DrG Radio Is On the Air

So, I was playing around this weekend on the computer and decided to undertake a new challenge. How could I take my extensive MP3 collection and make available as a streaming radio station online?

I came across a website that would allow me to do just that and it was a snap, surprisingly. SHOUTcast offers a free download of its SHOUTcast Server software (it's freeware to be specific) to get you started. It's a quick download and install process. It's the configuration that could be tricky, though, depending on your PC and home network configuration. Any questions, just add a comment to this post and I’ll do my best to answer.

I installed SHOUTcast at home on my Windows XP machine with only a 900mHz CPU and 256MB RAM. A trusty old machine I built almost 8 years ago now, and it keeps on humming with every add-on I install. I'm attached to a 100Mbps cable modem behind a firewall. The firewall is an absolute must for anyone attempting to do anything on the web. NEVER open your "doors" to the world without at least a well-configured firewall and anti-virus software in place.

Once installed, I went through some minor personal preferences in the configuration (mainly, limit the number of users connected to my music stream to 5) and start the SHOUTcast Server up with a simple double-click. I went with the GUI install, instead of the Console Version. Not sure why. I just figured if I was doing this for the first time, I'd rather have a visual than fiddle around with a command line or something. It's just a personal learning curve thing.

Now that you have the server, you need a stream of music to broadcast. For this setup, you use Winamp v2.05 or greater to play the files that are broadcast. Just download the SHOUTcast DSP Plug-In for Winamp, available here with more helpful instructions. Install the plug-in and configure it properly.

You're now all set to begin broadcasting. The question now is, what to broadcast? I simply chose to browse through my library of tunes and pick several groups I like and threw them into a new play list. I shuffled the play list files and put the entire thing on "repeat all" mode. In all, I have almost 550 songs in a constant rotation from System of a Down to Coldplay. All over the place.

To see details on a station, simply open an internet browser and go to http://your_address:port# and it will show you such detail as the last 15 songs played on the station (a configurable number, by the way), and other general info on the broadcast stream. You can log in to the admin console and see the other users connected, you can ban them, kill their connection, and other cool administrative powers.

There are a ton of features I haven't even toyed with yet, but so far, I'm happy. Commercial-free tunes from groups I like. What's not to love?

To listen to "DrG Radio" open your preferred music player on your PC and open a URL connection [add a comment to this post to get the address]. Rock on, kids.