Own radio station is a very attractive business. Thanks to an extensive audience of listeners (including motorists, housewives, pensioners and other segments of the population), it is possible to distribute commercials, hold holiday marathons, events.
All this brings income. If you follow the trend, then even small stations that break away from large broadcasters remain afloat, despite the crisis in the economy. Therefore, it is worth familiarizing yourself with how to open a radio station and make this business profitable.
Required documents
You can purchase a radio frequency for your own broadcast channel at a special competition. You must first queue. True, you will need a very large investment. They amount to tens of thousands of dollars. A license (it is issued for ten years) and registration of the enterprise as a media and legal entity (a limited liability company is recommended) will also be required.
At the same time, the type of activity of the enterprise is stipulated. It is indicated that the radio station develops its programs, broadcasts, describes types of advertising which she will distribute. When developing options for opening a radio station, you may encounter certain difficulties.
So, if you intend to start a business in a small city with a population of less than two hundred thousand people, then you may have problems with acquiring free frequencies for broadcasting. Development of new ones will be required. This case will require additional costs and appeals to Moscow, to the Main Radio Frequency Center.
Area of activity
Build your business on radio frequencies under the power of a talented person, with certain artistic inclinations. After all, this type of activity allows you to clearly express yourself. Must have organizational skills. Despite the fact that television occupies the first position, and the radio is much inferior to it, there is an opportunity to find its niche in this field of activity.
Thinking over the creation of a radio station, one must be guided by the current trends in the development of this business. Very popular are music and entertainment programs that can be listened to as background. At the same time, it is possible to stand out by creating original news programs and talk shows.
If your station will be focused on political debate, then you will not need additional investment in the promotion of the project. In this case, you will have a customer acting as a co-founder. Indeed, such broad-based broadcasters are an excellent platform during the election race.
Business organization
If you do not have relevant experience on how to open a radio station, consider all financial investments in the business and possible costs. The best option is not to create your own programs at first. So you can save money.
After all, the new radio station has few listeners, the audience has not developed, so for now you can get by with those products that are produced by central or widely promoted radio stations. You can conclude a contract with them.
Retracing music and information programs will allow you to attract listeners and will not require hiring new employees. Be sure to insert commercials in programs. Here they must be of their own production.After the radio station gets its audience, you can develop and launch the original broadcast programs on the air.
Special companies can provide assistance to beginning businessmen in organizing their business. One of the possible options for opening a radio station is to create it on the Internet. At the same time, special equipment and rental premises are not required. Everything is available at home from a home computer. It is enough to register on the site. Broadcast traffic and disk space of up to 500 MB will be provided for the user. Pauses during the program are filled with music.
As in the case of the broadcasting station, you need to decide on the topic that your programs will be dedicated to, find your target audience. As an advertisement, messages on social networks will serve. Such a business development option may be suitable for creating entertainment broadcasting. On the air will be played not only popular musical hits, but also contests and quizzes will be held.
Radio Advertising
Business promotion is one of the most important aspects of business development, therefore, when considering how to organize a radio station, you need to pay great attention to advertising. To learn about the station, you need to disseminate information about it. To do this, serve as advertising posters, inscriptions on vehicles, advertisements in newspapers, on the Internet. As a rule, the costs of promoting a radio project require large financial investments.
Equipment purchase
There should be two studios: one recording, and the other - actually broadcast. This is the case in large and successful radio stations. If you are a beginner businessman, then at the beginning of the journey you can organize one studio where live broadcasts will go.
Recording of programs is organized in specially rented rooms. Be sure to include the purchase of an antenna and a transmitter in the business plan of the radio station. This is a very expensive equipment.
In order for the broadcast to proceed with high quality, it is important to choose the right room for the studio. It is good if it will be at high altitude. It is better to buy imported equipment. All equipment (broadcast and studio) must be certified.
Project financing
Any business requires start-up capital. If it is not there or not enough money, you can arrange a bank loan, attract sponsors, enter into a partnership agreement with someone else who is willing to invest in business development. In a large city, larger costs for starting a business are needed than in a settlement with a small population.
To the question of how much it costs to open a radio station, you can answer approximately: one to three and a half million rubles will be required. This amount includes the rental of premises, the development of radio frequencies with the involvement of specialists (if it is not possible to obtain a license for an existing one), the payment of salaries to employees, the costs of registration, rental of a radio transmitter, and advertising of the station. An amount of three hundred to five hundred thousand rubles will have to be invested in the purchase of equipment.
Staff recruitment
At first, your staff will not be numerous. One accountant, advertising manager, secretary, stage director, sound engineer and three advertising agents are enough. Since you don’t immediately start creating original programs, you won’t need your own journalists either. The need for them will arise during the expansion of the business. When the station gains popularity and gains an audience.
Business profitability
Having examined all aspects of the development of the enterprise, we can roughly say how much it costs to open your own radio station, what investments will be required. In terms of American dollars, the amount will be about fifty thousand. Big income comes from airing commercials, inserts in news and entertainment programs.If a large sponsor acts as a co-founder of an enterprise, its name will often need to be mentioned during broadcasting.
