Migration

I've been often asked what happens if a stream keeps dropping?  Well you open a support ticket with your stream provider.  

I did just that once and never got a response back.  I ended up going with a new stream provider.  So how does a station move listeners to the new stream?  You update all the listing directories.  In my case it was Windows Media, iTunes, and Tune In Radio.  I also updated the player links on the website.  One day my over 200 listeners were on the old stream, the next day they were all on the new stream.

I've known people who just think if a station moves to another stream the listeners will do a search and find them.  Sometimes this may be the case, but not as much as one would think.  One day I discovered iTunes dropped my station.  I submitted a support ticket and received a message back that they were not accepting new stations or updating existing stations.  This meant the immediate loss of almost 100 listeners. Did they come back? No!  They moved on.

So migration is very important.  I've known stations that act like it's not a problem for them.  They lost an important platform which is Tune In Radio because Tune In Radio is not accepting any new streams for free.  As of this writing a slot goes for around $300 per quarter.  Tune In Radio is important with mobile listening as well as Smart TV's, Alexa handsfree, and late model cars.