radio stations identified by Arbitron as providing news, talk or information rose to 1,583 in 2009, up from 1,533 in 2008.

In the United States, HD Radio is the only digital audio broadcasting method available. It was selected by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 2002 as the digital audio broadcasting method for the U.S. HD Radio is the trademark for iBiquity’s in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital radio technology which allows audio and data to be transmitted via a digital signal while also transmitting analog signals.

In 2008, Ford Motor Company became the first US automaker to feature HD Radio tuners in its vehicles. In the 2009 model it was a factory-installed option and was made standard on all 2011 models. With model year 2010, Volvo became the first manufacturer to offer HD Radio technology as a standard feature installed at the factory. Fifteen brands in all are committed to including HD Radio technology as a standard or optional original equipment (OE) feature. This includes many vehicles not only from Ford and Volvo, but Audi, BMW, Hyundai, Jaguar, Kia, Land Rover, Lincoln, Mercedes, Mercury, MINI, Rolls Royce, Volkswagon and Scion.

BMW began researching and testing the feasibility of streaming traffic information via HD Radio stations in 2009. This would allow consumers to view traffic patterns on real-time basis.

In addition to all the cars that come equipped with HD digital radio, older cars can still be upgraded, whether it be by do-it-yourselfers, turn-key installation offered by various retailers or auto dealers who sell converters. Automobile upgrades start at less than $100. Major brands offer digital radio receivers, such as Kenwood, Pioneer and JVC. Pioneer and Sony both offer receivers at about $100 and many units are less than $300.

Of teens and adults, that means more than 92 percent of the population listens to the radio; however, that includes passive radio listening, like background radio in a store or another public location. Even with iPods, Internet radio and other technologies, 80 percent of teen and adult consumers reported listening to the same amount of broadcast radio as the year before.

Most consumers continue to listen to the radio away from home, such as in the car. More than 62 percent of listeners hear the radio away from home versus 38 percent of listeners at home. However, of the listening done at home, including recorded music and books and streaming audio. Traditional radio still garners 46 percent of a consumers listening time.

AM/FM radio is expected to continue to experience growth as more people tune into a radio stations’ website for their audio streams. In 2008, 69 million people reported listening to online radio in the previous month, up from 54 million for the same period the year before, according to Arbitron. These figures do not include people who listen to stations that broadcast only on the Internet and do not include any talk, such as Pandora.

Although almost a third of those surveyed said they would listen to online radio in their cars, broadcast radio has nothing to fear at this time. The technology that would allow streaming radio in cars, or online radio, has only been adopted by smartphones and not by car makers.

RSS stations switching to HD Radio channels, along with their parent FM radio stations, will benefit from the better audio and increased data transmissions. With this in mind, NPR Labs and International Association of Audio Information Services are developing a way to categorize RRS programs and transmit that data on an HD Radio channel. The project funded by a grant from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, is also working on a digital radio receiver that would enable vision-impaired consumers to save specific program for later use.

The project is called the Personalized Audio Information Service (PAIS). The technology was showcased using a prototype of a working HD Radio receiver enabled with PAIS at the 2010 NAB Radio Show. PAIS tags can be generated by the RRS reader for a live program by initializing a software program to send the tag to the channel’s HD Radio importer or by another application used for automated transmission.

As the number of Americans with print impairments grow, more listeners will benefit from this new technology. According to the American Council of the Blind, about 9 percent of American adults have vision impairments in 2010, and the number is expected to double by 2040. But the technology has applications to the rest of the population as well. If all syndicated radio programs and talk shows transmitted with PAIS data, anyone with a PAIS receiver could record public programs.

Although NPR’s audience for its news programs was up more than 4 percent between spring 2005 and spring 2009, it stagnated from 2008 to 2009 at about 26.4 million listeners per week. By inculcating more digital technology into its approach to reaching listeners, NPR grew its overall audience. Unique visits to NPR’s web and mobile platforms grew more than 43 percent between 2008 and 2009.

NPR Changes Website; Lauches iPhone App

This growth was achieved by NPR with a multi-pronged approach. NPR made major changes to the look and accessibility of its website which it unveiled in the summer of 2009. Shortly after, NPR introduced an iPhone app which quickly became a huge success. According to NPR, there were more than 1 million downloads using the app in the first week alone and listeners spent about 15 minutes on the application at a time. However, the iPhone app dampened listener downloads of podcasts – about 8 percent fewer by the end of 2009 than 2008. The app doesn’t require a download offering streaming audio instead.

Social Media Gains Ground

NPR also made a major foray into social media to grow its audience. NPR says its Twitter feed had more than 1.3 million visitors and its Facebook page had more than half a million fans by the end of 2009. NPR is even encouraging journalists to use these sites.
The availability of NPR programming also grew during 2009 with 901 stations offering its content up from 866 in 2008. The number of NPR member stations stood at 268.

The FCC adopted HD Radio in 2002 as the method to broadcast digital audio in the US. HD Radio is frequently in tandem with analog AM and FM radio stations. As of spring 2009 there were more stations broadcasting with HD Radio technology than any of the digital audio technologies offered worldwide.

The most common digital radio standards are a group of technologies known as Eureka-147. It began with DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting), which is used by a number of countries, especially in Europe where it was introduced in the 1980′s. Eureka-147 was expanded to include DAB+ which was introduced in February 2007. DAB+ offers much improved audio quality and is much more efficient than than DAB. However, DAB-only receivers can’t receive DAB+ transmissions.

When DAB was introduced, it was state of the art and continues to be the standard technology used in the United Kingdom. DAB is based on MPEG Audio Layer II coding. DAB+ was later developed to provide more efficient transmission at lower bit rates, lower costs, and provide more service options. DAB+ is used in Malta, Singapore and Australia and other countries new to digital radio. DMB, a later innovation, provides additional capabilities which allow DAB to act as a mobile television and multimedia digital radio platforms.

DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) is a technology that was developed in South Korea. Eureka 147 is coordinated by the World DMB Forum. According to the World DMB Forum, more than half a billion people are able to receive DAB services from more than 1,300 radio stations.

Other systems include Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) which is a group of technologies that use AM broadcasting bands. DRM+ extends the system from broadcasting bands below 30MHz up to 108 MHz.

Because satellite radio provides an analog or digital radio signal relayed by satellites, it covers a wide geographical area relative to terrestrial radio stations in the US. US terrestrial stations are local, each with its own content and commercials, although they may offer syndicated content.

AM and FM coverage allows listeners to pick up the same station throughout a very long road trip. Because a satellite’s signal has a range of millions of square miles, there is better coverage in rural areas where FM and AM radio is limited. The broadcast from orbiting satellites is clear and static-free.

Satellite radio can also come installed on many cars on the market. SIRIUS has agreements with Ford, Chrysler, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar, Volvo, Mazda, Dodge, Jeep, Volkswagen and Audi vehicles to install AM/FM and satellite radios in their vehicles. Because the radio services offered via satellite use proprietary signals, specialized hardware is necessary to decode and playback that signal; therefore, a standard AM/FM radio won’t do.

The plethora of stations available on satellite radio also provides listeners with multiple programming options within every genre available. SIRIUS also provides sports enthusiasts a variety of programming from partners like the NFL, NASCAR and ESPN. With satellite radio, the amount of advertising is far less than that of tradition radio stations, in part because the subscribers pay for the radio service.

One downside of satellite radio is that tunnels, large buildings, overpasses and other obstructions can block the satellite signal. SIRIUS does have a number of repeater towers on the ground that rebroadcast the satellite signal but even microwaves can sometimes block the signal.

Paul Harvey’s career began in radio when he was about 15 years old. His distinct voice led a teacher from Tulsa Central High School in Oklahoma to take him to a local radio station and tell the manager that Harvey needed to be on radio. For two years he worked unpaid, starting as an errand boy but moving up to commercials and reading the news. He attended the University of Tulsa where he studied speech and literature. He then worked at radio stations across the Midwest.

Harvey joined the Army after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and worked as a reporter in Hawaii. After his discharge in 1944, he moved to Chicago and began working on WENR-AM. When ABC bought the network where he worked in 1951, his broadcasts were heard across the country and he quickly became a popular host. He was on the air twice a day hosting one of the most heard programs on the radio with 22 million listeners on 1,300 radio stations.

Although Harvey was on television during the late 1960′s and early 1970′s, he preferred radio and left TV. However, he did lecture and write a syndicated newspaper column.

Like so many other conservative commentators, Harvey promoted his views over the radio. He was known for having supported Senator Joseph McCarthy’s anticommunist campaigns in the 1950′s and opposing bussing for school desegregation in the 1960′s. However, he wasn’t above breaking with the right and supported the Equal Rights Amendment and was pro-choice.

Harvey was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1990 but his most well-known award was the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Bush in 2005.

ICART’s Mission
In January 2008, NPR Labs, in collaboration with Towson University, established the International Center for Accessible Radio Technology (ICART). ICART’s mission is to make radio broadcasting more accessible as digital transmission is adopted globally. ICART was developed on the heels of the 2007 Human Rights Convention “Rights of Persons With Disabilities.”

By turning broadcast radio into text and then converting the text into a serial stream that can be sent to a listener’s Braille display, NPR intends to provide radio access to the deaf-blind community worldwide.

It won’t be difficult to make the serial stream compatible with different devices once NPR Labs overcomes the difficulty of making an accurate text stream to provide real-time data.

Millions Poised to Gain Access to Radio

NPR Labs hopes to be able to help millions gain access to radio. According to various reports done by Mississippi State University, Gallaudet University and figures from the Helen Keller National Center, several hundred thousand Americans are deaf blind with the numbers increasing as the population ages.

The significance of Captioned Radio worldwide can be seen as it nears approval as an international recommendation by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU-UIT), the agency of the United Nations that adopts standards recommendations for telecommunications services worldwide. According to the recommendation, there are 650 million people with sensory disabilities around the world.

While 4.3 billion people listen to the radio on a weekly basis, it is estimated that more than 2 billion people are affected by sensory disabilities when people affected in households and workplaces are brought into the mix.

Compatibility and Connectivity

When selecting a digital media receiver, make sure it is compatible with any digital files you already have and support any other devices you already have. WMA and AAC files are not necessarily transferable. The best way to check is by looking at the labels on the box of the receiver you have in mind or going to the brand’s website.

