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  • Digital & Internet
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DIGITAL & INTERNET AUDIO
Digital and internet technologies offer a lot to micropower broadcasters. The micropower community was an early adopter of MP3 digital audio. Dissatisfied with the hassles and problems of duplicating and sending out audio tapes, a web site was created for the exchange of radio programs in digital audio format. Anyone could create a program, digitize it and upload it to the site. Likewise, anyone wishing to broadcast a program could download it from the site. That site is www.radio4all.net. Quoting from their site:
“The A-Infos Radio Project was formed in 1996 by grassroots broadcasters, free radio journalists and

cyber-activists to provide ourselves with the means to share our radio programs via the Internet. To our knowledge, the A-Infos Radio Project was the first grassroots media project of it’s kind on the internet. Our goal is to support and expand the movement for democratic communications worldwide. We exist to be an alternative to the corporate and government media which do not serve struggles for liberty, justice and peace, nor enable the free expression of creativity. The archived material is available to anyone who wants it free of charge.”
“We welcome submissions from all stations and independent producers in the service of these goals. All material is donated by its producers who are solely responsible for its content.”
This open publishing model has been incorporated into the structure of the independent media sites (www.indymedia.org). Radio4all has several thousand radio programs archived with more being posted daily. Another good resource for programming is http.radio.indymedia.org. Additionally, this is good resource site for broadcasting in general. You can find a variety of useful links here. With the advent of the Independent Media Centers, streaming radio stations covering global protests and events are a great resource for micropower broadcasting. No longer do we have to rely on corporate media networks for shoddy coverage of world events. These web stations provide live, on-the-ground coverage of events as they happen. Links for these are found on the IMC radio page. Many of the individual Independent Media Center sites are a good source of programming material. You can search by type of media – audio, video, etc. For stations producing their own news programs, the IMC sites are a good source. Indymedia.org is the main hub site.
To take advantage of these resources you need a computer system connected to the internet, a cable or DSL connection is best. In addition, a sound card or built-in audio capacity is needed. Cast off low end PC computers with a 233 Mhz or greater processor will handle the audio requirements without any problem. A large hard drive (40mb or greater) will be needed to store your audio files. Audio from the computer can be fed directly into the mixing board. Most computer analog audio output connectors are 1/8” stereo jacks. An audio cable with a 1/8” stereo plug on one end is plugged into the computer audio line out jack; the other end is terminated with two RCA type plugs, left and right. Plug the RCA connectors into an input channel on the mixer. Such a configuration will allow you to send audio directly into the mixer.
On the software side of things, an MP3 player such as Winamp is needed to play either a webcast MP3 stream or a downloaded MP3 file. There are other audio stream formats such Real Audio and Microsoft Media. Within the micropower and IMC community there is somewhat of a consensus to support and use software that is either open source and/or non proprietary. Some streams are only available in Real Audio format. Their media player is required to play the audio stream. If possible, try to find an earlier version of Real Audio, such as version 8. With a good mix of MP3 audio and music files any community station will be able to provide a wide variety of programming. Radio production software (look on the web site - http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/) will allow the station to run unattended for those times when a programmer is not available. Other software such as Sonicart (http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/programs/Sonicart/) emulates a multi rack cart player. Audio files can be set up and played when needed. Hitsquad is a good source of audio software, but enable your browser (Mozilla is good for this) to suppress pop-up windows when you use this site. This site is brutal otherwise. Other good sites are mp3.com and download.com.
Your computer can also be used to record and produce audio files. There are dozens of software programs called rippers which will digitally record MP3 files from an audio CD placed in the computer’s CD drive. This is very useful when you want to preserve the station’s CD collection and still make the music available. CD discs developing legs is a common problem at all stations. An auxillary line out from an audio mixer can be connected to audio input jack on the computer for digital recording and editing purposes. This will allow you to use a digital audio editor to record and produce radio programs on your computer. Several good editors include Audacity (free - http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) and Cool Edit 2000 (inexpensive - http://www.syntrillium.com/). A number of good digital audio tutorials can be found on the Cool Edit site.
Digital streaming software can be used to stream your station to the web. It can also be used to separate your studio from the transmitter. If the FCC obtains a seizure warrant, they can take everything associated with the broadcast station. By setting up your primary operation as an internet only broadcast station, you are not liable if some other group or individual in the community decides to hook up a transmitter to the audio feed coming from a computer picking up your stream. Transmitters and antennas are easier to replace than an entire studio of gear. If the FCC issues a warning letter to whoever is hosting a transmitter, it becomes the FCC’s tough luck if it shuts down and someone else unrelated goes on the air with the web stream. The legal clock starts all over again. They just end up chasing a transmitter around the community. Check the IMC radio site mentioned above for information on streaming software. MP3 streaming software is the best choice since it is open source in most cases.