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View Full Version : Creating a leftist shoutcast station



Blackscare
24th April 2009, 02:41
This thread is to facilitate the planning needed to create a proper platform for leftist ideas on Shoutcast. We'll need a few different types of contribution to get this project off the ground:

Ideas

If you have any files (or links to files, youtube videos, etc) that cover various leftist issues, post them in this thread for consideration! We need to create a robust lineup of engaging material (in the form of lectures, communiques/statements from various groups, current events etc).

Please try to stick to material that does not have potential copyright issues, because as much as we'd all like to say fuck you to intellectual property rights, it helps no one if we get in legal trouble over a shoutcast station.

As time goes on I'll try to compile a working list of material and post it here for everyone to view and discuss.

Material/technical aid

I am not in a position to make this happen myself (I don't have the money or equipment at the moment, nor do I have any experience in shoutcast station hosting). That said, we need contributions from reliable and interested parties. I've already gotten offers to help from people in chat, which were what convinced me to actually create this thread.

As with the ideas, post in here if you'd like to help and in what capacity. I'll try to keep a rough roster up so we can see how well things are coming along and what remains to be done. Those that have already talked to me, please post here anyway so that I can get a clear idea of what you're willing to do to help. Anyone who would be willing and able to entirely take over the direction/organization of this aspect of the station is invited to propose such an arrangement in this thread, since I'm out of my depth in that regard.

Discussion

In order to create a station that will be listenable and perhaps even get non-leftists interested in our ideas, we'll need something better than a series of poor quality lectures strung one into another with no dividing lines. Should we have music in between more serious audio? Should we have a host (and then, who should it be and how will that be decided)? Could we even create original material somehow, even news at some point in the future? Ideas on the ways we can structure and improve the station would be awesome.

*Edit*
I've created a group to facilitate decision making.
http://www.revleft.com/vb/group.php?groupid=145

Current issues in the group (feel free to make more as they are needed):
Hosting and site content
Shoutcast V Peercast V Write in debate
Ideas for names

Promotion

No, there won't be commercials, but we're not making much of an impact if new people aren't hearing us, either! Can you make banners? Do you know places where you could place them or otherwise tell people about the station? The creation of a website of some sort could prove invaluable, so if you have ideas please contribute.

__________________________________________________ _______________

This will NOT be a sectarian or partisan (within the left, at least) endeavor. We welcome all leftists to contribute. Media selections will be made with an eye towards the most interesting and engaging, high-quality audio. If you have a coherent and interesting leftist piece to share, it will be considered equally among all the others and judged on its merits.

I'd like to say that I am merely organizing this, I have no final say on anything. All major issues that may arise will be brought to a vote somehow, though the form this will take I am not yet sure of. Perhaps a group? I imagine potential areas where voting may be of use would be on finalizing a content list, approving controversial media, establishing who "gets" to host the station (if it comes to several people volunteering for the position), etc.



Sorry for the lengthy post, but I imagine this thread will be up for a while as we work on the creation of this station (for this reason, it'd be cool if it got stickied in the event it receives a decent amount of attention).

Also, before anyone brings it up, I'm aware of the Revleft radio station, but it's more music than discussion/propaganda/lecture oriented. I'd like to help create a new, lively station that is updated and improved often so that we may help reach people. The Revleft station, while still very cool, seems rather static.

mel
24th April 2009, 02:58
I might be able to contribute, at the very least, technical direction and advice. If my schedule opens up, and we end up ready for that sort of thing, I might be able to contribute to creating a web presence and possibly some banners/etc.

If you want a website, we'll need to find hosting and a domain name. I also don't know anything about hosting a shoutcast station, but that could end up being a bandwidth concern too.

