How Does It Work ?

Because WKBW is an internet based radio station our demographics are global but limited.
We can literally broadcast around the world and even  track who is listening and tell what City and Country they are from.
The downside is we need unlimited upstream capability to reach mass numbers of people.
Now that  broad band internet speed has grown over the past several years, more and more internet radio stations will be broadcasting
on time clock programming 24 / 7. If you haven't already noticed most local and syndicated stations are doing that very thing right now.
These are true FM station with advertising mixed with music all day long. The internet based radio stations like ours are not really true FM stations.
They can only be a true FM station if they have AM or FM tower broadcast capability, or use channel
allocation and travel through a digital cable service....like Comcast  for example. Thats Good... but even they are limited regionally
by the size of the cable networks. The two satellite stations are definitely better demographically, in that the radius for a larger
demographic is an obvious improvement over the cable networks or radio broadcast waves.

For satellite radio first off you need to decide on a provider. In the US there are two main providers,
XM radio and Sirius. Each station provides fantastic satellite radio programming,
and the way each service works is very similar so there isn't a big learning curve between the two.
How ever the type of programming that each provider offers varies, so depending on your listening habits you should consider this closely.
In Canada XS is currently the only provider available. Hence there really isn't a big choice for you to make there.

After you've decided on a provider you need to run down to your local consumer electronics store and pick up a satellite radio receiver, or purchase one online.
The Satellite radio itself is the second most important component in the system, and in discovering how satellite radio works.
Different satellite radio receivers are designed to unscramble signals that are sent from satellites orbiting earth.
Each satellite radio service launches satellites into orbit; the provider will then send encrypted signals to each satellite.
These orbiting satellites send the signals back down to us. When a subscriber selects a particular satellite station their radio receiver the radio decodes the
signal sent from the satellite and provides the requested station.

So you can see that satellite radio behaves similarly to traditional radio. A signal is broadcast, and our radios at home and in our cars pick it up.
However traditional signals are broadcast over the airwaves while satellite radio is provided via the satellites in space.
Unlike traditional radio, which at times isn't the cleanest sound, satellite radio provides users with a clear sound no matter how
far away from their local city they are. There is minimal range limit with a satellite radio signal,
so its possible to continue to listen to the exact same station almost anywhere.
 Expect  to pay monthly for this service. The equipment will run about $200.00
and around $12.95 a month for the service. Commercial free, but also another monthly bill and sill not global.
This  20,000 mile radius is a huge demographic leap from limited tower broadcasting.

We believe future of global broadcasting could be just around the corner, but we have not yet capitalized on its true full potential.
Not  to mention the extreme possibilities of global advertising.

Now you might be saying who cares about  this AM, FM stuff....it really doesn't matter to me if some
internet station claims to be an AM or FM station as long as the broadcast quality is acceptable. We agree, but in order for
us to explain how our station works you must first understand the term FM.

AM & FM  (Amplitude Modulation & Frequency Modulation)
FM radio works the same way that AM radio works. The difference is in how the carrier wave is modulated, or altered. With AM radio,
the amplitude, or overall strength, of the signal is varied to incorporate the sound information. With FM, the frequency
( the number of times each second that the current changes direction ) of the carrier signal is varied.

FM signals have a great advantage over AM signals. Both signals are susceptible to slight changes in amplitude.
With an AM broadcast, these changes result in static. This caused lots of problems with night air traffic.
With an FM broadcast, slight changes in amplitude don't matter --
since the audio signal is conveyed through changes in frequency, the FM receiver can just ignore changes in amplitude. The result: no static at all.

FM radio  broadcast  technology was invented by Edwin Howard Armstrong, and uses this frequency modulation to provide high-fidelity sound
and distributed it primarily through broadcast reception of FM radio signals, although it is also
possible to distribute FM signals via cable FM, either by using an adapter to plug analogue cable wires directly into an FM receiver,
or through the use o f television channel allocations on a digital cable service.
DIGITAL CABLE  ....  is our carrier.

How does Internet Radio Work?

Basically Internet radio is the transfer of audio data over the Internet to listeners spread across the world.

