Our business is a small radio station that features a variety of programming, news, music, listener call-ins, and other program types. Our station call letters are WDTU. Our broadcast materials come from several sources and in several formats: vinyl records, CDs, MP3s, and downloaded digital (usually MP3s). While our station has a large library, especially of recorded music, sometimes, our program hosts (also called disc jockeys or DJs) want to share material from other sources. For that reason, we need to be able to easily add items to our playlists (the list of what is to be broadcast) and also have an easy-to-access method for our DJs to preview MP3 material.
Like any business, we have accounting and activity tracking requirements. Our income is from selling advertisements. We must pay royalties for music played, fees for purchased materials, such as prepared text for news, sports, and weather information, and service charges for our streaming internet broadcast service. As part of our licensed access to the public airwaves, a radio station is required to broadcast public service programming at no charge.
Often, this is in the form of public service announcements (PSAs), such as encouraging traffic safety or reduction in tobacco use. Like all radio stations, we must plan what is to be broadcast (create schedules) and track what has been broadcast (such as ads, music, purchased programming, and PSAs) by date and time. We bill our customers for the advertising, pay our vendors their fees and royalties, and report our public service data to the appropriate government agency.