Blackscare
24th April 2009, 03:50
Links of interest to anyone interested in hosting the station (thanks Gonzeau & GF who's Revleft name I don't know):



Overview of various options:
http://radio.about.com/library/weekly/aa013003c.htm


Anonymous broadcasting through Peercast:
http://www.peercast.org/

Peercast manual:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/7384918/Peercast-Users-Manual

Peercast help page:
http://www.peercast.org/help.php

Peercast for dummies:
http://radio.cpcscene.com/peercast.php

Interesting article on "P2P" radio and it's applications:
http://www.openp2p.com/pub/a/p2p/2002/09/24/p2pradio.html

Community hub of sorts for peercast users:
http://www.webring.com/hub?ring=peercastwebring1



Peercast seems to offer a lot that Shoutcast cannot, the only problem I see is that the user base is smaller and therefore the site, banners, and general promotion will be more important. This isn't too much of a problem, and is really nothing when you take into account the logistical benefits involved (much less expense compared to Shoutcast broadcasting, it seems).

bellyscratch
24th April 2009, 14:50
This sounds like a really good idea and something I may be interested in getting involved in. I've got a bit of knowledge of multimedia web production but its been limited to basic audio streaming, video streaming and podcasts.

I wouldn't want to take a leading role but once I've finished uni in a few weeks I'd try be more involved

Glenn Beck
24th April 2009, 16:12
A wordpress blog + peercast setup would seem ideal. We could pimp the site on the comments of blogs and fora we frequent and if we can deliver the goods some folks might even want to put up banners. It would be great to get people of as many political tendencies as possible involved imo both for diversity of content and broadened appeal.

Also we need a name :confused:

Blackscare
24th April 2009, 18:18
A wordpress blog + peercast setup would seem ideal.

Yes this seems true. Like Melbi said in chat, the wordpress blog can offer content updates, polls, etc that will keep the stream lively.


It would be great to get people of as many political tendencies as possible involved imo both for diversity of content and broadened appeal.


Yes, at least on the internet we need to present ourselves as a fundamentally unified yet diverse group. The reactionaries are great at the whole unification thing, we need at least general radio station that any type of leftist (or someone new to leftist thought, more importantly) can start listening to and enjoy.



Also we need a name http://www.revleft.com/vb/../revleft/smilies/confused1.gif

True. That's it, I'm starting a group so I can post a bunch of threads to decide individual issues and not piss off the whole site.


http://www.revleft.com/vb/group.php?groupid=145

There's a thread there I just start where you can post name ideas. That way we can at least keep this thread somewhat orderly and focused on a few core issues.



This sounds like a really good idea and something I may be interested in getting involved in. I've got a bit of knowledge of multimedia web production but its been limited to basic audio streaming, video streaming and podcasts.

I wouldn't want to take a leading role but once I've finished uni in a few weeks I'd try be more involved

Great, it'll be at least a few weeks before this gets off the ground, I think, so there'll be time for you to figure out when and to what degree you can help.

Blackscare
24th April 2009, 18:19
Actually I have to add that while I was typing this, melbi brought up some good points against peercast and wordpress in chat. So the issue is far from closed. I'll start a group thread to debate the pros and cons of both.

The Idler
24th April 2009, 22:46
Could you not just contribute to Indymedia or Democracy Now?

Blackscare
24th April 2009, 23:02
The idea is to create a hub that will give a mix of different views in a classic radio format, those other projects are great but don't do what we'd like to do in this one (well democracy now does, but we want to create a 24/7 streaming channel). We want to make a variety of information and such available without people having to seek it out individually.

For instance, you may want to look up Zizek's lectures but have never heard of Alain Badiou until you come across an interview of his playing on our station. Like any good radio station/program, we will want to expose people to things that they wouldn't find if they were just seeking out specific things in an archive based on their pre-existing interests.





And even if these projects were the same, there's no reason there can't be more.




I feel like this project can offer a different format for the distribution of ideas than pre-existing projects. I've looked and as far as I know there is no internet radio station that leftists can access around the world at any time. This is the niche that this project can fill.

Blackscare
24th April 2009, 23:07
Here's a good link I saw in the guy above my last post's sig.

http://eng.anarchopedia.org/list_of_left-wing_audio

That could be a great source of material.

Also, contacting Democracy now and indymedia to see if we can use their material in a 24/7 streaming format would be a great idea (if no one else does, I'll do it later on when the project gets off the ground a bit more).

The Idler
25th April 2009, 11:59
I was going to suggest Icecast until I saw Peercast is GPL too.

neilhere
25th April 2009, 15:29
Sounds like a very good idea.