It’s a beautiful thing when a technology like ours can simultaneously give a worldwide reach to a community and still be the most affordable, effective way to communicate with local residents. That’s the message we will be bringing to two conferences in May in both Boston and San Francisco.
First on May 3rd at WGBH in Boston, at the MassAccess Spring Mini Conference, we will meet with local TV stations and community media centers from across Massachusetts. Then, at the end of the month in San Francisco at the Alliance for Community Media Annual Conference, we will meet with media centers from around the United States to discuss how to employ radio to promote civic engagement.
Of course, you would expect us to be promoting Internet Radio for communities – we’ve been serving city-wide school districts and community youth centers for a few years now. What we hope to achieve at these conferences is to help communities find an effective way to integrate their “hyperlocal” (LPFM) terrestrial radio with their Internet radio operations, and save money in the bargain.
Some of the topics we hope to discuss include:
- Reaching out with both smart phones and FM radios
- Engaging communities better through live, remote broadcasts
- Operating a station with a staff of one…or fewer
- Creating professional presence with minimal capital equipment
- How to share audio content with/from other communities, self-syndication
This appears to be a pivotal year for community radio, and we want to be a part of it. We hope to see you at one of these events. Please let us know if you’ll be attending.