The Future of Streaming Radio

 

What I have always liked about the world of radio streaming is that it is getting less expensive by the day. One can get an old smart phone and stream better than any previous rig. I have a Microsoft phone from a pawnshop that cost 5 dollars and works well with a nearby stereo. I acquired a new android phone for l0 dollars that I can also use. With the tune in app, i heart radio app and a few others i have a world of radio at my fingertips. On my 50 dollar Microsoft phone that i carry service on, I can also stream in my car. But alas you have to touch stuff to make it work. Streaming does have re-connection problems that can only be solved by a touch or two.
               Enter wireless smart speakers. I found the Amazon Echo Dot for 49.99 on Amazon and have been impressed with its voice command only abilities. It comes able to interface with Tune in Radio, I heart radio, Pandora and amazon's audio books and music. As I write this, it is gaining new abilities every day. In most cases I can say the name of a station and Alexa will tell me she is tuning it. "Alexa play KSBJ" I say. "Playing KSBJ by way of the Tune in app." she reacts. The station is even using this in their adds. KSBJ is a large non profit CCM station in Houston. Alexa has some other basic abilities that are fun to play with too. She will need to be on your WiFi system to work. She has a big sister with better sound, but the little dot is capable of filling a mid sized room with sound and fine for an office.

As always feel free to write me.
Pastor Scott Talbert
scotttalbert1963@gmail.com

Ngen the little HD Station that could

In 1982 a public supported radio station rumbled on to the air in Houston. KSBJ was born on 88.1 fm, later she would move to 89.3fm. She grew to own the CCM market on the Texas coast. Buddy Holiday, its founder wanted a 100,000 watt fm station to stand tall for his savior. At first the station had some talk. Later it moved to 95% music. They still have some talk on Sunday nights. From the early days of the station they would play Christian Rock late on Saturday nights. This segment carried several names, Rock of Love and Light Force come to mind. The kids loved that music, but mainstream CCM with Amy Grant and Micheal Smith paid the bills. The station developed a lock on Christian concert promotion that still holds today. HD radio arrived in 2010. Most public stations jumped in, as they got a good deal on the medium.

KSBJ realized their music played well with the “Mommy Van” crowd but not the rock, rap and next generation. In 2010 they put up NGEN on their HD2 signal. HD2 signals allow radios with HD to receive secondary digital signal with great clarity of sound. This signal runs under the analog big brother. The signal is also weaker than the big brother. KSBJ also put the station online with its website and a host of phone apps. Ngenradio.com is available on most platforms. (Tune In is good)

August 8^th, 2016, at 6am NGEN went live on 91.7fm KXNG (analog) and became a major player in the crowded Houston Radio landscape. 50,000 watts of Hip Hop and Rock to reach a new generation. This represents a Digital and HD success story of sorts. This station birthed online, nurtured in HD and some low power fm analogs has come into its own. It will be an expensive baby for KSBJ. KSBJ has been run well a long time and will see the station become a titan like KSBJ, whose PPMs typically rank her 4^th in Houston – Galveston's radio market.

There is a flip side to this story. KUHA (now KXNG) was previously Rice University's radio station. The station was sold to UH and Rice's station ended up a HD2 and then just digital. UH wanted to use 91.7 fm to be their classical outlet. Classical music had shared the airwaves with KUHT. In )))) that station decided to go all news and put classical on HD2. NPR program left classical music playing at night. Now at least classical music could be heard all day. They also purchased 91.7fm from Rice with the intention of having a free standing classical music station that was analog. The station tanked from lack of support, then most of the on air personalities where fired. UH decided that 10 million being offered by KSBJ was too much to pass up.

Interestingly enough, the classical station is not dead. She is alive on HD2 under the Public Radio of UH, a great NPR affiliate. She also has a robust online presence and the greatest tutorial about streaming I have seen any station use. https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/classical/ways-to-listen/ She also has a presence on on digital tv as an audio only channel 8.5. How she will survive is a good question. UH can keep the format alive, but it will lack any real connection to Houston if it is simply a network outlet. Sadly classical music has been in full retreat to internet streaming for a few years.

I really hope both stations do well. As a Christian we need more than tightly programmed CCM. NGEN and her team will give Houston some alternatives, that even this 50 plus guy likes to hear. Classical music is just important. In that format world history has a chance to sing and play in our heads. It will be up to a very dedicated group of donors to keep it alive.

