Radio Station

[splitlid]

Anyone have any idea as to what is involved in starting up a radio station in Thailand?

equipment.

labour.

cost.

etc.

its not in bangkok, but a good tourist town with a large expat community.

with no local radio station

[penelope]

Anyone have any idea as to what is involved in starting up a radio station in Thailand?

equipment.

labour.

cost.

etc.

its not in bangkok, but a good tourist town with a large expat community.

with no local radio station

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

...and spectrum/broadcast licenses, unless you wanna go pirate !

[johnh101]

If I remember correctly, the airwaves are controlled by the military and getting a license is the hard (very hard) part. I am sure that if you have some relatives or friends in Shin Corp, they may find a way.

[Ajarn]

The Military isn't the boss of frequencies since the new constitution came into play a few years ago... The problem is, the commission that is supposed to control and allocate the frequencies according to the constitution hasn't been set up yet, being delayed, not doubt, to protect current personal interests...

In short, forget about getting a commercial radio station license..

But, there are the community radio stations, and these are controlled by the Public Relations Dept (PRD). http://thailand.prd.go.th/ for more info.

Edited April 6, 2005 by Ajarn

[LivinLOS]

I brushed with Pirate radio back in the UK.. Equipment for small scale areas is not that expensive and with PC playlisting etc could be realitively workable to run a radio station in a pretty professional manner single handed..

I considered the idea for fun around Patong but then realized it would become like real work fast..

[Ajarn]

I brushed with Pirate radio back in the UK.. Equipment for small scale areas is not that expensive and with PC playlisting etc could be realitively workable to run a radio station in a pretty professional manner single handed..

I considered the idea for fun around Patong but then realized it would become like real work fast..

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I think it'd be great fun, but I'd bet money that a farang pirate station wouldn't last a week here. Possesion of ANY unlicensed transmitter is an extremely serious national security issue here... Even a walkie-talkie. Auto-Jail in every case I've heard of or read about.

Dream on, for sure, but don't let it get out of hand

You can operate a radio station under an Amateur License, and you can also get involved with the Community Radio program as a DJ after a 30 day (30 hour?) training and license required first through the PRD

If you want to make money, you'd be better off with a Pizza franchise from Bill Heinecke

[LivinLOS]

In the UK they nearly always used a dual transmitter setup.. Signals from source went to a transmitting base station that was rarely (if possible) visited..

Though I totally understand what you are saying.. it was a pipe dream..

[Ajarn]

In the UK they nearly always used a dual transmitter setup.. Signals from source went to a transmitting base station that was rarely (if possible) visited..

Though I totally understand what you are saying.. it was a pipe dream..

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I remember some great stories about pirate stations in the UK, one even operating from a ship offshore... In San Francisco, we had a couple of them, too. As someone who often enjoyed operating outside of societal norms, I often fantasized about running a hippy pirate station.

[splitlid]

thanks for all your replies.

ummm think the station on the rig was something like LASER 558.

radio luxemburg berore that as i recall.

anyway sounds like it could be a struggle to get the lisence etc,may have to don my suit and go meet some people.

i was really only thinking small time to start with, seems the setup cost could be kept pretty low,apart from the lisence.

anyone know about royalities

[Upcountry]

You can operate a radio station under an Amateur License, and you can also get involved with the Community Radio program as a DJ after a 30 day (30 hour?) training and license required first through the PRD

Ajarn,

I'd like to learn more about this. I asked people at a the local university about getting involved a while back, but I was told that (at least for the station that the school was involved in) I'd have to find my own sponsors and so on. Not much of a market for a farang DJ in these parts. Basically I was discouraged from it.

[MikeRay]

If your intention is more to have fun than making money try to set up a internet-radiostation.

This will reach a bigger community and you will get support not only from locals that will minimize your work.

To make some money you would have to try 1. make it popular what will be quite easy via flyers at bar´s restaurants etc. that are frequently visited by the expat-community. 2. document the traffic on your webradio and then calculate and price the advertise time.

Sorry, I currently stay at my office and will advise you to search the web for your project.

[Ajarn]

You can operate a radio station under an Amateur License, and you can also get involved with the Community Radio program as a DJ after a 30 day (30 hour?) training and license required first through the PRD

Ajarn,

I'd like to learn more about this. I asked people at a the local university about getting involved a while back, but I was told that (at least for the station that the school was involved in) I'd have to find my own sponsors and so on. Not much of a market for a farang DJ in these parts. Basically I was discouraged from it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

If you're still interested, you should contact the PRD for the details of what's involved, but it's not like it's going to be your radio station, and community radio stations are not allowed to have advertising. Some people do rent airtime from established radio stations to run their own programming. Costs are from 500 baht per hour and up, from what I've was told by one station manager, depending on the time slot.

In either case, you must be certified by the PRD first...

I don't do the DJ thing. I've just offered funding for start-up costs for my local Tambon, and in one other area nearby. The stations have an average range of about 5-10 kilometers.

[simon43]

Slightly OT

LivinLOS, your post brings back memories! Back in the 70s I worked on many land-based pirate-radio stations in the UK, both as DJ and transmitter engineer. I even managed to do a stint on one of the offshore pirate stations - Radio Delmare....

Somewhere there are still tape recordings of my awful programmes

Simon

[george]

If your intention is more to have fun than making money try to set up a internet-radiostation.

This will reach a bigger community and you will get support not only from locals that will minimize your work.

To make some money you would have to try 1. make it popular what will be quite easy via flyers at bar´s restaurants etc. that are frequently visited by the expat-community. 2.  document the traffic on your webradio and then calculate and price the advertise time.

Sorry, I currently stay at my office and will advise you to search the web for your project.

Thaivisa has it's own radio station at http://www.radiobangkok.net and it's very popular.

Would you be interested in working with our station? We are open for diskussion! Please PM me if you are interested.

[EVO]

My wife runs a group of commercial radio stations here in Thailand through a major International company. Even they just lost one of their four frequencies though as ALL frequencies are owned by the Communications Authority of Thailand through Radio Thailand. Coming this month, ALL frequencies will have to play Radio Thailands news at the top of every hour for 8 (yes 8!!) minutes and Radio Thailand can commandeer the frequency at any time to broadcast whatever they want. There are often DJ's sitting around outside the office building smoking at my wifes place of work as they dont have anything to do and they dont know how long for as Radio Thailand has reared its ugly head again.

Bottom line is, there is NO chance of a small redio station getting licenced, and if you wanted to make it a commercially viable one in tyhe English language your maret is so small. Many have tried, ALL have failed.

[BKKdreaming]

Radio Atlantis was a pirate station in the mid 70s off the English / Dutch coast

There were a few more off the Dutch coast at the time , maybe Veronica started that way.....