How to launch a popup Christmas station on Radioplayer


This year we're spreading the Christmas spirit and helping stations - large and small - launch popup Christmas radio stations. It costs just £109+vat to put the service on Radioplayer and, so long as you've been on Radioplayer more than a year, the Christmas service doesn't have to be broadcasting on DAB or FM. Below explains the process but please do email us if you have any questions


The easy route

We're offering to build you a branded web player, hosted until 6th January for free by us, for your Christmas station. That's one less thing for you to do and all we need are your streams and a high-resolution logo. You'll be able to see the web player  before it goes live and we'll make any changes you need.


The DIY route

If you're happy to roll up your sleeves and build a web player, you're welcome to do so. We'll add the station to your account and you can use the regular web player generator. Want us to host it for you, for free until 6th January? That's okay too. Just ask.


Christmas stations on DAB

If your popup station is going on DAB, then it's easy to add it to your Radioplayer account. Drop us an email and tell us:

  • Name of the station you'd like to add
  • OFCOM DSP licence number
  • The dates you want to put it live and a take-down date if not 6th January
  • Whether you'd like the 'easy route' or the 'DIY route'

 

Once we've got that, we'll add it to your account and you'll be able to create the station profile and then generate a web player. Remember you'll need a stream that meets our codec/format requirements, including a low-bitrate stream for mobile devices, and some logos which we'll resize to the sizes we need, if you don't have time.


When all if that is done, drop us an email so that we can do our initial tests then on your go-live date (or sooner if you ask us to) we'll put your web player live.


Christmas stations which are online only

For popup stations that will only be available online, we have a few simple rules (information attached at the bottom of this article) which we ask you to consider. Music stations need to show that they're licenced by PRS/PPL/MCPS and we'll need an idea of what your output is likely to be. Also, only broadcasters who've been on Radioplayer more than a year can launch an online-only service - and if you already have such a service, you probably won't be able to launch another.

If you're happy with the rules, follow the steps at the bottom of the PDF to give us all the info we need about the service including:

  • Name of the station you'd like to add
  • Live date
  • End date if not 6th January
  • Whether you have a stream of it available already (no worries if not)
  • Whether you're planning music output or speech only
  • Whether you'd like the 'easy route' or the 'DIY route'

 

Once your station has been approved, it will be added to your account and we'll send you details of the onboarding steps. We'll do the usual checks to make sure everything works and put you live to the UK.


And finally

All Christmas stations will be taken down on 6th January unless you ask us to keep the service up for longer, in which case your Christmas licence will become a regular Band AA annual licence for that station.