Now's the time to fulfill your secret desire to be the jockey of your very own radio station! Thanks to Internet streaming radio, you can start broadcasting your play list right away, even if you only have a modest hardware setup.

Did we just hear you sneer "Where's the bandwidth?" The skepticism isn't misplaced. To broadcast audio streams, you need a sufficiently fast connection. That and other technical hassles that we'd rather not get into, make it impractical to broadcast music on the Net from India. What is practical, however, is narrowcasting (often called 'community radio').

This concept has caught the attention of media enthusiasts all over the world and is said to be the future of radio in India. Narrowcasting is the beaming of content to tightly knit communities within a very short radius. Once you're through with this article, you'll be able to setup a digital equivalent of a narrowcasting service. A great place to do that would be on an office or college network (LAN), where a lot of underused bandwidth may exist.

Soon, your friends and colleagues will be able to tune into your private digital radio to enjoy a continuous stream of MP3s that you've programmed for them. You can also host a live talk show locally on the network. How you use your narrowcast radio within your wired community is left entirely to your imagination. Now the words of veteran rocker Freddie Mercury seem almost prophetic when he sang of what's in store for radio...

"Let's hope you never leave old friend / Like all good things on you we depend
So stick around 'cos we might miss you / When we grow tired of all this visual
You had your time - you had the power / You've yet to have your finest hour."
(Queen, 'Radio GaGa')

When radio's finest hour does come, will you be hosting the show?

DO IT YOURSELF

Installation You need three software components to put the show together. First is the SHOUTcast Server, which turns a computer into a 'relaying station', i.e. a middle agent that accepts a transmission and distributes it to anyone who wants to listen in. Download the (254 KB) file and run it. The installation takes seconds. View screenshot Next is the classic Winamp MP3 player. Since the latest Winamp3 doesn't work with SHOUTcast yet, you need to download the older 2.x version (minimum 497 KB). Both versions can coexist if installed in separate locations on the hard disk. Launch Winamp, load a few favourite MP3s into the playlist, and click 'Play'. View screenshot Finally, download and install the SHOUTcast DSP plug-in (225 KB) for Winamp. This software lets Winamp and the server talk to each other. Again, installation is quick. Configuration In Winamp, click on the top-left button, and go to Options > Preference View screenshot Click DSP/Effect, and in the list on the right panel, click once on Nullsoft SHOUTcast Source DSP. View screenshot The SHOUTcast Source panel will open up. When you see two dancing columns, you'll know you're on the right track. View screenshot In the Output tab, click on the Yellowpages button to set the title of your new radio channel. A minor feature, but what's a cool station sans a cool name? Of course, even without it, it will still work perfectly. View screenshot In the Input tab, leaving the input device set to Winamp means that whatever is played by Winamp will be sent straight to the SHOUTcast server and broadcasted from there. However, changing it to Soundcard Input throws open interesting possibilities. You can broadcast your own talk show (by speaking into the mic) or let everyone on the network enjoy a live cricket commentary by connecting a TV or radio to the line input jack of your soundcard. View screenshot Time to Tune in! If you've got this far, congratulations! You have successfully setup a streaming radio station. Now, any user on your local network will be able to enjoy the variety that you've programmed, provided they have Winamp 2 and the SHOUTcast Source DSP installed on their system as described above. Users must first detect your station on the network by typing in your IP address (ask your sysadmin) or computer name (the one you use to access shared folders) into a browser's address bar in a format that looks something like this: http://128.128.0.39:8000/ or http://msram:8000/ You can try this out on any system other than the one on which SHOUTcast server is installed. Don't forget to add the ':8000'. The browser will then display a Web page with details about the narrowcast stream. If you have Winamp and the DSP plug-in installed, click on the Listen link. If music hasn't pervaded the air yet, try turning on the speakers.

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