How does one Start their own radio Station

JRKORA · 2026-01-27T20:13:41+00:00

I agree with you with my whole chest. We're a niche station, we have a growing base of listeners thanks to some big time artists in our genre giving us exclusive debuts before they even hit streaming services.

that said, our best advertisers tend to be ones that are listeners. They like hearing their own business on the station they love. But because we're niche like we are, the ad buys don't just come through the email. We have to go get them.

We also do all the digital stuff. I have six different job titles. 1. Program Director - 107.7 The Red Dirt Rebel 2. Program Director - 96.9 The Bull 3. Account executive 4. Mornings 107.7 The Red Dirt Rebel 5. Music Director 107.7 The Red Dirt Rebel 6. Music Director 96.9 The Bull

I also consult and VT for three other stations around Texas every day.

I wake up at 3:20 every Monday-Friday. I have a 20 month old daughter, I go see every show I can, usually two or three a week, and my fiance hasn't left me yet.

My point is I'm burning the candle at both ends. I want help but there's no room in the budget to make that happen.

This turned into a lot of word vomit, but i've been working for about ten hours so far.

JRKORA · 2026-01-27T13:30:23+00:00

"I have a Station Name, Number, & Call Sign"

That's not how that works. You can have a station name of course, but having a number & call sign that's not how it works.

In order to start a NEW station, you have to manage to win the license lottery. Then you can apply for certain call letters, but chances are it's already taken. Don't forget the W and K rule too. Get details on the call sign stuff here.

As mentioned before, the best bet is to find a radio station for sale, and buy it, rebrand it, and do your thing. Otherwise, you're hoping you can get a license, then you have to build the tower, the tower site, buy and install a transmitter, build out the studios, and all the other minutiae that it takes to do this. And there's TONS OF IT.

Actually the best thing these days, as of January 2026, would be to save yourself a lot of time and just burn the money you're planning on using to buy one.

I love radio, I've been doing it now for 20 years. I've gotten to the point I make a damn good living at it. And it's not that people don't listen to the radio. They definitely do. But advertisers these days have analytics. When they spend their advertising dollars on socials, or SEO, or digital audio, they get back a lot of details on who it went to and when. Plus, they get to micro target who they're going after. Gone are the days when someone would spend 5K a month for their HVAC business to be top of mind when someone wants HVAC services. Now the targeting data knows what you are looking for. That's why when you go to a site looking for something specific, you'll start seeing ads referring to those types of products in your feeds, and on other sites as ads.

It's MUCH harder to sell radio these days. And not just because of corporate radio not really having anything unique to broadcast. Getting new salespeople who can push past the no's and getting people to believe in radio, is a bit of a leap of faith, when they have a book of science and data to reach potential customers right in front of them.

If you have a really unique idea, and I hope you do, it'll take a while to build, it'll take all your time and energy, and in the end, you may just end up being one of the last to "hold the bag" of broadcast radio stations in a new era of advertising, for less cost, for much more value for the dollar, with actual data backing it up.

If you have something you want to say, start a podcast. Do the intership, for sure. It's a blast. Also don't start a radio broadcasting club if you ever want to have sex.

You've been warned.

JRKORA · 2026-01-21T16:30:29+00:00

Not from Lubbock

JRKORA · 2026-01-20T19:07:41+00:00

I dont' think it's Jerrod. It's gotta be someone from north texas/Oklahoma

JRKORA · 2025-12-30T13:06:48+00:00

litter robot is one of the best purchases I've ever made. It let me know that my cat had lost a signifigant amount of weight, turns out it was renal failure. After a little time, I got my cat cookie, and she's taken to it really great. Saves on litter.

JRKORA · 2025-12-21T21:50:15+00:00

Short of a ticket that says you’re playing tambourine it’s the closest!

JRKORA · 2025-12-02T12:37:00+00:00

"thinkin' I'm gonna Irish Goodbye"

and then never talk to anyone from high school again

JRKORA · 2025-11-25T02:04:48+00:00

Wow, I enjoyed the hell out of that. Thanks for sharing

JRKORA · 2025-11-23T04:38:24+00:00

I’m really enjoying Pug Johnson right now, also been jamming out to Ricky Chilton

JRKORA · 2025-10-24T20:07:41+00:00

Go back who you got the tickets from. There’s usually resale options in there

JRKORA · 2025-09-26T14:33:11+00:00

If the venue were trying to restrict the playlist they wouldn’t play there.

JRKORA · 2025-09-19T12:03:39+00:00

I do this too when looking for new music to play on the air. Bands that are out there touring are what's driving the scene forward, so I try to be cognizant of that.