A digital receiver’s compatibility also extends to connectivity. Check whether it can physically connect to the audio devices you plan to use with it, such as, an equalizer or an iPod.

Display and Configuration

Is it wireless or does it require direct hook up? If it does need wires, can you run them with the configuration you have in mind?

Get a digital media receiver with a display readable across the room. There is no
point in having a remote if you can’t use it.

Power

As with any piece of electronics, power is key. While it is easy to go overboard and equate the most powerful with the best, take a step back and evaluate your requirements. The room size where the receiver will be dictates the amount of power you need. A digital receiver with a range of 30 to 50 watts could best meet the needs in a small room while receivers with 100 watts or more might be best suited for large rooms.

Use this list as a starting point for choosing the right digital receiver to meet your needs.

A job in radio sales would likely involve selling advertising spots for the station, whether that is over the airways or through the print media. Outdoor advertising is also another avenue that many radio stations use to secure sponsors. The salesperson’s job is to present a mutually beneficial advertising plan to the client that will give them what they’re looking for in marketing and advertising and provide the radio station with a source of revenue.

Getting a job or starting a career in radio sales will likely be precluded with some type of exposure to sales and marketing in other industries. Although this is not required, it does help the person in a tremendous way if they have previous exposure to an outside sales climate and cold-calling on potential customers.

Approach the radio station’s manager about any available sales positions. Most often, their sales reps are compensated on commission, so you need to be able to show the manager that you have the qualifications and experience necessary to bring the station the client’s they need to operate.

Usually, the experience listed on your resume will be sufficient, but to ensure your chances, take your pitch a step further. Compile a disk that profiles your “radio voice” and either leave it with the manager or mail it back right after your interview. Although you may not need your voice in sales, it shows your enthusiasm for the job and expands your options in case you ever have to multi-task for the station as the DJ.

When the radio was first invented, advertisements sounded like a story. There were characters, songs, and interesting voices. All this was designed to get listeners excited about the products. The majority of advertisements were for items that were considered essential household goods such as laundry soap, refrigerators, and even cigarettes.

Over time, radio advertisements began to change. Songs and jingles are still a part of the advertising effort today, but the types of products and services that are being promoted have changed. You can hear advertisements for software companies that run update driver scans, movies, new restaurants, retailers, and automakers.

Another way that radio advertising has changed is in its use of time and space for announcements that promote something other than for profit enterprises. Radio time can be bought by politicians who are running for office and even community organizations that have events and various charitable efforts to promote. Some radio stations even broadcast a number of public service announcements for free on behalf of non-profit organizations. This helps stations fulfill the promise that’s inherent in their FCC-issued broadcast license to be stewards of the airwaves and serve the public good. However, these PSAs do impact the amount of time that’s available for traditional ads.

Radio advertising changes with the times, and it will be interesting to hear what radio ads sounds like in another 10 or even 20 years. Who knows if traditional radio will even exist a decade from now as Internet radio, podcasts, and satellite radio become more popular.

DJ’s are mainly responsible for keeping the listeners engaged and entertained as they work to bring exposure and interest to the radio company that they represent. They are best known for playing the best and the latest music in various genres usually have access to newly released music that may not be available to the public. This sparks the interest of the listeners and keep them tuned in to their favorite DJ’s.

DJ’s are also salespeople of sorts because they are motivators who encourage the listeners to “buy this song” or “patronize this sponsor.” Their salesmanlike approach to their listeners is very customer-driven, therefore many DJ’s are chosen based on how well they interact and engage their listeners and how well they can be convincing and lead the customers to potential revenue opportunities for the station.

Although DJ’s are not required to hold a college degree, their chances for securing a position increases if they have a communications or broadcasting degree or even relevant experience. Until the hopeful DJ can secure a degree or additional experience to pursue a career with a radio station, they can and should work in jobs that will allow them to further hone their craft and keep them in the industry spotlight.

Playing the latest music, meeting people and working at a job that they love are a few perks to working in the radio industry as a DJ. There can be a very secure and lucrative future for the DJ who works hard and places himself in all available opportunities during his career.

Can you really successfully block television from children? Is it possible to remove anything that you deem undesirable or offensive and keep your children from being exposed to it? Yes, there are, especially for children who are too young to understand and manipulate the television settings. There are various parental control tools that parents can install on their television equipment that will safeguard against their child accessing certain stations, either on purpose or by accident. When these controls are properly installed, the parent can choose and change settings as they restrict access to any and all areas they would like.

Other options that the parent can use to help protect their children from television is to limit the amount of time that they can enjoy television shows each day. Set a timer, and when it goes off so does the television. The child will certainly choose wisely what shows they get to use their time on!

Finally, effective communications is a very important factor in helping to protect your child. Many times, just simply explaining to them why a particular show or movie is inappropriate for their age or maturity level will be sufficient in getting them to turn the station. By talking with them and explaining things, you will hopefully give them the skills they need to make good television viewing choices when you’re not around.

The popularity of the radio has been around since before the 1950s and hasn’t faded away in the least. Rather, other technologies have enhanced the concept of the radio and have expanded into other viable and interesting platforms. This includes more specifically, the Internet since it makes it more widely available and accessible to larger numbers of people and markets.

Starting an Internet radio station does involve a lot of legal paperwork filing and securing quality equipment, but once the details are taken care of, the business of radio over the Internet can prove to be one of the most lucrative endeavors imaginable. The Internet radio business can be operated and managed as a home business or in a very small office space, if necessary.

The main source of equipment that is needed for a successful Internet radio station is a current, high quality computer that is kept updated and virus-free. It needs to be hearty enough to manage software changes, communicate with listeners (need excellent speakers for this) and able to hold and store pertinent business files for the radio station. Other necessary equipment will likely include microphones, audio cables amplifiers and webcams. These things will greatly enhance the radio experience, and if they are installed and managed properly, listeners never have to know that the radio station is in a person’s home office.

Internet radio is very popular because of the crisp quality of sound that listeners experience while online. Because the sound is traveling over computer lines and not over the air waves, there is less noise and interference on the line and the listeners can clearly hear the station, provided that they have current equipment and updated software as well. If they don’t, there are many software downloads that they can access that will give them more sound quality and a better radio listening experience.

There are at least one to two radios available in every home across the country, including Internet radio and digital radio. These radio stations operate primarily off of sponsored advertising sales and heavily rely on the success of the ads to bring in business for the station. Since radio advertising relies on the sense of hearing to be successful, the right use of words and tone are important in getting the attention of the listener. The goal is to not only get them to listen, but to act by patronizing the company in the radio advertisement.

One of the reasons why the radio is such a popular way to advertise is because it is such an easy mechanism for many businesses to use. It is also more affordable than television since there are no models or television actors to compensate. Just a well-written, creatively-developed ad is sufficient enough for the company to use in its marketing efforts.

Many businesses who have realized the potential gained from radio advertising often start to use this type of advertising as their main marketing source. Radio has the potential to reach a very broad audience, and can also reach overseas markets as well.

Using the radio as a main source of advertising can also create brand recognition for many companies. Radio advertising is also very flexible, more convenient and more cost-effective than other advertising forms, making it more attractive as an advertising mechanism. In the long-run, it can be a very efficient way to advertise and create more exposure.

- Have a sales-heavy marketing department. Make sure that you have several capable and experienced individuals making sales calls for the radio station and soliciting advertising spots and sponsorships. This is the life-blood for the company, therefore ensuring that there is a constant stream of income for the business.

- Don’t over-hire in other areas. This means eliminating or not hiring “extras” if you don’t need them. This cuts heavily into your budget and can be a very big money and time waster.

- Be sure to include diverse genres in your advertising and marketing pitches. As long as the sponsors aren’t in direct conflict with the nature of your station’s personality, always try to include a variety of advertising clients. This gives your station the opportunity to reach more audiences and markets.

- Always have a promotion of some sort going. This keeps listeners tuned in and listening (to ads) and also encourages them to “refer a friend.”

- By staying abreast of new developments in various consumer markets, you will be better able to gauge what your audience wants and listens to. This can help you tremendously in designing your marketing campaigns.

Successful radio stations are not always rated by how much glitz and appeal they have, but more on how they affect the radio listening community with their music, news, information, etc. If you keep your station connected to what’s going on around the local community and the nation, you will always have faithful listeners who will tune in to see what you have to say.

The general manager has many diverse duties for the station. It’s hard to place just one or two chains of responsibility on them since there is so much to handle. For instance, the general manager must:

- Ensure that the radio station is always in compliance with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). It is important for them to make sure that all of the equipment, hardware and software is what has been approved by use from the governmental agency.

- The general manager is the end responsible person for anything that is broadcast over the airways. Although there is a disclaimer given stating that the radio station “may not agree with the views of the sponsor”, in the end, the listening audience does hold the manager responsible.

- They are responsible for all radio station personalities that the listener hears. This is why it is so important for them to choose those people who can and will adequately represent the views and mission of the station.

In many large cities, the radio station’s general manager is also responsible for making local community networking functions and being a part of many community affairs. More often though, the general manager is usually a background player and very rarely will you hear his name mentioned on air on hear his voice over the airways. If the station is operating successfully, the general manager will rarely be heard or seen.

Applicants who are pursuing a radio management license must first take and successfully pass an exam that is based on written and telegraphy material. The exam varies according to what type of certificate the applicant is pursuing and can include portions of each type of the material on the test given.

For the exam to be valid, it must be administered by a Commercial Operator License Examination Managers (COLEMs) location. The FCC authorizes these locations to administer the exam, and currently there are nine providers in the United States who are authorized to do so.

Waiting for licensing is likely going to the most lengthiest amount of time that the person will have to honor before they can go into the radio station business 100%. However, radio station personnel can still operate their stations until their applications have been approved for a maximum of 90 days. This is of course after the application has been submitted and the individual is awaiting approval.

After licensing has been granted, there is no need to re-test or to be re-certified for licensing unless something significant has changed within the station like business ownership or transference. All that is required after licensing is to make sure that the station remains in compliance with federal laws and regulations.

Internet radio is also known by other names including web radio, e-radio and streaming live radio. Its portable service transmits music and talk over the Internet and has become more sought after since it is transmitted wirelessly and to a broad audience. What is also very appealing by it is that people can access radio stations from their desktops, laptops, wireless communication devices (cell phones, iPhones, etc.) and be able to enjoy a clear, direct reception as if they were right by the station.

