I was thinking it might be fun to start up my own OTR streaming station online. I know there are tons of them already but I thought it might be fun to try and get one going myself. I have done the shoutcast server thing before and streamed over the web but that was many years ago.

Id be most interested in finding a way to only only stream but also schedule. This way I could schedule shows or episodes at certain times of day or days of the week. This is where things get hazy for me. I don't know if a software that can do this. There must be something out there that is easy to use and can do this.

maybe ill never get around to it but id like to give it a shot. Has anyone done something similar?

I haven't streamed anything over the internet, but a couple of my favorite OTR listeing sites are:
WNAR Lansdale, PA actually broadcast over the AM airwaves in addition to streaming over the internet. Recently they announced that they were no longer transmitting due to retirement, but would continue the streaming over the internet.
http://wnar-am.com
Check them out and contact them.
The second that I most frequent is the 1920s radio network. They stream music and also have a seperate OTR stream. I listen to them both. Maybe another resource for you.
http://www.the1920snetwork.com/
I also listen to other streams through "tunein.com" type in OTR, or Old Time Radio and you will get many station options.

When I had a working short wave radio, I would periodically come across someone playing OTR shows. That was very enjoyable to listen to. I need to recap one of my SW radios so I can see if there is still some one doing that. Last time I had a working SW set was over a year ago.

Good Luck!
-Dennis

Dennis...any idea what frequencies the OTR on shortwave would be? I'd like to try and find it if I can...what daypart? Sounds intriguing.

Hi Tom,
I had to do a little internet searching. The person running the station has retired and moved into a retirement community. He was broadcasting on AM 1620, not short wave. Since he has retired, the he is no longer broadcasting, and I didn't know the website isn't there anymore. However, he is still maintaining an internet broadcast. I can still listen to WNAR at www.tunein.com. I've also seen it available on other radio streaming websites. The programming is very enjoyable, with little radio station jingles made up like in the 40s or 50s, current news broadcast at the top of every other hour, filler music between radio shows, and comments from listeners. There is also some patriotic music, and some faith based programming. It's too bad he's no longer transmitting.
I also lost another radio station option this year. swing 1270 out of Buffalo got rid of the swing and big band music for more syndicated sports talk shows. Phooey!
Sorry I couldn't help you further, but keep searching the short wave stations. Some times I come across someone sending OTR shows over short wave. Even in mid-Michigan, I can pick up AM740 out of Toronto. (On good nights) They play OTR from 10-11pm Monday through Thursday. Good Radio is getting harder to tune in!
-Dennis

ive been listening to WNAR using TUNEIN and it is great.

I'm just putting one together. I want to learn about broadcast automation technology, so am going to get a station going on low power AM.

Lineup so far is the Airtime open source station management package, which runs on Ubuntu, and an AMT5000 transmitter kit from SStran which I will start to put together this weekend. I bought a little ZOTAC mini-PC for the station and installed Ubuntu 12.10 on it.

I am going to have hourly newscasts, weather reports, maybe some sports and tech news as well. I'm doing this through a series of Unix scripts and text-to-speech facilities that I am developing myself. The text-to-speech runs on a Mac as the speech quality is better than what I have found for Linux. I also plan to stream sci-fi and other shows from likely the Internet archive of public domain material.

I'll build a schedule in Airtime, and then the goal is to have the station run itself 24/7.

I want to do this because there are no local AM stations where I am living, and the only option for off-air reception is to stay up late and see if NYC/Boston etc come in. They do, but I would rather have access to daytime reception. I am currently living in Halifax, NS.

Target audience is just me, and maybe some other folks in my building should they stumble across the low-power signal.

I am more interested in an AM broadcast station rather than Internet streaming. I understand that there may be legal issues with streaming music etc, and that the RIAA regularly crawls the 'net looking for music that they can demand royalties on. I learned this from some of the "hobby broadcaster" web sites. Civil suits and "fees" are in the $150K range for violators. Generally I think that "offenders" have been able to negotiate, but who needs this hassle? Apparently there is hobbyist level royalty coverage available through a firm that charges a flat fee of about $200 per year, then as a hobbyist you can stream whatever music you would like, and the company covers the royalties.

I'm not really interested in that expense, and hassle, as there are around 100,000 streaming stations already and I will have nothing to contribute to this selection, and have no aspirations of attracting a following or anything. I just want music and old shows for reception on our old radios!

The Airtime package supports Internet streaming "out of the box" and I have experimented with this. It works very well, although I have limited streaming to a VPN that I run out of San Jose, CA for family and friends. This will avoid RIAA concerns with public streaming of their material.

If anyone is interested I can post updates of my progress.

Kevin

sounds amazing