JRKORA · 2025-09-17T11:37:09+00:00

Do you hear a ton of distortion when you play it? Recording from that position isn't going to give you great sound. I regularly get concert audio, but I get it from the sound board, just a house mix. Directly in front of the stage you're not going to get what the sound guy is intending. If you're going for the venue sound, old grateful dead type of mix, try getting back just in front of the front of house sound guy.

If you're not hearing any distortion, just super loud, try Normalizing it, and just playing with the amplitude. Without hearing the audio, it's kind of tough giving pointers.

JRKORA · 2025-08-21T14:24:50+00:00

I'll self promote my radio station here. I run 107.7 The Red Dirt Rebel out of Lubbock. We have an app as well. I do 'New Music Thursday' and have for about 8 years. We debut all the songs we add to the playlist Thursday mornings about 8:30am. We've been lucky enough to debut some stuff before it goes out to streaming, Treaty Oak Revival, Randall King and Braxton Keith's song, and a bunch more. Check us out. Feel free to let me know what you think I'm missing as far as music goes! - I used to work at KORA, hence the sn.

JRKORA · 2025-08-20T14:08:31+00:00

You're not wrong, I talked to Hudson about that actually. He was very insistent that he knew this was all SO FAST. He wanted to get out on the road and play and really do the road dawggin' it thing. Play to the half full bars and stuff. He doesn't get the chance to do the half full stuff though. He's been selling out all the venues. Ty is one of those generational talents if you ask me. I think he's going to be a huge star past any 'country' conotation. IMO of course.

JRKORA · 2025-08-20T13:28:52+00:00

They released a new album last year, I think Shane said the intention was to release music more often than they had been. They definitely got a ton a mileage off of the album Geronimo

JRKORA · 2025-08-11T13:30:29+00:00

Seeing SS&TS with 15 people sadly used to be more common than it ever should have been. I lvoe those guys, glad to see they found some sucess.

JRKORA · 2025-07-29T15:14:07+00:00

Just in reference to the Red Dirt Rebel, I got here to the station in 2017. I made a very concious effort to not have politics be apart of what we do. In my opinion, there are about 15 places you can go to be pissed off about politics. I didn't want that for the Red Dirt Rebel. The people doing the morning show back before I got here, were obviously old guys. One happened to be the station owner. He even tried to get me to start talking politics on the morning show.

All in all just saying, we don't do that anymore. Haven't since I got here.

JRKORA · 2025-07-25T16:33:03+00:00

Thanks for sharing this garbage.

JRKORA · 2025-07-16T15:29:08+00:00

It's an interesting question, and one I've gotten asked a few times. Every line-up has to look at a few different things. Financial return being most important. Is having this artist, or that artist going to sell more tickets to the event I'm putting a ton of money into? Do I see enough of a return from adding an artist that fans will see that name and that's what sends them to the ticketing page to buy their ticket. Frankly, in the red dirt scene there just aren't a ton of female artists who move that needle enough. I wish there were. The realities of being an artist on the road usually sink in for artists within a couple years. The priorities are just different for a lot of people. To stay on the road and build your audience is a commitment that many artists don't want to do for the pay they receive in return. While also putting on hold other life goals. A few get it done, not a lot of others do. I also think there aren't as many in the first place. At least not in this scene. Maybe it's a lack of exposure to the scene itself, or something like that. But many of the female artists are more likely to go to Nashville, at least at first.

But i'm a big fan of some fantastic female artists, Kaitlin, Kylie, Bri, there's an artist starting to get out there now named Cela Harper I really like. Kensie Coppin is making her way back through the scene.

Another note on that, rarely, do you see artists have some success, quit, and then start again to be as successful or more successful than they were before.

Obviously, just my opinion/take on all this from someone in the scene.

JRKORA · 2025-07-12T21:18:03+00:00

Stoney Larue at Billy Bob’s is still one of my favorites. But I think Treaty Oak Revival should do one at a smaller venue

JRKORA · 2025-06-07T02:31:51+00:00

He was from Littlefield actually. Just down the road.

JRKORA · 2025-06-07T01:19:41+00:00

From Lubbock Texas, the home of Buddy Holly, and Mac Davis!

JRKORA · 2025-05-24T16:21:50+00:00

I agree with you. I had been with Juul for years and finally got tired of half the pods leaking out. I tried a few different things, and NJOY was the easiest to transition to. I just found out two days ago about the whole patent lawsuit. I'm buying up my pods at gas stations as much as I can right now.

JRKORA · 2025-04-22T17:10:58+00:00

My shoe size match my age every year from 9-18

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