Interview with "Radio Radius"

Computer Science Students Launch Online Radio Station

3 April 2006

In summer 2004 some members of the SOSeth student organization who study computer science at ETH Zurich came up with the idea of creating an internet radio station with a variety of different music genres. Little by little they recruited co-workers for the radio team, bought the necessary technical equipment and set up a studio. "Radio Radius" has been online 24/7 since the winter semester 2005/2006 playing music and other programs. Katja Abrahams met the radio team at one of its weekly meetings and interviewed Urs Breu and Daniel Fasnacht, two of the project initiators.

The members of the "Radio Radius" team are all computer science students at ETH. To what extent do your programming skills help you?

Urs Breu: We were facing the challenge of coming up with an optimal software solution for the transmission of audio data. In the beginning, quite a few technical problems had to be solved. Our programming skills were very helpful because we wrote most of the streaming software our internet radio is based upon ourselves. Next to providing the streaming technology, our software - which was developed in the programming language Python - also records the programs. We plan to continue developing our software since we would like to transmit the radio stream within the ETH network in the future using multicast technology.

Is it true that some of you attended a training course for radio hosts?

Daniel Fasnacht: Yes, that's correct. In December 2004, when we had just launched our radio project, three of us participated in a training program at the local radio station "Radio LoRa". We learned a lot of useful things regarding the concept and composition of a radio program, technical terms and some elocution. The program has helped us become more professional. It is important to know when the right moment has come to change the topic such that the listener doesn't get bored. Announcements like "and now we'll play some more music", should be left out, they are simply superfluous. Of course, the training program was just the groundwork, the rest is learning by doing.

How many permanent team members and hosts do you have at the moment and what are your tasks?

Urs Breu: Our team currently consists of eight computer science students. We primarily consider ourselves service providers for students who are enthusiastic about music. We provide them with the technical infrastructure required to host a program. If somebody wants to play their favorite music or interview a professor, we teach them how to use the technical equipment and give them a hand if needed. At the moment around 15 hosts from all kinds of faculties are hosting a radio show. For live programs each host comes with its own backpack full of music and we as team members do not interfere with the content of the different programs. Nevertheless, we do want hosts to stick to one musical style, to host shows on a regular basis and to not simply quit after a few weeks. If there are gaps in the program, the team fills in using its own material.

What musical styles does "Radio Radius?" offer?

Urs Breu: At present, the program runs the gamut from hip hop, rap, rock and electro-pop to jazz, soul and the best from the 90s and today. However, we are also open to other kinds of music. By the way, we reached our present listener record with the broadcast of a program called "MC battles", a hip hop concert recording from the "Jugendkulturhaus Dynamo".

Are you required to pay a license fee?

Daniel Fasnacht: We are currently negotiating with the International Federation of Producers of Phonograms and Videograms (IFPI), which is in charge of collecting license fees. Unfortunately, the IFPI has a monopoly position and quite an unrealistic idea of how much we as a campus radio station are able to pay. Internet radio still belongs to the legal gray zone. However, we are a member of the Association of Swiss Internet Radio (ISI), an independent development association supporting cultural and media diversity. ISI’s main focus is to create more transparency regarding the copyright license fee for Swiss internet radio stations.

Is "Radio Radius" still looking for members?

Urs Breu: New co-workers are always welcome, especially hosts! We do not have enough people to provide a well structured, balanced 24/7 radio program. At the moment we transmit quite a few program repetitions.

Daniel Fasnacht: Moreover, we are looking for a designer for www.radio.ethz.ch which is a rather interactive website thanks to a webcam and the possibility of downloading the software needed to listen to our radio. Our new web designer should have a feeling for good design and be able to create pages which are visually appealing and user-friendly at the same time. One should not forget that our program is open to everybody, including technically less skilled people. Apart from that, we need a graphic designer for our flyers and other print advertisements and we would also welcome with open arms more people for PR and marketing. We do really offer a large variety of interesting jobs giving people the opportunity to prove their creative talents in the technical and musical field and to realize their own ideas.

What are your plans for the future?

Urs Breu: Our main goal is to increase our publicity and the number of listeners. We think that this can best be achieved by offering a large variety of music genres catering to every musical taste. Hosting a radio show is really not that difficult. After half an hour of introductory work a host is usually ready for take-off! In addition, some of our hosts work as DJs at student parties which also boosts the visibility of "Radio Radius". Our long-term objective is a local VHF frequency for Zurich. However, the money we receive from the student organization SOSeth is not sufficient. For this project we will need financial support from ETH.

We really enjoy working on our radio project and would be very pleased to welcome new team members.

"Radio Radius" on the web (In German): www.radio.ethz.ch

ETH Life about "Radio Radius" (in German): http://www.ethlife.ethz.ch/articles/tages/radioradius2006.html