Forrest Hill Internet Radio Stream

I have been thinking about the possibility of starting up FH FM for sometime. I have researched the options and even visited Whanagparaoa Primary's Splat FM. They also have a podcast http://splatfmwgp.podomatic.com/. I found out the setup required for an FM radio station is about $2000.00. Alternatively I could setup a internet radio for next to nothing.

Why have a radio station? How could this support the learning of our students?

Some ideas:

Daily News 10am - details of sport practices, clubs and general notices.
Story of the Day - Children shared their own work by reading their own stories out loud. This could be prerecorded and played back in various time slots.
New Library Book - Reviews and previews.
Math Problem Solvers - Each day of the week a problem could be read out and every Monday the answers could be given out. Or answers could be sent in for marking.

Basic Facts Challenge Test : Competition to help students improve their basic facts.

Original Music: Recorded and played. Eg. Choir Songs

Chit Chats: Students could report on what's happening/happened in their classroom in the current week.

Interviews - Senior students could report on school wide events sharing interviews with the key people.

This is just the beginning of the list. There is a lot of potential here. Combining the radio station with a website of some description would be important.

I have made some progress so far in researching possible options. Here are some of my findings:

There are several approaches to creating streaming internet radio and which one you choose depends on your goals. If you are truly inspired to begin a Internet-based Radio station that operates for the purpose of profit and generating revenue, your path will be different than from the person who just wants to set up a broadcast to simply share his or her CD collection with friends.

There are excellent options for the novice which require very little technical knowledge. If you can create or assemble MP3 files, upload them and choose a few options, you can reach a global audience!

Flexible and Cheap Personal Broadcasting Using Your Own Computer

If you wish to set up a broadcast and don't want to pay the fees a other third-party to host your Internet radio stream - and you are a do-it-yourself kind of person - you might do well creating your own online radio station by using your own personal computer to create a dedicated server for doing the job.

Some of the software options for getting this done include:
SHOUTcast
http://www.shoutcastblog.com/
SHOUTcast is one of the original free Internet radio software solutions for streaming audio. You can start your own station fairly easily and the software is free to download.

Others include:

• Helix Server Basic
• Quicktime Streaming Server
• Quicktime Broadcaster
• Peercast
• Icecast
• Andromeda
• Live365.com
• ubroadcast.com

I have notes on all of these alternatives however for now I am trying out Shout cast and Winamp. My current goal is to just get it up and running with a mock up program. I have met some technical problems and hope to get these sorted soon.