Programming note: I have moved back to Texas. I am still a pastor. I still have too many radios and not enough time to listen to everything.

Web Reference:

http://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/2016/07/15/160454/houston-public-media-completes-sale-of-classical-station-kuha-91-7-fm-to-ksbj/

Some Christian Rock to stream

Some Christian Rock Stations on the Web.

I volunteered to write about some selections of streaming Christian Rock stations. This is a basic list. You can google Christian Rock and find many more. You can also search for stations on various apps. One of my favorite list is at www.vtuner.com.  
Ngenradio.com is one of my favorite stations for Christian Rock and Rap. They are an HD2 of KSBJ.org in Houston. They are a better urban station than a rock station, but still good.

http://www.theblast.fm/wp/ These guys are loud and they are rock. They also have a 320k stream they consider cd quality. They are also on Roku players with the high speed being one of the best audio test for that streaming device.

http://www.christianhardrock.net/ This is a good network of power praise, rock, hard rock and classic rock stations. They have updated their look and I did not recognize them the first time I revisited this site. Their site is cool because you can jump off to their other offerings. They also have a pretty good selection of ways to connect to their feeds.

www.air1.com You can't go wrong with Klove's little louder brother. When they started this, it was a rock station. It has gotten calmer over the years.

http://www.fuelradio.fm/ This one caught my eye in a search but I do not have a lot of time listening to these guys.

http://radiou.com/ this is a station from Ohio that has a great online presence. They are very outreach oriented, but eventually you figure out your listening to a Christian stations. They also have a live tv and music video channel on Roku.

http://star88.fm/ This is our NM station from Albuquerque. They really are a good alt worship stations. This is not Rock but it is pretty progressive.

Streaming Radio in Cars

Last time I posted, I simply gave an over view of streaming and discussed how the hobby (?) has grown from computer to internet radios to set top TV streaming devices like a ROKU. I have also spoke about using a simple cell phone to stream on a data plan or getting a phone that can pick a internet signal from your home router or a public hot-spot like a library with a public signal. When you use set top boxes or your choice of smart phones you need apps. Apps provide access to various stations. Also some stations provide their signals and cell phones and computers can stream them.

We have also have said many good Christian ministries are into streaming. KLOVE comes to mind. They have a great FM presence in many towns. They are more prevalent in towns where the locals can not support a Christian music station like KSBJ(public) in Houston or KLTY (for profit) in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. KLOVE puts there signal on apps like Tune In and I Heart Radio. They also put most of their sister stations signals out on the net at vtuner.com. You can also download a separate KLOVE and their sister format AIR1 app for most types of cell phones and boxes like ROKU.

As I have explored this on-line world of noise, I have also noticed that many people are now using cell phone for in car entertainment. Most just used to store music files on a phone and plug it into a car stereo's jack for what looks like a headphone. The cable for that has a plug on each end that looks like a headphone plug and your phones audio is transferred to the car stereo. It works pretty good because it is a solid connection for tablets, mp3 players and most phones, even very inexpensive ones. Surprisingly you can also use this as real cheap hands free option on most phones. The voice comes out the speakers and the cell phones mike picks up voice because it thinks it is playing into headphones. But you do have to control the phone from the phone.

Now us really old car owners might have a stereo before they mounted AUX jacks in them. How can I get signal from a device, streaming or not to that? Well for years they have made in car FM transmitters for older vehicles. This is my least preferred system I have discussed. This device that usually cost over 30 bucks will plug into any headphone enabled device and transmit a very low powered signal to your car radio. OK this is where it gets interesting. The old transmitters would only use about 4 public bands like 88.1, 88.3, 88.5, 88.7. Before everyone found the public bands, in most town you could find one of those frequencies empty and tune your car radio to one and the device would broadcast your mp3 player, phone, or any device with a headphone jack to your car stereo. The problem would be what you heard. Usually it included a huge amount of hiss and sometimes just no signal. Having dealt with this in two vehicles we found removing the external car antenna helped. Then you could place the transmitter (usually small) in front or near the radio. In cities this was just a hard setup. Out in the country with less stations, a person could find a setup that worked fine. My son would DJ from a computer, Ipad or Iphone as we rolled down the road. Newer rigs can transmit on all the bands I believe. They can still be purchased for older cars or classic cars where tech upgrades are frowned on.

