How to start a radio station: online, FM or community

“How do I start a radio station?” is really three questions wearing one coat, and the answers could hardly be further apart. One of them takes an afternoon and costs less than a streaming subscription. One of them takes a filing window, a nonprofit, an engineering study and a year of patience. One of them takes a bank. This guide separates them properly — what each kind of station actually requires, what it costs, who it suits — so you spend your effort on the version of radio you were really imagining.

1. The three kinds of radio station

Almost everyone typing the question wants the thing in the first column and has been picturing the third. That is not naivety — it is what “radio station” has meant for a hundred years. But the audience moved: the phone in your listener’s pocket does not have a tuner, and the car is increasingly a browser with wheels.

2. The FCC question, answered plainly

It is the first thing people ask and the source of most of the confusion, so: an internet radio station needs no FCC licence. The FCC regulates the use of the radio spectrum — transmitters, towers, frequencies. Streaming audio over the internet is not spectrum, so no licence, no application, no filing window, no callsign. That is not a loophole; it is a different medium.

What internet radio *does* need is music rights — permission from the people who made the recordings, which is a completely separate system from broadcast licensing and applies just as much to an FM station. Every kind of station in the table above needs it, and it is the one unavoidable step for anyone playing commercial music.

3. If you genuinely want to be on FM

Some stations should be on FM. A community station serving a specific town, a school, a congregation, a language community — over-the-air presence in a defined place is a real and different thing, and low-power FM exists precisely for it. Here is the honest shape of that path in the US:

• It is noncommercial and organizational. LPFM licences go to local nonprofits, schools, churches and community groups — not individuals, and not commercial ventures. You can acknowledge underwriters; you cannot sell spots.
• You can only apply when a window is open. The FCC accepts LPFM applications in occasional filing windows announced in advance — the last major one was in 2023. Between windows there is nothing to apply for, so the first step is finding out when the next one is, not filling in a form.
• Spectrum has to exist where you are. Someone has to check whether a channel is available at your location without interfering with existing stations. In dense metros, frequently, there simply is not one.
• Then it becomes a build. Transmitter, antenna, a tower or rooftop site with a lease, an engineer to install it and certify it, studio equipment, EAS gear, and the ongoing compliance obligations of being a licensed broadcaster.
• Budget in thousands, and in volunteer months. Modest compared with commercial radio, and substantial compared with a subscription.

Full-power commercial AM or FM is a different world again: new commercial allotments are scarce and auctioned, so in practice you buy an existing licensed station. That is a capital transaction with brokers, FCC transfer approval and a business plan — a legitimate ambition, and not a project you begin from a search result.

4. Already on FM? Simulcast is the cheap win

If you already hold a broadcast licence, streaming is not a competing project — it is coverage. It puts your signal on phones, smart speakers and cars outside your contour, gives you listening figures your transmitter can never provide, and lets shows live on as podcasts. The technical work is small: one encoder pointed at a hosting platform, or a feed from the studio chain. The rights question is not automatic, though — your over-the-air licences do not necessarily cover streaming, so check your webcasting position before you switch it on.

5. Starting online, start to finish

This is the version that happens today. The full walkthrough goes deeper on each step; here is the whole road at a glance.

1. 1Decide what the station is for. One sentence a stranger would understand: “new music from this city”, “overnight jazz”, “the local football phone-in”. Format beats equipment every time.
2. 2Sort the music question early. Your own recordings and directly-licensed independent artists need nothing. Commercial music needs webcasting licences — an afternoon of online applications, started in parallel with everything else.
3. 3Pick hosting. The platform that receives your audio, runs the automation and delivers the stream — the hosting guide covers what separates them and what they cost.
4. 4Build a library and a rotation. Upload the music, tag it properly, and set rules so it sounds programmed rather than shuffled.
5. 5Go live. One tap in a phone app or one click in a browser. No encoder to configure, no studio required — the equipment guide is mostly a list of things you can skip.
6. 6Get listed and share it. Public page, embeddable player, smart speakers and directories, shows published as podcasts — how to get listeners is the part that keeps going after launch day.

6. What it costs, by route

Orders of magnitude, not quotes — but the gaps are large enough that precision is not the point.

7. Starting a radio station, asked and answered