Since November of 2003 ZRadio1 has been broadcasting great music content to listeners all over the world! This is our story.

The Beginning

It was in the early summer of 2003 when we heard the exciting news. The very thought of hearing this information was enough to send a jolt of excitement down to my core. Something that I had wished for many years was about to take place. My home town was getting a Christian Rock station! I know you're saying this is hardly news to make anyone jump for joy, but to me it was a very BIG DEAL. My passion for music has always been strong and the bands I liked weren't heard on your local rock stations. When I was in my teen years we had very few outlets if any, where we could gather information on our favorite bands or hear about what new music was available. There was no place to demo new Christian Rock bands or find out if or when bands were playing in or near my town. We were not blessed like we are today with the internet tying us all together. I had spent hours at my local Christian book store scrolling through a microfiche just looking for an artist with an "R" (for rock category) after their name. Unfortunately this was a lousy way of finding bands I hadn't yet heard of. (the Christian music distributor had Russ Taff and Vengeance Rising both with "R's" so you can imagine) Sure there was pockets of the country that had a relatively strong C-Rock following but where I grew up in the northeast we didn't have much. I actually use to pay a few radio stations in other states that aired Christian Rock shows to mail me cassette copies. Now that's serious fan!! But none of that mattered now that we were going get our own local FM station!

The Big Letdown

As the rumors continued to flow around me of the new "Christian Rock" station, the day had finally come. I imagined those powerful amplifiers coming to life as the broadcast signal pushes through, and out of those big towers coming the sound of slamming drums, screaming vocals and screeching guitars...I could hardly wait! You can imagine my disappointment when over our new "rock" station came... Well lets just say after years of hoping and praying, we got a station that my grandmother would really enjoy... The excitement of having a place on my local FM dial came to a crashing end. The dream was over. Or was it??

A Great Idea!

One day shortly after my big letdown I started to wonder what it would take to start or buy a radio station. I started putting the word out to some friends looking for feedback (and maybe some money) to see what they thought. After researching what it would take to get an FCC license and the cost involved in starting an FM station it started to look pretty grim. Even if I could get all the money I was told it would take years to work through the process until the day when the broadcast would air. After a lot of talking and passing around ideas we decided to go in a different direction. The world had changed. The internet was in full swing and with technology going in the direction it was, it seemed a shore thing that we needed to be apart of that. With little knowledge and even less money, we started to see what it would take to do an IRadio station and to do it right!

The TMG Network

From my two bedroom apartment with the help of my brother we started the TMG Network. Yes with no equipment, little music, and BIG talent (that ones for you Bro!) The Razors Edge radio program was broadcast to the world on the TMG Network. I still remember taking tissue paper and wrapping around a $12 desktop computer microphone to try and make it sound close to ok. The audio quality was not good to say the least... The station did broadcast 24 hours a day but we had to change the format for 12 hours to 80's music to fill the time and keep within the DMCA regulations. It would take us about six hours to produce a two hour program. Some of that time was the best time of my life. We had some great times and to this day I could not have imagined what was about to happen. As each day passed more and more people started listening. I started getting messages from people all over the world thanking me for what I was doing and telling me how much they loved the station. I knew people would like what we were doing but I never thought that it would have such an impact. By now there were plenty of sources on the web to get your daily fix of Christian Rock. There was than, and still are some great outlets, but people seemed to continuously flow to our station. It was growing fast. Maybe to fast. You see in terrestrial radio you pay for equipment cost and market share. With IRadio you pay per listener. The more who listen the more it costs in both streaming and royalty fees.

The Good, The Bad, and The CRB

By now things were really starting to take shape. The decision was made to broadcast Christian Rock 24/7 and the TMG Network evolved into the ZR Network with our flag station ZRadio1. We bought tens of thousands of dollars worth of audio gear and software. We also were working with some great people within the music/radio business and picked up a few syndicated broadcasts. Things were really moving! And than it happened! As internet radio began taking off, (which was around the time of the big Napster controversy) broadcasters were required to pay royalty fees to the record labels who own the rights to content they play. To sum it up, broadcasters pay an amount set by the CRB (Copyright Royalty Board) for each song played, times how many listeners heard that performance. The rates are set depending on classification and use of the content involved. We paid our royalties monthly as most webcasters our size do. In 2008 The royalty board posted the new rates and delivered the crushing blow that the rates would retro back through the previous year since the old rates expired a year prior. (They never came out with the new rates so everyone including us, just kept paying the old rates) This was an enormous amount due and on top of that the new rates put us in the highest bracket paying more than XM, Sirius, and even Time Warner Cable. Needless to say lawsuits were flying back and forth and the argument on behalf of small webcasters like us was even brought to the senate floor. This forced us to make some tough decisions. We decided to cut all operations down to a minimum. We stopped all promotions and just maintained the station on a much smaller scale. To help with the cost I stopped working with the station and had to focus making an income outside of ZRadio1.

A New Begining

Early last year an agreement was made between SoundExchange and small webcasters. Without getting into all the legal stuff, it freed us up and made it possible to bring ZRadio1 to the masses again! We have connected with some great people and have moved the station servers to Dallas TX. This took away a lot of the worry of having to constantly monitor and maintain our own servers. A new website is being rolled out and are adding more control of content by registered users. I also have a monumental project that I am working on. I would love to tell you what it is but can't at the moment. I will just say that it has been 4 years in the making and will SHOCK those of you that know me best.

Let me end by saying thanks to all of you who were involved and mostly to all of you who have listened over the years. Your station is coming back and so am I. Please join me me on the journey and remember your input here is always appreciated....

GodSpeed

TJ