Indie Radio Needs A Home

I am RockerboB and this is my story.

Everyone needs music in their life and everyone wants to follow their dream. 8 years ago I started following mine which was to become a radio DJ, but I didn't want to be just any DJ that played whatever the station told me to play. I wanted to follow in the footsteps of some of the greatest DJ's of all time like Alan Freed and Rodney Bingenheimer, trailblazing DJ's that brought new bands to the world and in the case of Alan Freed,,, the guy that gave Rock N Roll its name.

Three and a half years ago I started doing a radio show called Moment Of Eclection, I would pick a theme and play music where the band names or song titles related to the theme. It was mostly mainstream bands but every chance I could I would slip in an unsigned band looking for exposure. 

A year and a half in the station I was on at the time decided to change the format to all indie and unsigned music. This was a dream come true for me, finally a forum to give airplay to music the world had never heard. 

Shortly after the station folded but I did not. I turned my show into a podcast and began sending it out to online stations. One of the stations that agreed to air my show was called Charlie Mason Radio.

After a little over a year on the station and building a solid following, I woke up on Jan 3rd of this to an email from the station owners saying they were going to retire from the radio game and asked if I would like to take ownership of the station. I jumped at the chance. 

Over the last 9 months, I have built the station up from about 3000 followers to 12000 followers on social media. Added 17 hosted shows to the programming lineup 3 of which are exclusive to us. Some of the shows are hosted by true radio royalty. The biggest accomplishment was becoming the third station in the world to stream at 320 kbs high-quality audio. As a comparison, most stations stream at 128 kbps, iTunes, and Spotify stream at 192 kbps. We currently have about 9,000 listeners per day and growing which is very good in a worldwide radio market, there is a lot of competition for what we do.

We have gained a lot of respect from the independent music community and listeners alike. One of the reasons for this is we are a not for profit station, we are not out to cash in on musicians like the mainstream music stations are. We are listener supported through donations and the occasional sponsorship.

We have had a few hiccups this year ranging from equipment failures to poor server companies yet we persevere and manage to survive. However, we have now hit an obstacle so big it could take the station off the air for good.

I was operating the station from my home but my roommates had decided to relocate which meant I had to move. While I had plenty of time to prepare I was unable to find enough sponsorship or raise enough donations to find a new place. Sadly moving day has passed and I am still without a new place and due to the pandemic, it has been hard to find a place to stay let alone finding someone willing to have a radio station operate in their home. Needless to say, I am currently homeless trying to find internet access where I can in order to keep the station running as best as I can.

I am trying to raise $1500 so that I can pay the first month's rent and deposit on an apartment and keep the station on the air. We have a few major sponsors interested in sponsoring us which will keep us going after that, but if we go off the air now we will lose their interest and the station will die.

People who know me will tell you I have never worked as hard or pursued a goal as much as I have this station and a career in radio. Now it is all about to slip away meaning the hard work over the last two years was for nothing.

If you have ever rooted for the underdog and wanted to see them win I am that underdog. If you could help me in any way keep my dream alive I would be truly grateful.

Thank you for your time and I hope you will consider helping me out.