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Author Topic: has anyone ever thought about...  (Read 8223 times)

Offline Tom S

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Re: has anyone ever thought about...
« Reply #15 on: June 17, 2014, 0232 UTC »
We know the religious shows have excess money (they can afford to air shows that nobody listens to). I assume the shows come from a church that has a budget for "missionary work" or "spreading the gospel". 

That, and a lot of them beg for money on the air, so that the missionary work also becomes a revenue source.

Quote
I assume the churches need listeners so I think the church would pay a person to make interesting/funny things to bring listeners to the main show. I'm thinking of 2min "commercials" of funny stuff not related to religion at all. 

You probably don't understand fundamentalists then.  Most fundie Christians eschew anything that's "worldly," or not specifically Christian.  And it seems most of them don't see a need to "bring listeners to the main show" because a lot of them assume that God will send them listeners.
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Offline John Poet

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Re: has anyone ever thought about...
« Reply #16 on: June 17, 2014, 2300 UTC »
"...a lot of them assume that God will send them listeners...."


Heh, that's funny-- I've always assumed the same thing!


As for buying time on WBCQ, well, I've said this before....

I'm a radio pirate.  Running shows on WBCQ is NOT pirate radio.


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Offline Antennae

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Re: has anyone ever thought about...
« Reply #17 on: June 18, 2014, 0153 UTC »
There's a bonafide FM radio station here called "Pirate Radio". It sounds so dumb when they do their station ID like they're all bad.  "This is Pirate Radio" amongst the commercials...
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Offline Pigmeat

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Re: has anyone ever thought about...
« Reply #18 on: June 19, 2014, 2215 UTC »
We know the religious shows have excess money (they can afford to air shows that nobody listens to). I assume the shows come from a church that has a budget for "missionary work" or "spreading the gospel". 

That, and a lot of them beg for money on the air, so that the missionary work also becomes a revenue source.

Quote
I assume the churches need listeners so I think the church would pay a person to make interesting/funny things to bring listeners to the main show. I'm thinking of 2min "commercials" of funny stuff not related to religion at all. 

You probably don't understand fundamentalists then.  Most fundie Christians eschew anything that's "worldly," or not specifically Christian.  And it seems most of them don't see a need to "bring listeners to the main show" because a lot of them assume that God will send them listeners.

I knew a Holy Roller preacher when I was a kid. He was driving his wife and kids back from the store. According to his wife he let go of the wheel and said "Lord, take over!" They went over the hill, striking a large tree. Everyone survived but the preacher.

My Grandpa said it was proof of evolution.


Offline Antennae

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Re: has anyone ever thought about...
« Reply #19 on: June 20, 2014, 0210 UTC »
Cool story...a hill... in those parts only the hill-wise are fit to prosper. And also people with one leg longer than the other.

The faith phenomenon reminds me of a story my friend told me. He was stationed in Afghanistan and said every once in a while a shoulder launched rocket would be shot at the base.  But they wouldn't hit anything because the guys aim it in the general direction and let Allah's will find its target. 
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Offline redhat

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Re: has anyone ever thought about...
« Reply #20 on: June 20, 2014, 1451 UTC »
I think George Carlin said it best...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r-e2NDSTuE

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Offline ka1iic

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Re: has anyone ever thought about...
« Reply #21 on: June 20, 2014, 1919 UTC »
Alan at WBCQ doesn't seem to put any limits on content;  refer to the last 'Tim Tron radio show' back in May of this year.  It was Tim just being Tim and reminded me of many times we talked together :-)

BTW, there is an archive of many of the shows on the WBCQ web site...  It's an archive of the GOOD stuff not Brother Weird...

 
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Offline Shortwave_Listener

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Re: has anyone ever thought about...
« Reply #22 on: January 03, 2023, 0441 UTC »
I have thought about it, but the cost seems a bit high. If I was to do it, I think I would go with WBCQ because they are supposed to be the cheapest that will carry non-religious programming. Sadly the trade off seems to be the range of the broadcast (if I put a program on WBCQ I wouldn’t even be able to hear it from my home, reception of WBCQ is horrible here, especially compared to every other US shortwave broadcaster) along with sometimes poor technical quality of broadcasts (I often hear them distorted or off-frequency). Still, it seems like a good way to get a program on the air for those who don’t want to pirate or don’t have equipment for it.

Is it possible to just randomly buy time instead of a regular schedule? Contrary to what I think some people said in this thread I believe it is possible to get a program less than once a week, Andrew Yoder does the Hobby Broadcasting Radio program once a month.

Any idea what the rates are on any station (particularly WBCQ) for a single one hour block?

I am confused based on other posts in this thread, does the person buying the air time have to pay fees for music or is that covered by the station?

If you buy time, do you have to pick an unused time or do you kick off some other program? It would be even better if you got to take a religious program off the air while you put yours on.
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Offline ButchKidd

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Re: has anyone ever thought about...
« Reply #23 on: January 03, 2023, 2057 UTC »
If your main goal is to replace someone else's content, this probably isn't the best way to go about it.  Commercial shortwave stations are businesses, and religious broadcasters are their biggest customers.  I would go so far as to say stations like WRMI, WWCR, and WBCQ probably couldn't stay in business today if religious broadcasters weren't purchasing large blocks of time and providing a steady revenue stream.

