The Net's best-sounding streaming radio station?
Not quite, but pretty close! Oh, it comes to you from...the bedroom of a 15-year-old!
First, "tune in" (MS Windows Media Player only):
internetradiodaer.com
Then, read the article (more on streaming audio technology follows in next post):
Cyberbroadcasts
Tuesday, September 15, 1998
By JOHN C. KUEHNER
PLAIN DEALER REPORTER
BEACHWOOD - Microsoft is listening to 15-year-old Daniel Anstandig.
The Beachwood High School sophomore grabbed the computer giant's ear last month with his Internet-only radio station broadcast from Studio A - his bedroom.
Daniel Anstandig Entertainment Radio, a 24-hour soft-rock station broadcast since mid-May, is a professionally run, profitable station with an FM-quality sound.
That is why Microsoft invited Daniel to speak at the 105th Audio Engineering Society Convention Sept. 26 to 29 in San Francisco, said Ben Novak, technical evangelist at Microsoft.
"We get leads on a lot of stations, and few of them make you stand up and take notice," Novak said. "Some are compelling. But this was, "Holy cow.' "
Daniel's station has advertisers, five disc jockeys, commercially made jingles ("Soft rock all day and all night. Internet-Radio DAER.") and syndicated programs starring former MTV host Nina Blackwood and exercise guru Richard Simmons.
DAER is one of more than 100 stations that broadcast strictly via the Internet and can be tuned in only by calling up the station's Web site.
Daniel's station, however, is as legitimate as anything being broadcast over the air, Novak said. Though he doesn't need a Federal Communications Commission license, he follows its standards, practices and regulations. He also pays licensing fees to the companies that own rights to the music he plays.
"If Daniel were 35, I would be just about as psyched about what he's doing," Novak said. "The way he has this set up and the way he has approached it is unique and very professional for a 15-year-old, but it would be unique for anyone to have set up."
DAER is all Daniel. He is the station's general manager, program manager, sales manager, chief engineer, promotions and marketing manager and one of the disc jockeys.
Broadcast and computer equipment covers three tables in his room, which is more a spartan studio than a teenager's bedroom. The room also has two dressers and a bed, which sports an Indians bedspread.
When needed, he consults several people, such as David Reese, director of WJCU-FM/88.7, the radio station at John Carroll University in University Heights.
"This is a kid who will go places," said Reese, an assistant professor in John Carroll's communications department. "He just seems to have everything together. He's not fumbling around."
While other companies are trying to make money from the Internet, DAER turns a profit, Daniel said. Though he declined to give a specific figure, Daniel said it has been enough to repay the $25,000 startup loan from his grandfather, pay his disc jockeys and keep the station running.
He could support himself from station profits, he said. But he still lives with his father, Jack, a Cleveland-area neurologist, and his sister, Sarah, 11, on the top floor of the Hamptons apartment building.
"There's a lot of fun in it," Daniel said. "I wouldn't do it if it wasn't fun or just a business. I love them both equally."
Daniel will be the youngest panelist to speak at the trade show and convention, which is expected to draw 18,000 people from around the world, society spokesman Howard Sherman said.
His age surprises people, because his velvety voice projects an image of an adult. The carrot-haired, cherub-faced Daniel said he does get annoyed by constant questions about his age, because he doesn't want it to be a professional impediment.
"I don't think in terms that I'm 15," he said. "The fact that I'm 15 is there and evident, but it's pushed into the background."
No one in his family has any connection to or background in the communications field. So relatives were surprised when at age 9, Daniel built a low-power transmitter and broadcast a three-hour call-in request show from his basement. It wasn't a passing phase.
His station, WGDA/FM 97.7, reached about 10 homes on Letchworth Dr. in Beachwood. On Friday nights and Saturday afternoons, he would haul his equipment to Beachwood High School and provide play-by-play at football and basketball games, which fans in the stands could hear on a radio.
At age 11, he would bike to nearby Menorah Park, where he volunteered at the radio station, WLAF-AM/530. At 13, Daniel started hanging around WJCU, getting involved behind the scenes.
Six months later, he started substituting for on-air disc jockeys, which led to his own music and talk shows that continued this summer.
"I eat, breathe and sleep radio," Daniel said. "Even if I wanted to get away from it, I couldn't. I'm so interested in it, I can't get enough of it."
Daniel caught the attention of Cornelius Gould, chief engineer at WJCU, when he took a disc jockey apprentice course at John Carroll two years ago.
"He was answering all the technical questions," said Gould, who is also the customer support engineer at Telos Systems and its sister company, Cutting Edge.
The two Cleveland companies, which make professional broadcast equipment, provided more than $6,000 in broadcast equipment to Daniel on a long-term loan, said Miriam Carey, marketing and media manager for Telos.
"It is what an Internet radio station ought to be," Carey said. "Talking to him, you forget he's in the 10th grade. He's just one of those really bright, really focused kids who will continue to succeed as long as he tries."
DAER has an estimated maximum audience of 1,300 listeners at any time. The audience is limited by the power of the computer at his Internet service provider, Exchange Net, that streams the digitized sound to the Internet.
The show is live from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. when Tom Carelsons is on the air. Daniel is on from 3 to 7 p.m. Other live shows are 7 to 9 p.m. Thursdays, and 2 to 6 p.m. Saturdays and 8 till noon Sundays.
At other times, the broadcast is prerecorded and programmed a week ahead of time, then updated the night before by Daniel. He chooses from more than 5,000 digitally stored songs.
Daniel tailored DAER ("We combine the music of yesterday and today with the technology of tomorrow") based on demographics and "psychographics," such as age, income and why people listen, which he gathered over about six months from surveys of potential listeners before starting the station. Professionals who have jobs where they cannot receive over-the-air broadcasts make up his core audience.
Through an arrangement with WERE-AM/1300 Daniel broadcasts football games of state powerhouse St. Ignatius High School live.
Daniel, who has a 3.1 grade-point average, is the Beachwood High newspaper's news editor. He's on the drama club and helps with the school's Web page design. Internet radio allows him to combine his three interests.
"Sometimes I feel overwhelmed," he said. "But it's my free time. It's my hobby. At times, it feels like work, but like anything, you can't get anywhere without doing some work."
And where does Daniel want to be?
"One day, manager of NBC or CBS radio," he said.
And that's possible, said Microsoft's Novak.
"I can't wait to see where this guy is at 21, or 30, or how many stations he owns," Novak said.
Radio DAER can be heard at:
daer.com
©1998 THE PLAIN DEALER. Used with permission.
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