This article guides you to set up your own internet radio station at free of cost. You should however, need a computer with internet connection (very important), headset/microphones and your own content such as your voice and the music that you have created. You cannot use music from others unless you have a valid license or permission from the producers to stream the music.
In order to setup your own Internet Radio Station, you will need the following:
1. Free streaming host provider account (www.myradiostream.com)
2. Winamp (music player from www.winamp.com)
3. Winamp Shoutcast DSP plugin (from www.download.nullsoft.com/shoutcast/tools/)
We can get a free streaming host server from www.myradiostream.com. This free software should be good enough to experiment with your IR station and think of upgrading to a professional version later.
Step 1: Go ahead and do the free registration on www.myradiostream.com. Do not click on the “create a free website.” Once you register, they will send you an email.
Step 2: Open the mail and click on the link they have sent to activate the account you just created. It will take a few moment. Have patience!!! They are going to assign you a server. Once done, you will be taken to a page called “Stream Settings.” On the top of that page, you will have your unique server ID that looks something like this – s1.myradiostream.com:4236. Your ID will look different but in the same format. You will see the address s1.myradiostream.com and a port number (4236 in this case) and max bit rate that is allowed by this server, which is 128 kbps (CD quality).
Step 3: Do copy these details on a notepad application. Under public information you must enter the station name (let us give the name as Best Christian Worship) and station description (Let us write – Contemporary and traditional worship music). This is public information seen by all your visitors. Under configure display name type something that is meaningful for your station (let us type “gospelmusic”). This URL in conjunction with whatever you have just typed (gospelmusic) makes up your website that myradiostream will create for you (in our case it will be http://myradiostream.com/gospelmusic). This will be the URL you will give to your visitors, family and friends informing them to listen to the music or talk show that you are streaming. Type in a unique password (copy this password also in the notepad) and a relevant title. Once you have entered these details press the “submit” button. On the top, you will get a message in green “Your settings have been updated; you may need to restart your server to complete the changes.” Do not touch anything below the “submit” button. Make sure you have the following details in your notepad – Address, Port, Password, Bitrate (Max)
Step 4: Now go back to the home page by pressing the “home” button on the top. There you can see that server status is offline. You should also see your name on top and the web address of your radio station page. If you click on this link it will take you to the web page which myradiostream has created for you and is giving it free. The cost for this free service is the ads they are displaying. Right now since you have not yet started your sever and you have not yet set up your stream, you will not be able to hear any music.
Step 5: Now you have to setup your music player for streaming. You may now download the Winamp application from the website www.winamp.com. Download the Winamp application for your operating system (Windows or Mac). You now also have to download the Winamp Shoutcast DSP plugin. To get this you need to go to the web site http://download.nullsoft.com/shoutcast/tools/ and download the latest version of this software found the bottom of the page.
Step 6: Once both the applications are downloaded, you need to install the Winamp application first and then the Winamp Shoutcast DSP plugin. After installing the DSP plugin and run it, the Winamp application and the plugin both are now started. We now need to configure the DSP plugin.
Step 7: At this time, you can now go back to the home page of www.myradiostream.com/welcomeBack.php web page and “start” your server by clicking the “Start”
button there.
Step 8: You now come back to the Winamp application to configure the DSP plugin (You can get additional information at https://myradiostream.com/get started/guides/?/51/Winamp-and-Shoutcast- DSP.html). In the Winamp application, select “options” and then “preferences”. In the left frame, under “plug-ins”, choose, “DSP/Effect”. On the right frame, you should see your plug-in on the top. Highlight the same and click on “Configure active plug-in” button. You will get a pop window. Click on the “Output” tab.
Step 8a: Now select the “Login” tab and then enter the details for the text boxes shown in red, like the “server address”, “port” and “password” details. Check the “Automatic re-connection on connection failure, set the “re-connection timeout” to 30 seconds and check the “Use SHOUTcast v1 mode (for legacy
servers).”
Step 8b: Next you come to the “Directory” tab, type a relevant “Name”. Once you type the name, the button on top will change to “change name” to “connect.” Leave the URL alone that is filled automatically for you. Choose the appropriate “Genre” from the pull down list.
Step 8c: Next choose the “Encoder” tab. Under “Encoder Type”, choose the “MP3 Encoder”. Under “Encoder Settings”, choose the 128 kbps, stereo. Nothing else needs to be changed.
Step 9: Now let us go to the “Input” tab on top. Since you will be streaming music from your computer, choose “Winamp” under Input Device. If you are doing a talk show and you will be using a microphone from your computer, select “Soundcard Input” (or any other input that is seen like from Audio interface etc.,). You should now see the “input levels” changing up and down based on your talk. At the bottom you will notice a “push to talk” button to say your voice overs. You can also “lock” the microphone so that you will not get disturbed. But for this example, since we are streaming “music” only, choose the “Input Device” to “Winamp” only.
Step 10: Since the server has already started, go back to the “Output” tab and press connect. You should see some activity in the “Status” box above. If yes, you are now connected to the server.
Step 11: Now go back to the “Winamp” control panel and play any song that will be streamed and connected to the server. The server then will stream this music to any client that is connected to it.
Step 12: Now, you go back to the webpage (http://myradiostream.com/gospelmusic) that was created by “myradiostream”. This should take you to the homepage where you can see a player. By clicking the “play” button, you should be able to hear the music that you are playing on your computer through
Winamp.
Congratulations, you have now successfully set up your own “Internet Radio” station. Share this URL (http://myradiostream.com/gospelmusic) to your friends and family who will be able to hear this music that you are streaming through on their PC or mobile phones through the browser.
May God bless you and help you to communicate His Word through the internet radio that you have just
setup.