Ok I left out the infamous cassette adapter. I saw one at a dollar store recently. If you had an old tape deck you dropped it in and played signal through it. This device worked great if your tape deck heads where positioned right. I had a Ford Arrow-star van that could not use one. Most other vehicles could and a lot of people hooked up portable CD players to cars that way. Just dump the CD player and replace it with a Iphone streaming KLOVE and your on your way retro guy.

Lately I have been using a technology that has been around a long time but, is now coming into its maturity. Bluetooth is the particular technology I am thinking and using. Recently I retro fitted my 2006 Toyota Corolla with a sub 200.00 dollar car radio with Bluetooth. Best streaming car audio money I have spent. I can stream my one of my favorite web broadcasters on Tune In app like CCM Rewound and when I enter the car and set the radio to Bluetooth audio it plays through the speakers and on the road. Even in the El Paso area I can listen to streaming radio all over town on my ATT family cell plan with out doing too much damage. I am also able to answer and talk on the phone hands free when calls come.

The last little idea I want to stick in your head is the smart phone choice. I know Iphones are not for everyone. They cost a small fortunes. They are good audio machines. I am paying for my wife's and my boys have older versions they have got used. I used to use an old HTC android phone that streamed pretty good with apps and ok straight from the web. Lately I have discovered Windows Phones. They are a good work phone, but the app selection is pretty awful. I was able to get a Windows phone running Windows 8 at Christmas for less than fifty dollars. With a I Heart Radio, Tune In, and British Radio tuner app you can listen to a lot of English streaming radio. Those apps will also pick up a lot of Christian Talk, music and teaching too. I have also managed to use the vtuner.com web site in conjunction with a sound app to further enhance my channel choices witch should be in the 1000s.

That phone with a Bluetooth car stereo allows me to stream about anything I want while driving between El Paso, Texas and Las Cruses, New Mexico. I can tell you that audio streaming is way less costly on your data plan than video based steaming and I have not broke my 15 meg a month plan with this setup and my families phones. If you live in a bad cell phone area, the Bluetooth upgrade is worth it in terms of hands free cell use in the car with a fine MP3 library. With the Windows phone I can even handle incoming text messages without touching the phone.

I write this stuff for a few reasons. As a Christian, Christian music, teaching and talk enhance my faith. As a fan of older Christian Rock, I have to use MP3s or streaming to hear bands like Petra or Rez Band. I also just love radio around the world, that I started listening to as a child late at night with a portable AM radio or an old Army Jeep shortwave radio. The world is huge and a lot of it speaks language we can listen to, learn from and pray over.

Listening, Scott Talbert

scottttalbert1963@gmail.com

Random Thoughts: Just added scanner app to phone. So now I can cruse around and listen to local fire and ems. Bluetooth and phones sometimes have problems with getting out of car and coming back and resuming signal. Have fun, you will need to work with apps and phone to see if you have issues. The night I wrote this post I listened to BBC1 (London, UK)show live from Hollywood (USA) while driving in Anthony, New Mexico. How cool is that.

Steaming So Far

Its October 26, 2015 as I begin to write this. The options for streaming Radio are pretty amazing for the person with Internet, router and cell phone. There are lots of great choices of things to listen to and enjoy. For Christians it is also a great time to listen to teaching and some great music from many providers that cover everything from Christian Rap to Christian Rock and all in between. Good ole Gospel and Choral music is also there if you search for it. My particular love is CCM before the 90s going back to the origins of it in the late 60s. Think Larry Norman, Evie and Dogwood. I can listen to several outlets that play this take on CCM.

As I have explored this topic and just shared what I have been doing. I am finding that not a lot about delivery of music has changed in the last couple of years. I think more people are streaming with cell data as the price of that is going down or plans are adding data. In the bad ole days of streaming you almost had to have a good computer and a pretty good connection to listen to Radio on a computer or even a streaming station. Well computers have improved and connections by and large are faster than dail-up. When I started this blog, I had been streaming on various sites with various programs to play music like windows media (still good) or winamp (have to search now, but still downloadable, just not not supported again, best I can tell.) But that meant all music listening had to be down around a computer, just like the days of gathering around the radio. Many ministries have been streaming for many years and many ministries do that quite well. I later got a internet radio that hooked up to small radio with inputs for phone or any other device with aux outputs. This radio used www.vtuner.com as a source of stations. That site can be accessed for listening for stations around the world by a computer with a good player program like winamp or even windows media. (it will not play some sound files for some stations, amp will play most)

In that time period some very nice internet radios came on the market, like squeezbox and you can still Google the rest.