One aspect of Internet radio that has made it very successful is its continuous stream of uninterrupted audio. This makes it very distinct from other genres like on-demand files servers, standard transmitted radio and even podcasting. There is nothing to download or install (unless it is a player that will enhance the sound quality), and the listener can start enjoying their favorite radio station quickly.

Although there are a few radio stations and areas in the world that restrict music listening or accessibility due to licensing, the vast majority of Internet radio services can be accessed from anywhere in the world. Depending on the locale and the genre too, there are many radio stations that can be received in the most unlikeliest of places. Many people are often surprised that, while traveling, they are able to find their favorite national radio station, or, they may be able to tune in to the locals version of their favorite country, hip-hop or classical music stations.

Amateur radio operators are usually granted licenses by a governmental regulatory authority and are assigned a type of call number or sign that they must use to identify themselves when they are on the air during communication. This requirement is a component of their licenses and is mandatory to be used during the time(s) they are working.

The term “ham” originated from amateur operators who were different from commercial and professional radio operators and stations. It was used to denote the difference in the two and to signify that one was professional (and often compensated), while the other one was someone who was not as experienced or not compensated for their services. Although it was initially meant as a derogatory term, the radio community welcomed the connotation and amateur radio personnel have been called that ever since.

Amateur operators get to enjoy much more flexibility and convenience than the professional operators since many of them are still learning. The radio station is responsible for the jock’s actions and communications, therefore the only thing that the disc jockey must do is have his script pre-approved before he unleashes it on the air.

The downside to this freedom is that the amateur jock may not be compensated, or receive very little in comparison to his professionally-paid counterpart, often in the same genre. If money is a factor for the amateur, he may want to consider that before going into the industry. Deciding between compensation and freedom to be creative can be perplexing for some radio personalities.

Public radio is probably one of the most favorite things that most small communities love about their town. Public radio definitely has an air of “homeliness” and creates ab all-around good feeling in the listeners. This is mainly because the goal of public radio is not centered on profit and sales. Their mission is to strengthen the community of listeners and to bring awareness to many situations and issues that are going on.

One of the attractions of public radio is the hosts and their “no-opinion” stand that they have when they’re working the station. Since it is public radio, it should be difficult for the listener to gauge whether or not the host supports or doesn’t support the issues that are discussed or the interviews that are given. Public radio is funded by the community and supporters through donations and businesses, therefore views and ideas of the station should not be something that the listener has to be concerned with.

Public radio also benefits the community because they support other non-profit businesses. They will usually offer a portion of their airtime that is dedicated to bringing exposure to those businesses.

For those businesses that are for-profit, the public radio still can and does offer them options to affect the local community too. This is especially useful if the business offers something of high value like medical advice, discussing environmental issues or offering solutions to things that plague the local community. Although these companies may have to pay a small fee to have a spot on the radio station, the cost is minimal by comparison to other forms of advertising, and they get to reach a different segment of the population. There are many local businesses in various communities have enjoyed a spot on public radio channels for many years.

One segment of the radio population that is quickly growing is the ethnic market that also contains many various details and sub-genres within it. The radio ethnic groups that listen faithfully to their favorite radio stations are helping to form and mold the station towards what they like and want. This gives the station the opportunity to carve out a specialized niche in their market and corner a part of the buying consumer market for themselves.

The only detail about the presence of ethnic radio stations that makes it different is that the music is more customized, the interviews are more culturally engaging and the personalities are very diverse. This is what makes it so interesting and appealing for listeners.

Many ethnic radio stations are starting to emerge because the market is demanding more diverse media outlets for specialized groups. There are even more stations that are starting to appear which broadcast in different languages and are even available at different time zones and in different countries. This is starting to set a very positive trend and is a motivator for young radio stations who want to venture into other ethnic markets but may not be sure of what they can expect.

What will keep ethnic radio stations successful will be their attention to what the consumers want and the type/style of music and interviews they prefer. When the radio station starts to give the listeners what they like, they’ll have loyal and faithful listeners for some time.

The key feature of digital radio systems is that it can carry all kinds of information in any format, just as long as it has been expressed as a sequential formula of ones and zeros.  And another thing is that you do not have to download files to your computer with software like ares p2p or aresgalaxy and take up hard drive space. This is why it has such a wide appeal in most all industries since the format is so easy to assimilate and is adaptable.

Digital radio communications also includes:

- Digital audio broadcasting

Digital audio broadcasting is a technology for digital radios that is used in broadcasting radio stations and in several countries for the purpose of reaching worldwide locations in pre-formatted digital methods.

- Television broadcasting for digital recordings

Transmitting audio and video files through video signals is done through digital television or DTV. This is unlike the analog signals that are used by standard television.

- Digital wireless communications for short-range technologies

Many digital wireless communications involve streaming technology which is used primarily to distribute Internet radio to several platforms including MP3, Windows Media Audio and RealAudio. This is also where the concept of “pausing” and “live tv” are used.
In digital radio technology, data is continuously streamed over the local network, reassembled through the receiver and then experiences a “lag” time before it is played. This lag time allows the interface to catch up with the receiver as it begins to play.

Digital streaming is also often referred to as webcasting because it is transmitted through wireless methods.

If something proves to be popular in one genre, radio listeners eagerly listen to the selection on their favorite radio stations. They are also known to heavily request the topic or music, making it more in demand and encouraging the radio station to find and play similar music or interviews that are similar to the popular ones in demand. The popularity of music or interviews is also how radio stations are able to secure profitable advertising spots.

Even radio advertising is a subject that attracts certain personalities and preferences from the listening community. Based on the advertised product or service, the ad itself can gain a lot of momentum and exposure if it is something that piques the interest of the listening audience. Good and effectively place advertising will help the station in placing ads in places where it will be more profitable.

For instance, radio stations that are popular for pop culture genre attract many young people to their stations. Radio management can capitalize on this by offering ads, interviews and discussions that appeal to the younger set.

For the educational community or those interested in the arts or science, the public radio stations are well-known for attracting those who want information and resources on those topics. What fits well with these types of personalities are industry interviews or news spotlights on engaging topics.

Radios have come a long way since they first became quite popular in the 50s. There were once these awkward, large radios that were so big that they had to sit on top of tables or desks just to be in a practical place. Their knobs were unusually large and often had antennas that were tall, long and clunky to maneuver at best.

Today’s new radios are almost essentially undetectable, with touch-sensitive pads for on and off controls, antenna-less receptio and some of them almost small enough that can fit into the palm of a person’s hands.

As for the method in which the radio has evolved, decades of the technology have seen the radio go from tubes, antennas and tapes for recording to discs, CD’s and Internet radio technology that has changed it dramatically.

Radio delivery methods is a large cause for the spike in sales for the hardware product and also for the technology that exists in on-demand and subscription radion services. Now consumers can subscribe to their favorite genre of radio music for their listening pleasure. They don’t have to wait for their favorite songs to come on, nor do they have to call in and make a request for a song (if they don’t want to), but their subscription-based service will tell the radio station what the customer’s preferences are and have those choices delivered to them via satellite or other means.

Although many people may think that the way of the radio is going to go away, it is by far the contrary to that belief. Radio and the industry interest and sales has increased dramatically which will undoubtedly cause the industry to spike even faster. Newer products are being developed, newer technologies are being discovered and more resources are being made available that will continue to create an enthusiasm for the radio for a long time to come.

In addition to other types of commercial radio operator licenses, the Federal Communication Commission offers three different types of Radiotelegraph Operator’s Certificates. Each of these licenses has their own requirements and written exams that must be passed by the individual. They are called the First Class Radiotelegraph Operator’s Certificate, the Second Class Radiotelegraph Operator’s Certificate, and the Third Class Radiotelegraph Operator’s Certificate.

A First Class Radiotelegraph Operator’s Certificate is a certificate that is required for anyone who is acting as the chief radio operator on a passenger ship in the United States. To qualify, the individual must be 21 years old, must be an US citizen, must have one year of radio transmitting experience and must pass the written and telegraphy exams. The license is valid for five years and can be renewed within ninety days before the expiration date. If the license expires, the individual will be required to retake the written and telegraphy exams again.

A Second Class Radiotelegraph Operator’s Certificate allows a person to operate and repair stations on ship and coast radiotelegraph equipment. Like the First Class license, it is valid for five years and has to be renewed before it expires. The individual is required to take three sections of the written exam and two sections of the telegraphy exam. The written exam covers basic radio laws, the procedures regarding radiotelegraph and advanced radiotelegraph information.

The last type of radiotelegraph operator’s certificate is the Third Class Radiotelegraph Operator’s Certificate. This certificate allows a person to operate specific coast radiography stations. To apply for this certificate, an individual must be an US citizen and able to understand English. In addition to these requirements, they must pass two sections of the written exam and two of the telegraphy exam. The telegraphy exam requires the individual to demonstrate their ability to send and receive radio telegraphy.

If a person is interested in having a career in radio, getting a radio internship is an excellent way to gain on the job experience. A radio station may offer several different types of internships, which allows the individual to gain experience in
different areas of the radio industry. In many cases, the intern is able to obtain an entry-level position with the radio station after completing the internship. Some of the duties an intern may have are research, development and production.

Research is often one of the main job duties for a radio intern. He or she may
work with the news or production department in the radio station to help research current news stories and show topics. The research may require the intern to use the Internet, making phones calls, and conduct interviews to gather the basic information needed. Managers often look for individuals that have good research, communication, and writing skills to hire for this type of position.

Another job duty for a radio intern is development. In an effort to gain more listeners for the radio station, an intern may work in the marketing department to help develop ways to increase the popularity of the station and its shows. This goal can be done by creating press releases, flyers, and commercial advertisement. A background in marketing and communication would be ideal for an intern looking for work in this department.

An intern may have the option to work with an executive producer of a show and help with producing of the show. This job may require conducting staff meetings, keeping
deadlines, and writing the entire program of show. Individuals who have good writing and leadership skills would be good candidate for this job. Managers also look for individuals have management experience and a degree in broadcasting or journalism.

Satellite radio allows consumers to listen to music and talk shows at any time or place due to its digital signal that is transmitted thru a satellite. Many consumers are making the switch from free radio to satellite radio because they are enjoying all of the advantages that are available with the purchase of satellite radio. Some of those advantages are strong signal availability, broad selection, and portability.