If you have a cool idea for a show, and you just want to get it on the air, contact a couple stations and ask.  The worst they can do is turn you down.  A few years ago, when they didn't have a full slate of programming, WBCQ made social media posts to the effect that you could purchase time on a one-off basis, and they would use it to fill unpurchased airtime or when they had an unscheduled opening.  You just wouldn't know ahead of time when your show would play.  I haven't seen anything about this recently, but they still seem to have a couple openings in their schedule.

There is absolutely no way you're going to "kick off some other program" that has already paid for airtime.  If a station will sell you time on a non-recurring basis, it will be during be during an opening in their schedule.

As for music licensing, the license fees most radio stations pay to ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC are based on a percentage of the station's revenue.  If the station already plays commercial music, I would expect the music licensing to be baked into the price of the airtime.  Again, it's only something the salesperson at the station itself can answer for sure.
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Offline Shortwave_Listener

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Re: has anyone ever thought about...
« Reply #24 on: January 03, 2023, 2349 UTC »
My main goal would put to put an interesting program on air, I was just trying to clarify because it looked like that’s what some people said.

... Now and then buying an hour or so of airtime on one of the commercial time-seller stations (WRMI, WBCQ, you know) and airing a pirate show legally?  I imagine, given a lot of the music quite a few of the North American and European pirates play, that it'd go over well, and if it takes the place of Brother Scary and his mouthful of sandpapered hate, all the better!

That is primarily what I was thinking about. The main point of putting a program on air would (obviously) be to just put a good program on the air, but weather or not it would replace a religious program would be interesting to know (but would make no difference regarding if I bought air time or not). It would also be useful to know because those pointless religious programs occupy many time slots and frequencies that would work very well.

So I guess one off programs are sometimes a possibility.

I though they would pay for music licensing, just wanted to check.
« Last Edit: January 04, 2023, 0007 UTC by Shortwave_Listener »
Lucas Bandura
eQSL appreciated! lucasnerite@gmail.com
Songs are identified with Shazam if needed. I usually use KiwiSDR receivers. Reception from my QTH is using an SDRPlay RSP1A for SWL with a 40 meter band Inverted V at 40 feet. Kenwood TS-570D for ham use.
My website: https://swl7.wordpress.com/
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Offline East Troy Don

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Re: has anyone ever thought about...
« Reply #25 on: January 04, 2023, 1604 UTC »
One could make a considerably strong argument that Brother Stair (and other creature preachers like him) turned more people away from content Shortwave listening than the Internet ever did.  Their borderline hi-jacking of 31 meters is infuriating.
« Last Edit: January 07, 2023, 1956 UTC by East Troy Don »
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Offline redhat

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Re: has anyone ever thought about...
« Reply #26 on: January 05, 2023, 0654 UTC »
If you have a cool idea for a show, and you just want to get it on the air, contact a couple stations and ask.  The worst they can do is turn you down.

Myself and other stations have done relays for folks in the past.  Hell, that's how we got our start.

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Offline Pigmeat

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Re: has anyone ever thought about...
« Reply #27 on: January 05, 2023, 1437 UTC »
If you have a cool idea for a show, and you just want to get it on the air, contact a couple stations and ask.  The worst they can do is turn you down.

Myself and other stations have done relays for folks in the past.  Hell, that's how we got our start.

+-RH

I used to relay a bunch of people, including several European op's and what used to be known as "studio pirates", people that didn't want to risk transmitting show's themselves. All they had to do was send me a copy of their show. If I liked it, I aired it. Simple as that.

I was going to be out in the sticks for a few hours transmitting. I didn't want to listen to myself over and over on the monitoring receiver,when I'd heard my own stuff several times putting it together.

Offline Brian

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Re: has anyone ever thought about...
« Reply #28 on: January 05, 2023, 1600 UTC »
I have thought about it, but the cost seems a bit high. If I was to do it, I think I would go with WBCQ because they are supposed to be the cheapest that will carry non-religious programming. Sadly the trade off seems to be the range of the broadcast (if I put a program on WBCQ I wouldn’t even be able to hear it from my home, reception of WBCQ is horrible here, especially compared to every other US shortwave broadcaster) along with sometimes poor technical quality of broadcasts (I often hear them distorted or off-frequency). Still, it seems like a good way to get a program on the air for those who don’t want to pirate or don’t have equipment for it.

Is it possible to just randomly buy time instead of a regular schedule? Contrary to what I think some people said in this thread I believe it is possible to get a program less than once a week, Andrew Yoder does the Hobby Broadcasting Radio program once a month.

Any idea what the rates are on any station (particularly WBCQ) for a single one hour block?

I am confused based on other posts in this thread, does the person buying the air time have to pay fees for music or is that covered by the station?

If you buy time, do you have to pick an unused time or do you kick off some other program? It would be even better if you got to take a religious program off the air while you put yours on.

I looked into this a few years ago and around 100 Euros per hour on a 100 KW transmitter. I'm sure a better deal could be hammered out.

Offline Pigmeat

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Re: has anyone ever thought about...
« Reply #29 on: January 05, 2023, 1828 UTC »
WBCQ used to charge 50 dollars for an hour, but you had to commit for a few months of shows.