Later I found that a ROKU TV box makes a great internet radio. Most TV's have good speakers or are hooked to home stereos so the ROKU makes pretty good sound. This is a box that gets a internet signal from a router (some wired) and then developers give you channels that have individual stations (Klove, Air One), or small batches of stations (Christian radio from Salem, CBN) or big market radio channels like Tune In and I Heart. Also Christian movies, music videos, networks and other religious ministries are on ROKU. Matter of fact a lot of ROKU stations are religious and of many flavors and types.

Eventually I began to to use and Android cell phone to stream a lot of Christian and other radio. They are becoming the new pocket radio for the next generation. Many are taking notice for this, as apple has put a lot of money into a customizable streaming station. I choose an Android because I got my wife's old one and they really are cheaper than apple. On most cell phones you can get the Tune In, I Heart and a host of other streaming music apps. Most of these apps have a tun of good Christian radio and ministry. Lots of apps are also just for one stations. If you are a fan of a particular station or group of stations you may want to check and see if they have a specific app or if they use any of the major streaming outlet.

Now this is not the whole streaming universe. Most major phone apps have a good PC equivalent so you can listen on a lap top or your phone. Podcast are huge too. Most preaching ministries have podcast for certain messages and usually they are free. The steaming service are numerous and they have huge listings. This is good for CCM and Christians because most stations will be some where on the net for you. I am listening to Lead Me to the Rock Radio out of California on my PC though a WinAmp program. The sound is a solid 128kb and sounds great. Some Christian stations are breaking that speed and sound crystal clear.

I have used steaming radio to go to trouble spots in the world in order to pray for people on the ground or use the info about other cultures to pray about evangelism.

Some closing thoughts. Do you have a type of music you like. Stream it. Do you have a church you follow. Try podcast. Do you like to hear new and pray over situations. Look up a local station and stream it. I would like to talk with any readers at scotttalbert1963@gmail.com

Would Jesus Like Commercial Christian Radio

This post is about commercial Christian Radio that is available to listen to and enjoy with the internet. Religious radio has a long interesting relationship with commercial radio. In days of old some musical content on radio was decidedly religious. Many popular songs were hymns and songs of faith. Country music artist still have hits with religious music today. Travis' “3 crosses”, Long Black Train” by Josh Turner, and Carrie Underwood's “Something in the Water” are examples of this type. Many radio stations in 30s to today allocated time to religious broadcasters who would buy time on a secular stations. 24/7 specific programming has stopped a lot of this broadcasting. Many teaching stations are still commercial outlets. Various broadcasters simply buy times on those stations. Thus, when somebody listens the station is rarely asking for money but the various ministries are asking for help to stay on the air. Gospel music in the south found various stations who still are commercial in nature and they do well in various markets. Contemporary Christian Music which began to evolve in the 70s and 80s found its way onto various outlets as a format or something that was played at a certain time of the week. My home town had a several commercial ccm stations that lasted a few years. Very quickly a large part of the ccm listening community realized to make a station that would not change formats quickly as needed to survive, they needed to have a non commercial station. Christians in Houston would form www.ksbj.org that still broadcast Christian music today. Dallas, some would say the buckle of the bible belt got KLTY over twenty years ago. WWW.klty.com is still quite active and is the leading Christian music station in a market loaded with non commercial religious broadcasters. I have found some commercial outlets of Christian music if you do not mind a commercial or two instead of pleads for donations. http://www.1faithfm.com/channel18.html is a service that plays a few formats of Christian music.

The mother of all Christian broadcasting is Salem Communications. This California Christian Based company owns conservative and religious broadcasting and publishing services all over the United States. http://www.christianradio.com/ This site has lots of online music and teaching.

As a Christian writer I have to ask the question is this a case of tables of trade in the temple. I am not sure. I do know when the commercial outlets are owned by well meaning Christians, things tend to be run well and content is pretty good. Salem has even raised funds for Christian ministries.

Most music services have a ccm or Gospel choice. I'm thinking of XM radio or Direct TVs music channels. Also online services like Pandora, or even I Heart have ccm choices. Try setting up an Imperials channel on I Heart. Do they have respect for what they are playing? I do not know.

