Staccato Radio

The 24-hour radio station isn't online yet and I'm blaming it on two people. The first is MrMic, who has me re-thinking the station management software I might use. He's got a wealth of experience with several broadcasting products and found an app he likes better than two I mentioned last week. I'm currently comparing features of StationPlaylist Creator & Studio before I finalize that part of the process.

The second person who caused me to rethink the station launch is Janine from Real. The original plan was to broadcast the radio stream using Windows Media Streaming Services, which works but doesn't have the greatest interface for managing workflow. Real's Helix Universal Server, on the other hand, has a much better interface and can output in multiple formats, including Real, QuickTime, Windows Media, and MP3. I voiced my less than positive opinion about Real's consumer side of the media business more than once in this space, but their server technologies are something I have only heard positive things about. Over the short term, the radio station is on pause while I make sure I select the right combination of applications to offer me the greatest flexibility.

As an temporary alternative, check out radio-on-demand from Staccato. We had host Matt May on the radio show this week talking about his job at the W3C, Creative Commons, the ISCA BBS and podcasting. Staccato is interesting specifically because it only features Creative Commons licensed music. Matt spends an incredible amount of time searching the Internet Archive for the best of the quickly expanding collection of tracks musicians are making available for varying degrees of public use.