Low power radio - and LibriVox content

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dlolso21
LibriVox Admin Team
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Joined: January 11th, 2011, 12:13 pm

Post by dlolso21 »

elfpen wrote:Today the FCC approved our Low Power FM station application.
That means we have a frequency assigned to us at this location.
And we have 18 months to build our station and have it
up and running.

.....

We have thought of podcasting. I don't know if we have the budget
for that, mostly the internet bandwidth. There's a lot I don't know!
I hope to make it, somehow, available to librivox
volunteers so they can hear their work being put to good use.

Chris Howard
Classic Book Radio
Columbus, Mississippi
Chris,

I am excited to see the progress. If you are considering hosting the podcasting on your site that would require bandwidth. However, since podcasting is an Apple thing you could upload the podcasts to the iTunes store and let them take care of the hosting and bandwidth.

David O
elfpen
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Joined: June 27th, 2011, 7:42 pm

Post by elfpen »

A bit of progress.
We have applied for a callsign and that came through.
And we started a website. Nothing is there yet except for
our aspirations and a progress blog of sorts.

wmfh-lp.org

I have been investigating the internet streaming side.
And I've been looking at the "RDS" thing, that technology
in your car radio which shows you the station and a
little text blurb. We want to use that to show
the author and title so that a person tuning in will know
that they are in chapter 6 of Moby Dick (or whatever).

We've made some more progress with our kickstarter project page
this week and I've been downloading more content.

I was just pondering a bit yesterday...
These works were produced by people with creative drive.
Some of them I'm sure were trying to make a living at it.
Then, in the modern era we have Project Gutenburg, lots of volunteers
typing, scanning, editing, reading texts into computer form.
Then the LibriVox folks, again volunteers reading and editing
and listening and compiling the audio works.
(it all reminds me a bit of ancient monks copying and caring
for sacred scrolls)

I'm putting that on a computer running a version of Linux,
a volunteer project, and radio station software which is also
free (Rivendell).

I'm going to ask for money to buy the equipment.

All I really do is download and trim up the audio selections,
build a schedule, pay the electric bill :-) and people
can hear Shakespeare on their radio or streaming to their
iPad. (we're going to lean a little bit on the world of commerce
to provide ongoing "underwriting" of the operation.)

Civilization is a beautiful thing.
MaryAnnSpiegel
LibriVox Admin Team
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Location: Chicago, IL

Post by MaryAnnSpiegel »

Chris,
Congratulations! This is wonderful progress. Please continue to keep us updated. What a wonderful new frontier for audiobooks!
MaryAnn
elfpen
Posts: 34
Joined: June 27th, 2011, 7:42 pm

Post by elfpen »

Our crowd-funding project is up!

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/startup-classic-book-radio-wmfh-lp

And we have the bare bones of a website at http://www.wmfh-lp.org
which includes a blog as we pull things together.

And we have a facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/wmfhlp

Chris Howard
Classic Book Radio
carolb
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Joined: March 1st, 2011, 2:19 pm
Location: West Sussex, England

Post by carolb »

What a great project - Congratulations and good luck, Chris!

Image

Carol
MaryAnnSpiegel
LibriVox Admin Team
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Location: Chicago, IL

Post by MaryAnnSpiegel »

Chris!

I loved the valentine video! To think that Classic Book Radio could help Joe move from writing his sweetheart "Yeah Baby, Oh Baby, Yeah Baby" to "How do I love thee, let me count the ways, I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach". Wow, talk about kicking it up a notch!

And I love the piece of cardboard for backdrop!

Fellow Librivoxers - you need to check this out!

MaryAnn
kayray
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Post by kayray »

Way to go, Chris! I wish you the best of luck!
Kara
http://kayray.org/
--------
"Mary wished to say something very sensible into her Zoom H2 Handy Recorder, but knew not how." -- Jane Austen (& Kara)
elfpen
Posts: 34
Joined: June 27th, 2011, 7:42 pm

Post by elfpen »

Thanks!
I very much appreciate the encouragement.
elfpen
Posts: 34
Joined: June 27th, 2011, 7:42 pm

Post by elfpen »

Well, we are banging away on Twitter and Facebook and generally being annoying,
trying to get people to give us cold hard cash. And we're not being overly successful
about it. (but BIG THANKS to those who have contributed!)

The folks-who-should-know tell me that there should be an uptick in
contributions during the last few days of our crowdfunding campaign.

We currently have enough to move to a next step but not enough
to get on with our real desire: broadcasting Librivox content.

Our next step is to get a "determination" letter of charity/non-profit
status from the IRS. That will then let us apply for grants from foundations.
We would have to do that even if our fundraiser was a gusher.
And we have a few folks who contributed toward t-shirts and other
perks. We will work on getting those out.

I am mostly a technology guy, not a schmoozer and fundraiser. It has been
an interesting trip, but I will sure be glad when it's over!

Here's a link to our fundraiser page at indiegogo.com:

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/classic-book-radio-wmfh-lp/x/6312745
and our website is http://wmfh-lp.org

Chris Howard
Classic Book Radio
elfpen
Posts: 34
Joined: June 27th, 2011, 7:42 pm

Post by elfpen »

Here's an update on WMFH-LP, a low power FM radio station broadcasting librivox content 24x7:

After our crowdfunding project fell short of the goal we have been working
on a turn toward two other funding sources. Our need is approximately $12,000 to
buy transmitter, antenna, etc.

We are pursuing a charity (501c3) designation with the IRS. That will open up
the possibility of getting a grant from various private and corporate foundations.

Also we are looking for underwriting (advertising) income.

We have added 4 new members to our board of directors to act
as oversight to what formerly had been just my wife and I.
That was prompted by the 501c3 effort. Also, it
is exciting to have more people on board, convinced that our
project has merit.

Our website http://www.wmfh-lp.org has information about how
to make a contribution, how to buy a t-shirt, and about our
underwriting offerings.

Please email us if you have any suggestions, comments,
encouragement, or other: comments@wmfh-lp.org

Chris Howard
Classic Book Radio
WMFH-LP
Columbus, MS
CalmDragon
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Post by CalmDragon »

Nice website. Bought a t-shirt. Now if only three or four hundred more people would... ;)
elfpen
Posts: 34
Joined: June 27th, 2011, 7:42 pm

Post by elfpen »

I've learned today that the FCC (here in the USA, the Federal Communications Commission) will have a "window" for filing new
applications for low power FM radio licenses sometime this fall.

This is the first opportunity since we started Classic Book Radio in 2014.

LPFM licences are limited in power output which gives a range of 5-10 miles depending on local circumstances.

I'd be happy to have other radio reading stations pop up around the country... but unfortunately only one LPFM
license per customer so it's up to you. If you have questions give me a shout.

chris.howard@wmfh-lp.org
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