Often when traveling across different states or living in rural areas, many people have to search for a radio station that has a good signal because the radio’s signal is not as strong when the person is farther away from the location of radio station. Often these people find themselves not able to listen to music at home or in the car. Having a satellite radio allows the consumer to listen to radio at all times because the signal remains strong unless it is blocked due to an interference.

Most large cities have three to four main radio stations for each type of music available for local people to listen to. The number of radio stations available decreases in smaller cities or rural areas. Satellite radio gives consumers a wide selection of radio programming to select from such as talk radio, sports, pop music and jazz. Many new satellite radio users find themselves discovering and enjoying other types of music that weren’t available for them to hear before.

There are several satellite radio receiver options available to purchase for satellite radio. One of the best sales features of these options is their portability. One receiver can be purchased and used at home, work, in the car, or just doing daily activities such as walking or working out. Consumers have the option to buy additional equipment in order to get the most of their satellite radio experience.

There are several ways for a company to advertise their products or services. Many businesses chose to use the radio as one of their top choices for several reasons. The radio allows information about the company to be heard by millions of people on a daily basis as needed. In addition to being heard, radio advertising is often cheaper than other methods such as television. However, the key thing about making a radio commercial is that it has to be created correctly in order to be effective for the customer.

One of the first steps to making a radio commercial is find out what the customer’s needs are. This can be done by having a series of meeting with their marketing department or the owner. Some of the questions that should be asked before starting the commercial are what is going to be sold or offered, what type of consumers are in their target market, and what are their expectations.

After identifying the customer’s needs, a script should be written for the radio commercial. Most radio commercials are no longer than 30 to 60 seconds so the script should be straightforward and written to catch the attention of the radio’s listeners. Using an attention grabbing statement on topics such as saving money or getting a product free are often used in the radio industry. The script should also obtain information on how the consumer can contact or find the customer for more information.

Once the script has been completed, the next step is selecting the music, the voice of the commercial announcer, and the sound effects if needed. All of these factors are usually selected based on the tone of the script. For example, a radio script about a new nightclub opening should have a popular dance song playing in the background and the voice of upbeat announcer telling everyone about the new club and opening night.

It certainly is an exciting thing to have a radio station on the campus of any school, and many other schools are starting to take notice as they witness just how popular and even lucrative this idea is. These radio stations operate much in the same manner as a typcial radio business with their programming, interviews, news reports, music selections, and in some cases, their choices of ads selections. Although the school may not be able to command the same ad prices as a professional radio station, they can still solicit sponsors and have the radio station act as a profit-making business.

Typically the students who operate the radio stations must be in good standing with the school as far as their grades are concerned, and they must (ideally) have a journalism or broadcasting background or interest in order to be successful. The school’s administration usually approves, hires and/or appoints the people who operate the station, but give the DJ and the news anchors the flexibility they want in order to make the station feel like “their own.”

The idea is even starting to make its way towards middle schools and elementary schools as they groom students on how to talk in public settings and allowing them to make announcments over the public address system.

There are several school options available to students who are seeking a degree in radio broadcasting. These schools offer certificates, associate’s degrees, bachelor’s degrees and master’s degree programs. Each school has their own sets of admission requirements, guidelines and course curriculums. However, there are some similar courses that are offered at these schools that provide the basics about radio broadcasting that all students need to know.

Since students may work in all parts of the radio industry, it is important that they have a working knowledge about electronics. Many radio broadcasting programs offer several different levels of courses about electronic equipment used in a radio studio such as microphones and audio systems. The beginning course will provide the student with the basic and the history about electronic media so they are able to make a decision about whether radio broadcasting is the right career choice from them.

Another type of radio broadcasting course offered is one that provides hands on experience using radio equipment. In this course, students learn how to use the equipment by spending time making and editing their own radio programs using radio digital equipment. They also learn how to work in groups and in different production roles similar to a radio production team. This course should also get students more familiar with the radio terminology that is used in the real world.

A radio communication class is another type of radio broadcasting course that is offered. The voice is one of the important features for a student who wants to become a radio announcer or DJ. So it is important to know and practice how to speak clearly and properly at all times while on air. While getting experience planning radio shows and doing commercials, students can take this time to practice their voice techniques and develop their radio skills to keep their radio fans entertained.

It is a dream for many sports fans to become a famous radio sportscaster. Radio sportscasters are considered to be eyes for the radio listeners who are not able to view the game. Therefore, it is important that they provided correct and detailed play-by-play information to keep the public up to date. In addition to providing live details on the game, they are also considered to be experts on the sports they are broadcasting about so they have to know the game well.

To become a radio sportscaster, it is recommended that an individual attends college to obtain a degree in journalism or broadcasting. This degree program should give him or her the skills needed to work in the radio industry writing and assisting with the production of their show. Research is also another important skill that sportscasters are required to do as well in order to provide current sports news to their listeners.

In order to be good at their job, a radio sportscaster should have a natural love for sports. By having a true love for sports, their listeners are able to hear the passion in their voice for the game. An individual who want to become a sportscaster should definitely know the game, the rules, the history, and the current players of the team. Reading sport books, magazines, and listening to sport broadcasts are an excellent way to stay informed about the games.

Because it takes time and practice to becoming a great sportscaster, it is important to learn and practice broadcasting at all times. Many radio sportscasters start with local high schools or college games. It is important to use these games as a learning experience to work on doing play-by-play calls and improving broadcasting skills. Keeping a small tape recorder handy to play back later is a great way to learn as well.

An amateur radio operator, which is also known as a ham radio operator, is a self-trained person who has a general knowledge about radio and enjoys communicating with others thru the radio airwaves. Currently, there are over 2 million amateur radio operators worldwide. Although the art of operating a ham radio is viewed as a hobby, many of these radio operators have helped save many lives thru radio communications during terrorist attacks and natural disasters such as hurricanes and earthquakes.

To get started as an amateur radio operator, an individual must first obtain a license. The laws and regulations for obtain a license varies based on the country the individual resided in. In the United States, the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) issues these licenses and it is valid for 10 years. The applicant has to take a written exam and needs to know how to operate the radio safely and correctly. There are three levels of licenses, which are the technician license, the general license, and the amateur extra license.

Once the individual has a license, it is time to select their first radio. Before making a purchase, the individual should first determine what activities they are planning to do with their radio and look for a radio with those features and functions. For those individuals on a budget, a used radio can be purchased from a local store or from an online auction. It is wise to shop around for the best deal.

In order to network and learn from other amateur radio operators, the individual should also try to join a local amateur radio club. These clubs often have entry-level classes and training classes to educate the other members of the clubs. In addition to educating the members, many of these clubs volunteer to help emergency federal, state, and private agencies such as the American Red Cross and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) with communications if needed.

Becoming an amateur radio operator can be an exciting time for an individual who loves the art of radio. In order to get started, he or she is required to first obtain a license. For those individuals who live in the United States, the Federal Communication Commission, which is also known as the FCC, is the agency that regulates the rules for the amateur radio industry. The exams for these licenses are given year around by volunteers who working on behalf of the FCC. The cost for the exam is normally $15 or less.

The first license that is issued for an amateur radio operator is the technician class license. In order to obtain this license, the applicant has to take and pass a thirty-five question exam. The exam covers the basic laws and regulations about electronics, VHF and UHF applications. If this exam is passed, the applicant will be able to have operating privileges above 30 MHz for a ham radio. They can also use hand radios to talk with other ham radio operators and use approved HF frequencies.

After obtain the technician class license, the technician can applied for the general class license. Like the technician license exam, it is also a thirty-five question exam. It covers more intermediate laws and regulations about electronics and HF applications. Once this exam has been passed, the applicants are called general class operators and they are allowed to communicate cross-country and worldwide on the ham radio. Also they are allowed to operate on several meter bands such as the 160 and 10 band.

The last level is the extra class license. A general class operator has to take a fifty question exam but a morse code test is not required. This exam covers more advanced laws and regulations about electronics and the design of radio equipment. Once this exam is passed, the extra class operator may operate on all of the frequencies that are available under the amateur radio service with no restrictions.

Although a degree is not required to become a radio DJ, it is recommended that an individual interested in this field obtain a college degree in communications or broadcasting. The courses in these degree programs should provide the basic skills needed. In addition to courses, some colleges have a campus radio station that the
students work at for college credit and to gain hands-on radio experience. Also speech and theater courses may be helpful since the tone and sound of a DJ’s voice is an important factor.

While taking courses, it may be wise to take jobs working as a DJ for special events such as weddings and birthday parties. These events along with a degree can make a résumé stand out when applying for an entry-level DJ position. In addition to a résumé, a professional demo tape, which demonstrates strong DJ skills, should also be provided to the hiring director.

When starting out, a new DJ should expect to work the graveyard or late night shift.
The growth of this position often depends the size and popularity of the radio station. However if the individual has great DJ skills and is willing hard work, they should move up through the ranks of radio in due time. Often new DJs find themselves moving to different states as they gain more experience to land
better jobs in larger cities. The big payoff for old and new radio DJs is finally getting the dream job that they have been waiting for.

The general manager of a radio station has a lot of responsibility. They are held responsible for the day-to-day activities of running the radio station which includes programming, budget and making important decisions regarding the future of the station. Most radio stations hire general managers with a heavy background in radio broadcasting and a four-year college degree in communications or broadcasting. It can be very beneficial for the candidate to also hold a Master in Business Administration (MBA) degree as well.

One of the job duties of the general manager is to make decisions regarding the music programming of the radio station. He has to work closely with the programming director and the on air personalities to make sure the format is being followed correctly. He also has to stay on top of new technology in radio and make sure that all federal, state, and local regulations regarding radio are being followed at all times.

The radio general manager is also responsible for creating the annual budget for the station and making sure all budget goals are met in a reasonable time period. He has to work closely with the sales and accounting departments of the station to monitor these goals. If sales are below forecast, he has to be able make important decisions on how to increase revenue for the station. Having a MBA or a sales background is very helpful for this job duty.

Another job duty for a radio general manager is decision-making regarding the future goals of the radio station. Most radio stations aim to grow larger into bigger radio markets. It is the responsible of the general manager to outline these objectives and set the goals to achieve them. In most cases, it will take the hard work of all of the radio employees to reach these goals. But the general manager is in charge of leading the way.