To make all of this happen 4 things are required;

1.  Source audio (Audio files or Live audio) .........2.  Audio encoder &  streamer

3.  Streaming server ...............4. A Player

The audio encoder takes the source audio and encodes the audio into a continuous stream of audio data.
This single audio stream is sent to the streaming server.
The streaming server then acts like a broadcasting antenna by sending the audio data to all the listeners.

For listeners to tune-in to the audio stream, they must have some kind of player installed that is able to receive the stream
of audio data from the streaming server, and then play the audio data over their speakers.

The audio data is usually compressed to make it easier and more cost effective to stream over the Internet.
For this purpose many audio file formats have been developed that all vary in quality, compression rates and features.
Good example would be an... MP3 !
 

So if we're not AM or FM what are we ?

Its more like we're FO  (Fiber Optic) .

We broadcast 2 separate ways...one is through web streaming which carries a weaker signal strength and hardly stereo quality.
The other is by direct connection to our ip address or RD 3 Stream... This signal can be adjusted to get a higher quality FM stereo signal
with no static at all. Download the player its free and quality is much better.

So if the end result of FM is a static free signal, and our signal is also static free, wouldn't  that make us FM...?
No again, because AM and FM signals are broadcast into the air much like a CB radio with a huge antenna.
You receive the signal into your house or car radio by means of an antenna.
So I guess we're back to our term FO (Fiber Optic), but with FM quality with no static at all.

Its very much like sending an e-mail to someone.
E-mail uses up stream which is the opposite of down stream or down loading. The signal from your computer travels to a
nearby node on a  telephone pole in your area. Once the signal reaches the node, it  then goes fiber optic, and your email
has just traveled half way around the world in a couple of seconds .... hence our term FO.
If your wondering how fast the signal travels....e-mail is transmitted to the internet as electricity,
it travels close to the speed of light, but then we get network congestion and various other bottlenecks so the speed varies.
It all really depends on Bandwidth. I think the record currently stands at around 150 gigabits per second.
Let's break this down so you can better understand this. That's the equivalent to downloading 130 DVD movies in one minute,
 traveling to a 70 different  advanced networks through fiber optic cable all at once. We are about to enter a new level of internet
called internet 2...with these higher numbers we will soon be able to travel even faster.

In the center of this diagram is the pipe or fiber optic cable  which carries the signal.
Notice the electrical to light conversion and then back to electrical on each end of the pipe.
AM and FM stations refer to their carrier signal as tower broadcasting because the tower
is sending out the signal for anyone to tune in. In our case fiber optic cable is sending out the
signal for anyone to tune in.

So Fiber Optic Stereo Broadcast Radio is one way to describe it.
Now even though technology is still working to improve the golf ball through the garden hose concept
of compressing the source signal for improved faster speeds, it still works very well through our TCP/IP.
(Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol is the basic communication language or protocol of the Internet).
So that's its...we're not AM, we're not FM, we like to think of our signal as being FO.

Now if our broadcast signal was some how scrambled, and could not be identified by anyone, but we could still continue broadcasting,
 then would our signal be considered an unidentified fiber optic signal or UFO....?

Possibly.... but that would take a little bit more work. If we scramble the signal first off no one could hear it.
And like the satellite signal you would need  a decoder to unscramble the signal being broadcast.
In order for the UFO concept  to work, we would be playing a number's game with millions of ip address's all triggering at different
intervals, and then changing patters in a advanced random sequence or series that never repeats or duplicate the same chain of ip numbers.
Like a matrix code or something like that !  t

Sounds crazy right ?  I Agree...that would be a waste of time, however keeping on track, if you
 take the same basic matrix like principle of mass ip broadcasting through a huge pipe, to several relay stations through multiple sophisticated server's
with unlimited upstream capabilities, well there you have it. Global Radio Broadcasting. Our station broadcasts that very same way using a single ip
though a small pipe and a single server.

The bottom line is our demographics are World Wide
FM quality stereo with no static at all, through a fiber optic cable....for free.
  The only requirement for listeners is a basic
DSL or Broad Band Connection.
 

The Dream Stream
 Streaming Stereo Radio
Broadcasting Live From Hot Tracks Recording Studio
in Baltimore, Maryland

Download the player first then click the
Listen Live Now button above.
It will take you to our Station.

For High Quality Stereo Playback Get The Destiny Player !

Click Here To Get PC Player

You Won't Believe The Difference !

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