How to Setup Online Radio: Create Your Own Radio Station

I write articles about music generally. However, I would like to write some articles about music related computer issues. You know that there are many online radios on the internet. It is my dream to setup an internet radio which its contributors and DJ’s from different countries and cultures. It could be very good to hear music from different cultures with interactions. We could discover new music; get to know more about different cultures. Think about a radio plays from Brazil. After Brazil session finished, it plays from Turkey, Spain, Japan, Greece, America or some different countries. It would be very interesting to hear different contributors’ selections. It would be very good, although it is a dream. Maybe one day, we could be a big community and think about creating an online radio. There are many ways to setup a radio on the internet. I will explain the most famous platform for radio streaming.

Shoutcast is the biggest online radio platform that almost all big radios use it. We need three items to setup a radio on Shoutcast platform. We only need Winamp (or similar media players), a free Shoutcast broadcasting host, and Shoutcast DNAS plugin for media players.

Myradiostream.com is a good service provider for Shoutcast hosting. You could open an account and setup your radio easily. You do not need to have a separated website. The provider also gives a website for streaming. If you have a website, you could copy embedding codes and paste to your website. The website provides settings for your radio. We record stream address, port and password to use in Winamp. Listen2myradio.com is also good provider. They provide nice players for your websites.

After we install Shoutcast DNAS plugin, we open Winamp. Choose preferences from options menu. After this, we will choose DSP section from opened window. Double click Shoutcast DNAS plugin and follow steps given in the pictures.

We choose output tab, and write our stream address, port and password from myradiostream.com. After that, we click Yellow pages button. We could write our stream name to description section. If you want, you could write your website address and add the genre you play. Enable Title Update box must be clicked, if you want your artist and song titles appear to listeners. Finally, we choose our stream values from Encoder tab. You could choose AAC Plus or MP3 encoders. AAC Plus is very good encoder for broadcasting. 64 kbps AAC plus stream is equal to 128 kbps MP3 stream. Moreover, listeners must download a file to listen to your stream. You cannot use the player you embedded to your page. If you want to use the player, you should choose MP3 encoder. I suggest you to use MP3 Encoder, 96 kbps, 44100 Khz stereo settings.

When we complete stream settings, we go to Output tab and press connect. You are online! Listeners could hear your stream, if they visit your radio page. If you want to talk, you should go to Input tab and change input device to Soundcard Input. When you are playing a song, change it to Winamp again.

Having an online radio is very easy with Shoutcast and Winamp. You could use the other players for streaming. Their settings are almost the same. You could also use some professional DJ programs like SAM Broadcaster for more professional streams.

Interaction with listeners is very important. You could add a chat box to your radio page to talk with your listeners. It makes your radio more interactive and listenable.

I hope, we will be a big community and setup our own global radio to share everything about music. You could write me, if you need help.

Bye for now!