When it comes to radio, everyone is often more familiar with the on air DJs and key managers of the radio station. But there are people who work in the background to keep the music playing and the radio station running and growing as well. These jobs require different skills, backgrounds and experience but they should not be overlooked. Some of the important behind the scenes radio careers are radio producers, chief engineers and accountants.

The radio producer is responsible for working with the on-air personalities to create a great radio show. Their job is to make sure that is show is fresh and entertaining in order to keep listeners interested and gain a bigger fan base. Some producers may also become a part of the radio show so they can receive the
feedback directly from their listeners. A producer has to stay on top of current events, have good work ethics, and organizational skills.

The chief engineer is responsible for overseeing the technology and radio broadcasting equipment. This equipment includes antenna systems, computers, studio equipment and networking systems. He has to make sure all of this equipment is in working condition and receives regular updates at all times as needed. Most employees in this position have a college degree in computer or electrical engineering. They are also required to have a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) license as well.

Accountants also have a significant role in the financial management of the radio station. They are responsible tracking all of the revenues, expenses and other accounting components for the station. They also prepare a range of different financial reports on a monthly, quarterly, and yearly basis. Depending upon
the size of the radio station, several accountants may be responsible for different parts of the financial management. Most accountants have an associate’s or bachelor’s degree in business or accounting.

One of the key sources of revenue for a radio station is selling advertisement. These advertisements can be in the form of radio commercials and outdoor advertising at national or local activities held by the radio station. Over the years, the role of a radio sales representative has changed. They are required to come up with new strategies and ideas in order to meet their sales goals and remain competitive against other companies in the advertising industry.

Most people began their careers in radio sales as an account executive or manager. Account executives are responsible for obtain new clients, finding new business leads and manage their current client’s needs. To obtain new clients, they often have to create proposals and pitch ideas to the new clients to show what the radio station has to offer. A college degree is not required for this position but sales managers often look for people with professional social skills, computer skills and an in-depth understanding about sales.

After gaining some experience in radio sales, a person can move up the ladder into the sales manager position. The sales manager is responsible for training and hiring new account executives, monitoring the sales activities of the entire sales team, and managing large revenue client’s accounts. To keep the sales teams motivated, the sales manager may often hold weekly team sales meeting and offer incentives or bonuses to the top account executive each month.

At the top of the radio sales career ladder is the director of sales position. This position may also act as the general manager of the radio station. One of the main goals of the director of sales is to make sure that all sales goals are being met each month and year. They often work closely with the sales managers in all the departments to make sure their teams are on the right track.

Syracuse University is a private university located in Syracuse, New York that offers undergraduate and graduate programs in a range of different subjects. There are over 16,000 students from different states and backgrounds enrolled in this college. In addition to the other programs, Syracuse offers an undergraduate and graduate television, radio and film degree that is one of the top programs in the United States. This program is located under the S.I Newhouse School of Public Communication.

In order to apply to the university, the applicant must complete an application and submit a school transcript, ACT or SAT test scores, and recommendations. Once the application along with the required documentation has been submitted, the admission
department reviews the application. They will look at the educational and personal achievements, test scores, recommendations, and the applicant’s character. The admission process is very competitive due to the requirements. Therefore, some of the students who apply may not be selected.

The undergraduate program at Syracuse University allows the student to take courses in television, radio, and film. There are a wide variety of electives courses that allows the students to get more gain a more in-depth knowledge about the radio industry. They will also have the opportunity to get hands-on out of the classroom experience. Students can allow study abroad if they are seeking an international broadcasting background. The graduates from this program have found careers as writers, directors and media executives.

The graduate program at Syracuse University provides courses to teach the student to write, direct and mange their productions. It is a 36 credit hours program with a summer internship as well. Some of the areas of study are music and radio production, management, filmmaking and television studies.

The faculty members for both programs have professional experience in film, radio and television. They have also written several books about the industry.

Asbury University is a non-denominational Christian university located in Wilmore, Kentucky, which is 20 minutes from the City of Lexington. They have over 50 undergraduate majors and some master’s degrees programs in education as well. There are over 1,000 students that attend this university and over eighty percent of the students live on campus. Students that are interested in a radio career can obtain a bachelor’s degree in Media Communication.

In order to apply to this university, a freshmen applicant must have at least a 2.5 grade point average along with a 1020 SAT test score, or a 22 ACT test score. A transfer student must be in good standing with their last university or college and must have a 2.50 grade point average. There is not a deadline for the application. However, those students that apply early often receive priority on receiving financial aid and on campus housing. The yearly tuition with room and board is estimated to be around $28,000 for the 2010-2011 year.

The Media Communication degree provides students with the tools that are needed to work in radio, television and film. They are able to select courses that specialize in production, film studies, management, music management, performance, and multimedia. The courses are taught from a Christian perspective. The management program gives students the skills to work in radio starting from programming to sales. The graduates of this program are able to obtain great career jobs in the media industry.

In addition to the Media Communication degree, Asbury University has its own student radio station, WACW. It is available 24 hours a day and it also available on the Internet. By volunteering, the students can receive on the air live radio experience before they graduate. Students can work in different areas of radio station such as a show host, programming manager, or sports reporter.

Northwestern University is a private college, which currently has three campus locations. The main campus , which is 240 acres, is located in Evanston, Illinois. The other two campuses are located in Chicago, Illinois and Doha, Qatar. There are currently over 16,000 students enrolled in the various undergraduate and graduate programs. About 86% of their students graduate within four years and find careers in law, education, media and government. The estimated cost of tuition including room and board, supplies and fees for the year 2010- 2011 is $55,982 per year.

To apply to Northwestern University, an applicant can apply online or submit a paper application. There is a non-refundable application fee that must be submitted with the application. School transcripts, testing scores, and recommendations for the
school counselor or a teacher are needed as well. Applicants are able to apply for early admission if they met the deadline. An admission committee reviews all applications and the supporting documentation before making a decision.

Under the School of Communication, the university offers a radio-television-film undergraduate degree. The courses provide the student with the background of the media industry and the students are able to gain hand-on training in all areas of film, audio, video and computerized media. Internships are also available to give students a real world experience before they graduate. Graduates go on to become directors, producers, radio host, and writers. There are even some famous actors and actresses that attended this college program.

In addition to the college program, Northwestern University also have a radio station called WNUR. It is location on the Evanston, Illinois campus and can be heard on the Internet. The students in the radio-television-film program manage the station and some of the students even have their own radio shows. A board of students along with a faculty advisor decides all of the programming, operations and events of the radio station.

A commercial radio operator license, which is issued by the Federal Communication Commission (FCC), is required for anyone who is operating or maintaining a radio station. They are also required for anyone who operating a ship and aircraft radio
station. There are over 13 different types of commercial radio operator licenses available with the FCC. An individual must meet the requirements to apply for the one they need in their industry.

In order to obtain a license, the applicant must first take and pass an exam. There may be several written and telegraphy exams that the applicant has to take based on the license that he or she is applying for. For example, an applicant applying for a First Class Radiotelegraph Operator’s Certificate must take written exam 1, 5 and 6 along with telegraphy exam 3 and 4.

In order to be valid, the exams must be given by a Commercial Operator License Examination Managers (COLEMs) location. These locations are authorized by the FCC to give the exams. There are currently nine providers that administer the exams across the United States including U.S military bases and some overseas locations. Most of these locations have computerized testing and require that the applicant make an appointment to take the exams. The fees for the exams range between $25 up to $90 per exam. If the applicant passed, he or she will be given a Proof of Passing Certificate.

Once all of the exams have been passed, the applicant will be eligible to submit
the application for the appropriate commercial radio operator license. Some of the COLEMs locations may offer a service to file the application on the applicant’s behalf. Once the application has been submitted, the applicant may start operating as a commercial radio operator while it is in pending status for no more than 90 days.

Image by Ben Dodson via Flickr

As the popularity of the Internet continues to grow, many people are taking advantage of the ability to be heard by millions around the world. Starting an Internet radio station can be a simple task once a person has obtain all of the right resources needed to get started. However, there are some decisions that
will need to be made before the dream of having an Internet radio station can come true.

One of the first steps is to buy all of the equipment that will be needed to start the station. A computer that is no more than three years old should be purchased
along with the latest updates, programs like FileZilla for transferring files and virus protection. This computer can be used to run the radio station software and talk to the listeners online during the show. In addition to the computer, the following equipment may be needed as well: speakers,
microphones, amplifiers, webcams and audio cables.

After purchasing the equipment, a decision needs to be made on the format of the radio station and where the files will come from and be transferred from via software like File Zilla. This decision will determine if licenses are needed. A talk radio show would be perfect for someone who enjoys talking and wants to educate their listeners on important topics or a certain interest. Starting a music radio
station would require licenses to be obtained or royalties to be paid to play national and local recording artists songs on the station.

It is very important to know about the right type of licenses to obtain before starting a radio station. Due to copyright laws, no radio stations can play any protected copyrighted content without paying royalties. There are strict
penalties for breaking these laws. There are agencies available that will handle the collection of the royalties for the music artists on your behalf for a fee. Before selecting a company, an individual should always do some research first.

There are about 13 different types of commercial radio licenses that are issued by the Federal Communication Commission (FCC). Each of these licenses has their own requirements in order for an individual to operate certain type of radiotelephone equipment or stations. Some of these licenses are the Restricted Radiotelephone Operator Permit, Restricted Radiotelephone Operator- Limited Use Permit, and Marine Radio Operator Permit.

A Restricted Radiotelephone Operator Permit is issued to individuals who operate aircraft, aircraft ground stations and marine radiotelephone stations. To apply this permit, the individuals has to be a legal resident of the United States, have
hearing and speaking skills, be able to complete a written log, and have general knowledge about the laws and rules regarding a radio station. This license is valid for the entire lifetime of the individual. No exam is needed for this permit.

The Restricted Radiotelephone Operator – Limited Use Permit is the same as the Restricted Radiotelephone Operator Permit but it is only issued to individuals who are not able to work in the United States. In order to qualify, the individual must meet one of the following: must have valid pilot license in the United States, have a foreign pilot license that is valid in the United States, or have a radio station license in their name. The other requirements for the Restricted Radiotelephone Operator Permit must be met as well.

Another type of commercial radio operator license is the Marine Radio Operator Permit. This permit is required for anyone who operates radiotelephone stations on vessels on the Great Lakes, operate radiotelephone stations on vessels more than 300 gross tons, and vessels with more than six working passengers. To apply for this permit, the individual has to be a United States citizen, able to understand
and speak in English, and pass the written and telegraphy exam. This license is also valid for a lifetime.

A Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) is a system that used by vessels and aircrafts for communication, locating, and safety. If a vessel is in distress, the system is set up to alert the proper emergency department. To perform work such as repairs on this type of system, individuals have to have a certain commercial radio operator license. The Federal Communication Commission issues these licenses.

A Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) Radio Maintainer’s License is required for someone who does the maintenance and repair of GMDSS equipment at sea. This license is valid for a lifetime. The holder of this license must be an US citizen, must pass a written exam, and has to speak English. In addition to the other requirements, the individual has to pass three different sections of the written exams. Those sections cover basic radio laws, general radiotelephone knowledge, and GMDSS procedures.

The Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) Radio Operator’s License is a license that is needed in order to operate and make adjustments to GMDSS radio equipment and installations. Like some of the other commercial radio operator licenses, the individual has to be an US citizen, able to speak and transmit in English, and pass two sections of the written exam. One section of the exam focuses on the radio operating procedures for GMDSS. To pass, the individual must make a 75% on the exam.

The Restricted Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) Radio Operator’s License operates the same as the regular license but it only allows the individual to work on vessels no more than 20 miles off the shore. The qualifications are the same but individual must take a different written exam that focuses on the systems and equipment for VHF GMDSS. The applicant must score a 76% on this exam to receive a passing grade.

The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) has some requirements on who is authorized to operate and repair radio equipment in different types of industries. For an individual to work on radio equipment in areas such as public radio and ships, they have to meet these requirements and may have to take a written exam in order to obtain a commercial radio operator license. Below are some of the different types of commercial radio operator licenses offered.

A General Radiotelephone Operator License is required for any individual who is maintaining or repairing in Federal Communication Commission licensed radio transmitters used in public radio, aviation, or maritime. Individuals must be a United States citizen and must be able to send and receive messages in English. In addition to these requirements, they must pass two sections of the written exam but there is not a telegraphy exam required at this time. This license is good for the lifetime of the holder.

Another type of commercial radio license is a ship radar endorsement. Only individuals with this endorsement are allowed to maintain and repair radar equipment on a ship. To have this endorsement, the individual must first have one of the following licenses: a General Radiotelephone Operator License, a Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) Radio Maintainer’s License, a GMDSS Radio Operator/Maintainer License, a First Class Radiotelegraph Operator’s Certificate, or a Second Class Radiotelegraph Operator’s Certificate. A written exam must be passed with a score of at least a 76%.

If an individual has a First Class Radiotelegraph Operator’s Certificate or a Second Class Radiotelegraph Operator’s Certificate, they may apply to receive a six month service endorsement to become the radio operator on a cargo ship. The individual must have been employed as a radio operator for at least six months on a ship in service and have an US Coast Guard radio officer’s license during the six months. Once the individual has the six month experience, they can submit an application with supporting documentation to the Federal Communication Commission.

If technology advances any faster, the world itself may explode from the sensory overload. There is so much going on nowadays that the things that were once recognized from the past are no longer recognized any more. Cars are more advanced and what was once something you could assemble and disassemble is now something that would take a computer and some of the more advanced technology in the world to put together and to fix. This is also seen in the changing cost of auto insurance.

For instance, take the world of radio. What was once the oldest and most antiquated form of information and entertainment has seemed to have caught up with the rest of the world. There are now digital radio stations that are broadcasting your favorite music, news, and weather reports. Radio stations will all eventually become digital but in the meantime the digital signal is allowing some of the better radio stations to be broadcast solely online. There are many radio stations online that are doing everything they can to provide a unique flavor and flare to the rest of the music lovers.

Some specialize in a certain genre of music like the blues, rap or rock and others specialize in time periods like the soft rock of the 70’s or pop music exclusively from the 90’s. There are more than enough songs to keep a station going forever. Some newer digital radio stations have a free forum for music which means it’s songs that you probably have never heard of from artists you have never heard of. This is giving listeners a unique listening experience and a chance to sample bands they’ve never heard before. It’s the power of the digital age of radio.

While it is definitely unlikely that God is actually in the radio (unless you are of the opinion that God is literally everywhere and everything), there sure is a lot of religious programming on the radio. There are not many religious dogmas that are not touched upon by at least one or two radio stations, considering how prolific these stations tend to be. Whether you are into inspirational music, preaching or instruction (or perhaps a combination of all three of these), there is most certainly a radio station to fit whatever kind of religious content you want to hear. While Christianity is most definitely the most prolific, the thrill of the hunt is definitely there as you search for whatever you like best.

For instance, there is a great deal of Christian music out there on the air waves. Among these different types is Christian rock, and alternative music that is based on Christian music. This is typically called contemporary Christian, and can be downright raw in its feeling and presentation of the religious experiences that the artists have. While this is definitely the more modern type of Christian music, there are the more traditional alternatives, such as a mountain of different gospel offerings from a host of different radio stations. Black gospel music (along with preaching and instructional programs) and southern gospel (which tends to have a country and soft rock feeling about it) are some of the more old fashioned types of Christian radio offerings out there.

As far as other religions go, radio offerings tend to be based out of Africa, Asia and Europe. It is quite common to hear things concerning Buddism and Islam, which attempt to further the goals of the sponsoring organizations and preach about positivity and spirituality. The messages of such religious organizations can include elements of talk radio, news, music and more general education in their programming.

This is why we have digital radio stations. You don’t need a prepaid credit card, a bank account or any other source of funds, if you want to get access to thousands of different radio stations. Pretty much any kind of radio station you could ever want to listen to is 100-percent free, just because the internet is a bountiful garden of awesomeness. Just think of all the possibilities you can open yourself up to in this world, just by finding an internet connection.

You can figure out the national biases of any nation, just by listening to their radio broadcasts and deciding on the subtle differences between what they say, and how other countries’ radio expresses the same situation. There is no such thing as an objective reality, and everybody is going to inevitably put their own spin on any situation, because no two people (or groups) have exactly the same agenda to put forward. And if you’re tired of listening to one kind of music, hour after hour, you can switch the station to a whole slew of different options. When it comes to finding info and entertainment, the net rules!

Just about every major city in the United States has at least one station with a Spanish language format. And the number of formats (and the complexity of their offerings) grows in direct proportion to the size of the local Hispanic population in a given area. Spanish speaking stations are just like English speaking ones, in that they have pop, oldies, romantic music, specialty music such as tejano, and also talk radio options in their stations. Often, the target market for Spanish speaking radio stations is Mexican and other Hispanic people who live in the United States. Also, sometimes there is a regional or even local bent to the music on offer through these stations.

The music a Spanish speaking station can play can vary considerably, both in style and in artist makeup. The artists featured could be international stars, musicians who are native to the nation from whence a station broadcasts, or even musicians who are locals from the same city or town of the radio station itself. Often, they will have musical styles such as romantica, mariachi and tropical music as the meat of their line ups. They can also have Hispanic pop, oldies, salsa and merengue in the rotations of what they play most often. These styles tend to be popular in the Hispanic communities, and can have a whole lot of artists who are well known for (and talented at) them.

Salsa is a style of dance music which has a slower pace, and requires a decent amount of stepping skills. On the other hand, merengue is faster, and requires more hip movement. Simply put, mambo is essentially very fast merengue. But of course, there are tons of other dance intensive musical styles native to the various parts of latin America. These include cumbia, bachata, mariachi, bossa nova, samba, tango, sabrosita, Andean music, and plenty of others. In just about any major city in the United States, there is bound to be at least one station with such a line up on it – and in many cases, there are several such stations in an area.

Believe it or not, there are several different types of radio stations that are by the people and for the people. This is not the “natural aristocracy” nonsense that the founding fathers thought up, either. These are actually publicly funded, or funded through their membership, instead of having constant advertisements bombarding their listeners. And they actually have people doing things that are not just about glorifying the modern feudal system, too. In 1967, the first public radio station came to life with the creation and slight allocation of federal funding for NPR. While there is a need for the donations of the listening public, this is actually useful, since it keeps the programming truthful and relevant to the people who are actually going to be using it.

Public radio can be affiliated with colleges and universities (most especially state schools and other public programs), and can switch up their format from news and talk to music, and vice versa. The face that public radio needs donation from its listeners keeps it from getting too cocky. So long as the station knows that the people who listen to it have all of the power, things go a whole lot more smoothly. But public radio is not the only way there is. There is also community radio and tourist radio, for those civic minded, responsible individuals who want to take a “speed of light” interest in how their community functions.

Tourist radio is typically multilingual and repetitive, often on a continuous loop over and over again. While this may not be a huge amount of involvement, it can be some pretty responsible charity work to participate in. Community radio is a lot like public radio, with one small difference about it. In a community radio situation, the partial government funding tends to be of a local nature. It is also true in a community radio situation that generally, volunteers are necessary, in order to operate the station and bring the messages to the viewing public.

While the formats can vary enormously between different stations, these are all the radio of the people.

Not everybody knows this, but some students at all levels of their schooling have their own radio stations. While it isn’t all that glamorous, it can be a very good hobby or part time job, for the students who want to get comfortable with public speaking and get some actual radio experience. There are more than just college students doing the whole radio thing. In a decent number of cases, there are high school students (and even some elementary and middle school students) doing radio stations. While there is typically a music format at any level where students are involved, it is also a common practice for the students to report on the local events at the school. These events include the news in the area and any of the various school functions that are coming up in the near future.

Student radio stations can be at any level of school, even down to the elementary level. Those must be some pretty motivated kids, to be willing to do all of that work. In most cases, the students actually have a sort of extra curricular club or organization that handles things related to their radio station. They obviously need to get approval from the FCC, and have the permission of the school to use the necessary equipment, space and whatnot. So when the shows start coming on, with the kids acting like crew and radio personalities, it must be very interesting for the kids who had to go through some efforts to get the ball rolling. At that stage of the game, those kids have got to feel like a million bucks, for having gone all the way through that kind of an ordeal.

Now, at the college level, things are a little different. College stations tend to be listed on digital and online radio directories, so that they can be heard all over the world. What a trip! And they have a lot more editorial and musical freedom, since they are legal adults and can play all kinds of different independent styles of music without much interference from faculty.

