Monday, October 03, 2011

Alabama paper starts online radio station

The Choctaw Sun-Advocate in southwest Alabama has started on online radio station, and it has been so successful so quickly that advertising sales have already paid for the equipment, uploading expenses and licensing fees, Publisher Tommy Campbell told AlaPressa, the monthly newsletter of the Alabama Press Association.

"We've already sold more than $6,000 in ads and sponsor fees," Campbell said in late August, about a week after the launch. By mid-September, Ala Pressa reports, the station "had already drawn listeners from 37 foreign countries and 40 states, he said. . . . The station plays classic rock from the 5,000 songs Campbell has downloaded from iTunes, and it plays a variety of Christian music and church programming on Sundays. It also features local and state news and weather, calendar of events, online classified ads, public affairs programming, local obituaries and more," including warnings of severe weather.

"I definitely think it's something that smaller papers could benefit from," Campbell told AlaPressa, which reports, "Listeners who don't want to go through a computer can buy an Internet radio receiver for less than $80." The station is at www.live365.com/stations/sunliteonline.

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