Contemporary Christian Music has always been a strange blend of commercial interest and people wanting to reach other people by any means possible. Most large Christian artist work for multi-national labels who's sole motivation is making money. Even famous christian writers are carried by commercial book companies. On the same theme most Christian book store chains are owned by churches or christian groups. I just see the commercial or non commercial route as a way to get a message to an audience.

Great Classic CCM Music on the Net

El shaddai, el shaddai,
El-elyon na adonia,
Age to age you're still the same,
By the power of the name.
El shaddai, el shaddai,
Erkamka na adonai,
We will praise and lift you high,
El shaddai.

Do you remember Amy Grant singing this famous Michael Card song. Actually, quite a few artist covered it. Amy must have liked it, she had 3 versions of it. As I get older I find myself wanting to reconnect to music out of my youth and college days . Christian Contemporary Music (CCM) has been around since the 60s and has changed a lot. The early stuff tended to sound acoustic and like west coast rock. Some out and out rock was part of this new music. As CCM grew up it tried to sound like top 40 music. Later hard rock, alt rock and even hair metal music would all have their own CCM artist. Today praise music is a pretty pervasive part of CCM. As a fan from the 70s and 80s, I have began to want to listen to some of that era of music again. Like it or not, that music formed who I was spiritually. Did you sing Michael Smiths “Friends” at camp. How many names can you recall from 7^th grade church youth camp. Later I would see Pat Terry and Steve Camp at a National High School religious camp. Both performances still speak to me today. Later in life I would see Larry Norman, Steve Green and Rich Mullins before they passed.

I am also concerned that a lot of music from that era was put on vinyl and cassettes and has yet to be archived on digital or at least CDs. Sadly, we could lose or degrade some beautiful early heartfelt work of many artist. Also death is a factor, some of these artist are getting older and a window to capture this music is getting smaller.

Streaming radio will not solve all of these problems but it may at least get some of this music off the shelves and back into some old and even new ears. I have found a few good outlets playing CCM “oldies” or classics.

The station I feel has the most promise is http://classicchristian247.com/ This five year old outfit has a great website. It is apparently visited by lots of artist from that age. The stream is available on the tunein mobile app too. They are supported by gifts and some advertising.

I have also found http://www.ccmrewound.com/#! The website is not as cool at 247's but the music seems a little more diverse. They also seem to have really good audio at 128k. Some of the base material can be hard to get good sound from, but they seem to do it well. I also like the fact they are playing Jerry Bryant's 'Full Circle” shows on a regular basis. Jerry was a DJ with decades of experience and plays some very early, sometimes quite rare material. They are also listener supported.

Another station I checked out has been http://www.ccmbacktracks.com/ Their website is pretty much just a place to get the stream. Audio is good at 128k and you can get them on the net and with Roku and smartphone through the tune in app.

A multi site (has more than one stream) http://www.christianclassicrock.net This site considers any rock over a few years to be classic rock. They play a diverse list of artist from the history of Christian Rock. They are associated with 3 other stations that their parent non profit ChristianRock.net They offer Christian Rock, Power Praise and Hard Rock. Beware these streams have some really loud music in them. They have their own apps for smart stores and are carried by tunein.

Honestly I have only reviewed a few stations. Googling CCM Classics will get you a host of websites and streaming sites that play classic CCM. It seems to be growing genre that many are going into.

A face book site I have found is https://www.facebook.com/groups/jesusmusic/, They try to focus on the music. To their credit they ask posters not to comment on artist failures and theology. I am a member and have seen lots of album covers and other commits about finding music.

This January a group calling itself CCM United pulled together over 30 classic artist and had a mega concert called “We Will Stand” for some excellent charities. The DVD of the concert will be available at CCMunited.com later in March and through Lifeway book stores.

Back in the day this music helped build my faith and helped me find expression of my faith. I am thankful that so many are also apparently ready to rediscover this great stuff. As I end this post, I am listening to “Watch and Pray” by Twilla Paris on http://www.ccmclassic.com/ccm-classic-radio-station.htm a station I found randomly with a google search.

End notes: Tune in is a web site, smart phone app and Roku app that caries various streaming services. The Roku is a device for streaming apps that can be hooked up to a tv. I have listed the stations by their web adress for easy access from this article. You may need to hit a “listen Now' button or two.