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In a country that literally invented radio, you would think that there would be an incredibly huge number of different radio stations for your discerning ears to choose from. Unfortunately, you would only be half right. The United States of America only has ten national radio networks (with stations that are set up and marketed as being local), if you can believe that. Honestly, it will still be true whether you believe it or not. We have all of the bases covered, of course. And we also have great file sharing resources for music like Ares Galaxy from the open source Ares website.  Each of the “important” genres are covered, without any kind of issue. But it is interesting that, with so much radio potential, our country concentrates so much on the local side of music, sports and news distribution over the radio. Seriously, just ten? That is only one per 30 million people! That is just shy of embarrassing. Hopefully these are some incredible networks.

As far as news goes, we have ABC Radio Networks, the American Radio Network (which is operated by CBS), NPR, and Public Radio International. These brands (even NPR, as sad as that is) are about as “huge and corporate” as you can get, without having to actually wear a suit and hold a briefcase in order to legally listen to them. However, there are some more entertaining options out there, for us poor Americans.

For instance, there is Radio Disney – for some reason, Disney just does not feel like the multi-billion dollar conglomerate that it is. That is some pretty sweet branding, right there. We also have the Z-Spanish Radio Network, which provides tons of content in, well, Spanish. It would be a little disappointing if a network with a particular language in its very name didn’t work in the language in question. We have a massive radio network called Westwood One, which has thousands of different stations. And if that were not enough, we also have the first radio station in the country, Pacifica Radio. Pacifica Radio is one of the world’s largest experiments in Public broadcast radio. Maybe our radio options aren’t so limited in America, after all.

It’s unfortunate that the term “World music” is the best anyone can really come up with, to describe music that is popular (and generally originated) outside of the United States. If a radio station claims that its format is world music, they are making as broad a statement as they would if they said they were broadcasting on “a particular wave length.” Got vagueness? Fortunately, the music is good enough (and varied enough) that you can almost definitely find a groove to suit your particular swagger. These are mostly the rhythms of tropical islands – but keep in mind that in every culture on Earth, the people enjoy getting their groove on in some way or another. Every nation has its beats, and every nation rocks them a little bit differently.

The Caribbean islands have a whole bunch of different kids of musical tastes, each with its own flavor. There are definitely similarities between them, of course, because they were all baked under the same sweltering Sun (and generally under the eyes of European task masters). A Caribbean music format means that a radio station will play a mix of the most common three types of music (Reggae, Soca and Calypso music) found in these islands, as well as a smattering of general pop and urban hits to round out things. After all, if you get too laid back, you might just fall asleep and wake up choking on your own dread locks.

While there are tons and tons of islands in the Pacific Ocean, the term “Hawaiian” is used in reference to absolutely all of them. While the Polynesian people who make up the majority of the Hawaiian (and other island) population do have traditional music, there are vast regional differences between the styles of the different Pacific islands whose subtle variations might be lost on a foreigner.

Remember that every nation has music. Even the most straight laced countries have some kind of a musical tradition. From the Dutch in Holland to the Japanese and their pre Tokyo pop tastes, everybody has something. It can all sound good.

Do you know where Christmas Island is? How about the Cocos Islands or Lord Howe Island? If not, do not feel bad – most people could not find where these places are, unless they went to a world map or a globe with a magnifying glass in their hand. And yet, all of these different places have radio stations native to them. Norfolk island most likely has at least one radio station catering only to… Norfolkians? You can definitely tell that a country is a little bit on the obscure side, when there is no easily thought up term to describe its native people. Believe it or not, the people of Guam are actually called Chamorro. And can you imagine there being much of a population (let alone enough to warrant the construction and maintenance of an entire radio station) on an island that actually calls itself Micronesia?

Nauru, Palau, Tokelau, Tuvalu, Vanuatu… there are a lot of places with roughly the geographic area of a postage stamp, that share not both having a radio station and a name ending in U.

Country music is quite possibly the most popular genre of music in the world. Whether this says that there are a lot of rednecks and hill jacks in the world is up to the individual’s discretion. While some kind of country music most likely began the first time somebody in the back woods picked up a method of making music (possibly an empty moon shine jug), the official origins of country only go back to the 1920s. Considering how much country music has evolved and added on across the decades, there are a whole bunch of different sub headings to country music’s main incarnation. While it can be tempting to simply assume it is all dogs dying, pickup trucks and women who should really be with men who appreciate them more, these are stereotypes that are only true about 75% of the time in country songs. As Elvis would say, don’t be cruel.

The main genres of country music can be split into two separate sections in the United States: hit country and classic country music. When you’re dealing with a lot of Kenny Rogers or Dolly Parton, that is the essence of classic country – their songs have stood the test of time and become legendary. Even the Achey Breaky has turned into something of a classic, as it nears 20 years old (and retains its status as a universal call to the line dance). But when you think about songs that are popular right now, or have been popular over the past few years, that is the domain of the hit country genre. There are a few different style, such as new country, urban cowboy, honky tonk, bluegrass and western swing, but they all fit neatly into the two main headings of either today’s hits or classic country.

There is actually a Hispanic take on country music known as Ranchera. While opinions vary, it is extremely popular in Latin America, and keeps the spirit of the cowboy alive in the Spanish language. Ranchera is at home in Texas, the southwest and all throughout Mexico and her people.

The obvious question is, which language do the DJs speak? Maybe they are mostly bilingual, and they each have the ability to switch back and forth at will. Wouldn’t it be oddly humorous, if a DJ were to say every first sentence in Spanish, with every other sentence being in English? Maybe not. In fact, it would probably just be annoying and borderline incomprehensible, since the languages have both different reasonable speeds and different grammatical structures about them. Another question that tends to come to mind is, do they play a top 40 that mixes up pop songs by merit, or do they have a top 80 split between 40 for English language pop and 50 for Spanish language pop?

The idea of stations that do not have the either or feeling of “it’s just one way or the other” is very liberating. They could be free to play a song, not based on some kind of cultural biases or sense of perceived racial equality, but just because it sounds really good to hear it. This is definitely the way a radio station should behave itself – when there is a good song, its ethnicity, and even its language really do not matter, when compared to the overall quality of the song.

The Contemporary hits style of radio (which is also often commonly referred to as Pop) deals with a very interesting demographic mixture. It target audience frequently consists of people between the ages of 15 and 30. While people in this age range do have some things in common (as in, they breathe air), the differences are extremely large. Consider that most 15 year olds have no financial problems more significant than consumption (such as getting a car, a new outfit, or some kind of electronic toy that looks serious), and roughly a quarter of late 20 somethings have filed for bankruptcy. It is an odd demographic mix to have, but Contemporary stations seem to like doing that sort of thing.

In fairness, Pop does occupy its own genre. This typically consists of music that is a hit right now, or has hit its peak popularity during the last 6 months to a year. There is definitely a tilt toward recentness and immediacy. Pop is also sometimes called “the Top 40,” because someone at some point decided that 40 was a good cut off point for the “snapshot” of the most elite songs of a particular moment in time. But it is rather hard to think of anything contemporary without simply wanting to slap a Pop label on it and move on with one’s life.

There is a sub genre of Contemporary music known as dance, and another sub genre known as rhythmic. The differences seem to be very subtle, and would appear to consist of a slightly higher bent toward dance songs and dance remixes in the appropriately named dance group. The rhythmic songs appear to have a slider wider base about them, as they can consist of hip hop, rap and dance music. Their play lists could have some slightly lower intensity songs, whereas dance pretty much needs to keep it amped up at all times. It is intriguing to note that the dance sub genre is literal, while the rhythmic sub genre pretends it is the only style of music that has a rhythm about it.

There are so many different styles of rock out there. In fairness, it would seem that any style of music involving a non acoustic guitar is now considered to be worthy of the label “rock.” And one especially useful definition of rock consists of, “any style of music that makes people want to have sex.” So with that being the case, it might just be an especially open genre in the first place. There is modern rock, active rock (as opposed to volcanically active rock), alternative, adult alternative, classic rock, americana, heavy metal, and a few that are downright obscure (like bluegrass, industrial and house music styles). The more obscure a station is, the more likely it is to be run by college students. This is interesting, as one would think that college students would be more likely to want to do normal things – unless they see college as their last gasp of individuality and freedom, before they begin their lives as conformist working drones.

There is a peculiar distinction drawn between modern rock and active rock. Modern rock would seem to be on the cutting edge, focusing on music released within the past six months to a year. By contrast, active rock would seem to be able to go from what is a hit today, all the way back to hits from up to 20 years ago. It just seems odd that “modern” is less modern than “active.” Isn’t all rock music supposed to be active? Is that not a vital facet of the entire genre?

Classic rock pretty much speaks for itself. Although it is very interesting to note that there is a more hardcore version of a classic rock station known as an AOR (or Album Oriented Rock), will actually forsake doing just released albums. If a good cut of a song exists, AORs will play it, even if it was never actually released. It’s almost underground, which is kind of cool in a sort of “music store in an abandoned subway tunnel” kind of way. Heavy metal is another genre that thrives only in college.

There is a large psychological gulf between classical music and jazz. Classical (also known as “serious” music to those who are into that particular scene) is for the contemplative sort. Honestly, it is hard to imagine someone listening to classical music without picturing cliches such as someone painting, writing sonnets, or just lounging around in their smoking jacket, enjoying a beverage that costs more than most people make in a month and a food item with a fancy French name. While those are silly images, it is hard to picture what a classical type of person is really like. A jazz person, on the other hand, is very easy to picture, and the thoughts that this person brings up are anything but insulting to them.

A jazz person is sociable and fun. Their voice has a sort of swagger about it, and even when the situation is a little dull, they are still having fun. Jazz isn’t like hard rock, where it’s all adrenaline and testosterone. Jazz is fun and free, chill and just a little bit chewy. A jazz person almost can’t help but be having a good time, no matter what their day might bring. As a matter of fact, a bad situation might even give a jazz person some good inspiration – after the bad things are over, there is just that much more reason to celebrate the fact that once again, we lived through it! Jazz folks are the salt of the Earth, aren’t they?

It is actually pretty hard to imagine a major radio area that does not have both a jazz station and a dedicated classical one. To be without either one would pretty much be the same as being without water or electricity. To further that simile, classical is the water that lets our spirits feel full and and healthy, while jazz is the electricity that keeps us shaking our groove things. If you are feeling the urge to grow a goatee and don a beret, go ahead and go with it, daddy-o. Just show a little love to the rocks of civilization.

