America's Country

I’ll just open by stating the problem: It is costly to run this station. There are 2 major costs involved in operating an internet radio station. One is the bandwidth to serve the station to you. The other is royalties and licensing fees that allow us to legally play the music so the artists and their labels get paid for their work. At the current setup with how many listeners I am allowed My fees total about $70 a month.

Here’s the problem: If I want to make this thing both legal and huge, it costs more and more! I have to pay more for both streaming and for royalties. It’s a really crummy setup. I understand that artists need to be paid. But I also understand they want more exposure so it’s a backwards spiral for us web broadcasters. I’d LOVE to be able to have 1000′s of listeners jammin’ to Hot Country Hits and not have to wade through tons of commercials to hear the music.

I’ve done some research and there are ways to make money by playing commercials. It’s not difficult. I just play them. However, I feel like in order to differentiate myself from all the other country stations on FM and online, I need to not have commercials. I feel like more of you will listen and tell your friends about us if you can tell them there’s no commercials.

Here’s the solution: I need your help. To keep us commercial-free, please donate to us. I have options on our website, our stream launch page and our Facebook page to either make a one-time donation or create a subscription where you pay a set amount monthly. Both options are through PayPal and are flexible. There’s no contracts for the subscription and you can change it any time. Currently, under the Subscription option, you can pick $5, $10 or $20 a month. All the money donated goes directly into the PayPal account where my fees come out of. The money will not go toward any station equipment or upgrades. I will not use the money for anything personal.

Plan B: I start playing commercials. I REALLY don’t want to! I think that would be reason enough to just end the whole project. Why would people listen if I had commercials and was like anything else out there?

I am very happy with the incredible growth we’ve seen in 2011! A lot of you are very loyal listeners who also interact on social media! I was happy to have 2011 be our free year. Now that I know that this concept is viable and successful and that I want to continue, it’s time to get serious.

Thank you for all your help and support!

-Timmy