This technology is not meant to be bottled up and sold to the highest bidder. It’s meant to be shared and spread all over the world. So yes, you can be a station owner. And, no it’s not cheap and easy, but it can be a very fulfilling venture. A Red Panda Radio station is a business, so you’ll need prior business experience. We take care of the technology, but you’ll need funding and the ability to bring show producers and cover a 24 x 7 time-shifted broadcast schedule.
Basic requirements
- A modern office with adequate floor space, parking and power and data (internet) resources that meet our minimum technology standards. Red Panda Radio signage must be visible from the street.
- General Liability Insurance
- Adequate financial resources to fund the operation
- Sales staff
- Office / Reception staff
- Web / Social Media staff
- Station manager and staff*
- Unique brand / identity for your station
* – Must maintain a “meaningful human presence” during “normal business hours” at the main studio. That means at least one full time person as a manager and one other person to “cover” the station when the manager is out. To be successful a commercial station should have three full time sales people.
How it works
- Submit an application using the form below and pay your application fee $150.
- We review your application, generate a new station owner kit and one of our Red Panda agents contact you to go over the details.
- If you decide to move forward, you pay your initial license fee, and we come and do an onsite evaluation to ensure your office meets our requirements, and then we complete a project plan.
- Once the plan is agreed upon, we build your studio while you use our proprietary launch guide to start developing your station (shows, sales staff, etc).
- Start broadcasting
We won’t lie to you. This is a not a BlogTalk / stick a computer in your living room and plug in a headset operation. This is a full blown Red Panda Radio studio, and it will cost, but not as much as you think. To build a modern radio station, you’d need to spend a significant amount of money on licensing, equipment, engineers, facility, etc. If you don’t already have an idea of ho much it may cost, Google it and search for links like this one that breaks out some of the anticipated costs: https://www.ntia.doc.gov/legacy/otiahome/ptfp/application/equipcost_Radio.html. And as for FCC licensing, check out this link https://www.fcc.gov/media/radio/how-to-apply#FM. But, Red Panda Radio is different. No FCC license is required. No engineer is required, and aside from ensuring your studio is acoustically sound, no pun intended, it really is just a few computers and microphones. Red Panda Radio studios are designed to be highly profitable with very low overhead. Internet radio platforms range from free to a few hundred dollars a month for an individual to broadcast in their pajamas to a few folks who know about them. This ain’t that, so be sure you want to journey down this road to radio evolution before you pay your application fee.