Some people probably would not bat an eye to find out that there are entire talk radio stations devoted to nothing more than the business interests of farming and agriculture. Indeed, agriculture may be the perfect word, as the growth of crops may be a central theme in some human cultures, even in our modern age of nuclear weapons and super computers. During the “business” times of the week (presumably, around 7 am to 5 pm, unless they go by the more strident schedules of farmers), you can stay up to date on such riveting information as the price of soybeans on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. While it would be pretty easy to make fun of such a thing, it is actually not a laughing matter in the slightest.

After all, millions of people still make their livings based on the ability to produce something that human beings need to eat, in order to continue to survive. Once we get past the notion of, “Oh, I can just buy whatever I need at the store,” we remember that somebody had to either raise it, hunt it or grow it at some point in the past. If only there were a steak tree you could go out to and pick dinner – what a lovely dream. It just might be culturally shocking for a city person who might have never seen a plant that was edible and actually growing, to find out that there is a full on radio network devoted to the coverage of such topics as the latest disease hitting bovine populations in East Texas, or whatever the big news in farming might be on a given day. This is really far out.

Consider the power that a person listening to these farm radio stations has. You can now know the entire world’s view of farm produced commodities inside and out – and while that might not be exciting, it could certainly be lucrative. It’s also kind of funny, in that these stations tend to play country music during off business hours and weekends – nope, no stereotypes here.

Not a lot of people know this, but there are actually a surprisingly large number of different types of talk radio stations. While everybody knows that there are lots of different formats a radio station can use, the sheer volume of station formats dictates that every genre needs to be split into sub genres. For instance, there is actually a distinction made between the News and Talk type of radio stations and News and Information type. The primary difference would appear to be that Talk type news stations are typically more local in nature than their more “homogenized” Information brethren. It is true, it would make less sense to be able to call in and chat with someone who might be a thousand miles away from you, than if they might just be a few miles away in a neighboring county.

Interestingly enough, the desire for people to call in and talk to an expert (or an interesting person with a grating personality, like Howard Stern or Rush Limbaugh) is so strong that there is even a deeper outgrowth of the Talk type of news, that tends to only have ‘hard news’ on the top of the hour during the normal AM and PM drive times. It is distinctly possible that the early precursory prototype of the modern chat room was actually just the radio stations that let people call in and speak their peace on whatever was on their minds – which could be an interesting concept to study, if someone could figure out who invented the modern, online chat room.

Everybody knows that there are talk radio stations devoted to politics – and bless them all for their efforts at raising the consciousness of their listening public. But not everybody knows that there is actually a sub genre of talk radio centered around farming and agriculture. During business hours, you can actually stay up to the minute on the prices of crops and livestock – just in case your version of “checking how the old corn’s doing” does not involve going out to a field somewhere.

If you started to listen to one station per day, so as to really get a feel for it, it could literally take you years just to make the rounds one single time. And by that point, given that the only constant in life is change, the stations themselves would have changed considerably by the time you went all the way through each one of them. So really, you could spend the rest of your natural life going through the various different radio stations, and never really go to the same one twice. It’s like the old saying about the river, where nobody can step into the same river twice. You can never listen to the same radio station twice, both because it will be a different station, and because you will have different listening ears. This is some deep stuff.

Just imagine the power we all have nowadays – you can listen to a football game in Guatemala, a political dissertation in Luxembourg, a broadcast of the latest natural disaster to impact the minor island nations of the Pacific Ocean, and then get back to some smooth jazz out of the States. Forget going around the world – now that people can listen to any kind of radio station there is without leaving home, why even spend the time?

When someone says that we use microwaves for digital radio, they are not referring to the microwaves that people cook food inside of. That is a common momentary misconception (which can be more than momentary, for some unfortunate individuals), although it is not terribly far from the truth. The same technology which facilitates microwave communication also allows for microwaves which are used for cooking. The main differences are that the technology for the communications systems is considerably more sensitive, and the power levels are safe enough to be used in the presence of living beings. No form of communication which kills people ought to be practiced. That should be the first law, whenever the nations of the world can agree on a standard system for digital radio transmission.

There are well over a dozen different types of digital radio system standards in existence. The unfortunate fact is, the most thoroughly adopted type of system (DAB, or the Eureka 147 standard) has only been accepted by 30 countries. This kind of lack of cooperation can hinder any sort of system or set of standard rules, even when such a thing can do many great things to help humanity to be more effective at what we really want to accomplish. The great thing about digital radio is that it can be used universally, for any and all kinds of communication. If you want to send television, data signals for the Internet, telegraph or anything else, it needs only to be in the form of ones and zeroes to port flawlessly into digital radio. This could theoretically make all radio communications much simpler to transmit and receive, as we do not need to have specialized equipment for each different type of signal content.

Microwaves come in because they are able to transmit across large distances (due to their tight wave lengths), and because they are already in use for point to point communications. Fortunately, the lack of universal standards which have hindered broadcasting technology have not been as lagging when it comes to two way communications. Sometimes having two ways is alright.

In the very first days of what we now call radio, it was referred to as wireless telegraphy. After all, back in those days the telegraph was still king. The very idea of being able to send a message, however crude, through the air itself was considered somewhere between the scribbled ramblings of a mad man and the creation of a great genius (and in the case of Nicola Tesla, that was completely true). The notion of having no wires meant that we could finally communicate across oceans without laying down sophisticated, expensive lines. Communication aboard ships was finally in the realm of both possibility and feasibility. Being beyond visual and auditory range, yet still being able to communicate information to someone else was seen as the world changing breakthrough that it was.

Then, between the 1900s and the 1950s, the term “radio” came to be common place. By the 1950s, even the most conservative countries in the British Commonwealth were using the term. The term came from a combination of the root word for radiate (which comes from the Latin word “radiate,” such as a beam of light or the spokes of a wheel), and the idea of an ad man named Waldo Warren. The word was easy to say, and it caught on instantly as the method by which info could be sent through the air.

However, time just keeps on marching on. It never seems to stop at all. And some would say that all things are circular in nature. In this day and age, communications through computers have made the term “wireless” popular again. While the term “radio” is pretty much here to stay, the notion of the radio as both noun and verb is seen as too vague and old hat for the use in Internet technology. If you have a wireless local area network, the fact that it is wireless trumps everything else. The radio transmitter and receivers are the only time the old R word actually comes into play in such a context. How ironic, that technology makes the old new once again.

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Radios are all around us. We use them in airplanes (for all kinds of different coordinating functions), microwave meal cooking devices (okay, they’re usually just fancy popcorn poppers), garage door openers, and the transmission of audio, video and data where wires just will not do. In fact, radios are so commonplace, people tend to take them for granted. In truth, they are only a little over a hundred years old. Before radios, we had only wired communications such as via the use of a telegraph machine. Without radios, our society would pretty much grind to a halt – in plenty of cases, human lives would be endangered by the sudden loss of radio signals where they’re needed to be.

A lot of people think that since the radios we listen to in society generally transmit sound, that radio waves are somehow sound based. But believe it or not, radio waves are actually a form of light. Essentially, a radio wave is a very long, very wide kind of light. It is far, far wider than we are able to see, which makes it invisible to our (and all known animal) eyes. With this being the case, radio waves are actually the exact opposite of extremely dense, dangerous light waves known as gamma radiation (which, contrary to popular belief, does not actually turn you into a rage monster). Radio waves are extremely safe, and can use relatively small amounts of energy and inexpensive components to transmit massive amounts of information across great distances and in any direction.

It really is kind of a trip, that so many people think of radio as sound. The funny thing is, it’s actually kind of obvious that radio is similar to light. While radio waves can travel through opaque, solid objects, they do suffer from interference because of their light based characteristics. If they were sound, they would travel faster through denser types of matter. Also, have you ever heard that radio waves are being sent into space all the time (other than to and from satellites)? If they were sound, that would be impossible!

Video Killed the Radio Star was the first music video on MTV, on the 1st of August 1981 (right after midnight). Since that time, it has moved silently through the music video archives, its prediction growing more and more solid – that is, until music videos began to decline in popularity in the early 21st century. It is a little ironic that portable music players and internet streaming of songs has seemed to take the idea of music without appearance into some circuity. But of course, the music video is still a powerful force (as can be beheld on YouTube, whenever you like).

As we are a visual species, it is a bit peculiar that we tend to unwind by listening to music, as opposed to looking at artwork or smelling something pleasant (although many people do enjoy eating some delicious food, much to the chagrin of their dieticians). Nonetheless, what we see is what we want most. Video Killed the Radio Star touched on that topic… okay, it pummeled that topic like Muhammad Ali would have in his prime. It celebrated radio, from the intro (with the “telephone like” quality which characterized early audio broadcasts), all the way through the high pitched back up singers (as an homage to the high vocal qualities most females used until the 90s).

Believe it or not, Queen’s 1984 hit (that got all the way to number 2 on the UK charts, and topped out at number 16 in the US) Radio Ga Ga originally had a different official name. The title of this article was right – its original name was Radio Ca Ca. Roger Taylor wrote that title (and presumably, the chorus that goes the same way) after something his toddler had said. The notion of the radio turning into a bucket from which feces issues was a pointed way of saying that Queen was not overwhelmingly impressed with how the 1980s music scene was going along. Radio Ga Ga actually made references not only to how radio used to be, but also to how music videos were replacing its importance. The fact that 1984 was the year MTV really got into music videos may or may not have been a pure coincidence.

If you listen carefully to the refrain, you can still hear the fact that the band is not saying “ga ga,” but is still saying “ca ca.” The publishers apparently objected to the notion that Queen was criticizing how music had gotten – perhaps making subtle observations on other artists who had been signed on by the label they worked for. What was really interesting about the whole notion of going back to the roots of music actually concerns the rights to a movie called “Metropolis.” It was a 1927 science fiction film by Fritz Lang, and Queen were granted the right to use footage from it in the Radio Ga Ga video because Freddie Mercury allowed Giorgio Moroder to use his song “Love Kills” in the restored version of the film. Interestingly enough, since the East German government owned the rights at the time, Queen still had to buy rights to use the footage in their video.

Interestingly enough, for all of the work Queen did on Radio Ga Ga, performing it live seems to be where it reached its highest success. The audience at Wembley Stadium in 1985 just loved clapping along to the base line.