Trance-Energy Radio: Worldwide DJ community takes off with Airtime

Trance-Energy Radio is a worldwide station. Through the power of the internet and the love of music, they have brought over 80 DJs together to share the best trance music and build a community they call an online home. Using Sourcefabric's Airtime to power the station, the radio automation software becomes an important tool for scheduling broadcasts and managing multiple DJ shows. Radio owner, Pepo Tzacanitu gives us an insight into what it is like to run a radio station with Airtime.

How long has Trance-Energy been running?

Trance-Energy Radio has been running officially for six months, after an initial test of two months. In the first two months we tested the servers and we used SAM Broadcast. After that we took a short break to test more servers and make sure that we could provide high quality sound and stability.

What is the concept behind it?

Before Trance-Energy Radio, there was RadioProNET, a radio with commercial music, but only in Romanian. The concept behind Trance-Energy Radio is to provide listeners with the best of the best trance music sets from around the globe and to support new DJs.

Trance-Energy Radio is not a simple radio station, more like a home where we treat everyone as family. We think of the station as our house where everyone can express themselves as they like. We give spots to every DJ that has good potential or works hard on their sets. The basic rule is that the DJ is in control of their time and free to program their own content. For example, the DJ can host a guest mix, a special guest, a themed set and so on. We like to support every idea we can. There were some DJs that wanted more time to celebrate a birthday and they wanted, for example, a six hour slot in the schedule for a set with special guests, and we made that possible.

For people who are at the beginning of their DJ career, we provide assistance and help them get better. We try to support them by assigning a DJ from our team that has more experience, to show them the tricks of the trade. We don't just wait for sets, we care for our family, and we try to keep a high level of quality in our music.

Where are you based and who are the DJs involved?

We don't have a specific location as a base, we are worldwide. I'm from Romania but living in Italy, my co-owner is in Romania. We have two administrators in Canada, two in Germany, two in the USA, five in Asia, one in Australia and so on. Even our servers are located in different areas like Germany, the USA and parts of Asia. This makes us a worldwide radio, not with a specific area or language. We are not limited, we are limitless!

At the moment, we have a team formed from over 80 DJs from all around the world and others that will join us very soon.

How and why did you decide to use Airtime for the station?

As I said, at the beginning we used SAM Broadcaster to stream into the server, but not everyone had the perfect PC that can stream live, and we had some problems, something like "jumps" from the aired set to the backup. That was really annoying. So, to avoid direct use of our PCs, we searched and tried in many ways to resolve the problem. At the end, we found Airtime software and it was a bit like love at first sight.

Airtime was (and still is) the perfect software that can provide us the service that we want and searched for. It runs smooth, with an easy control panel. It runs perfectly on IceCast and can broadcast in multiple streams. It is an absolutely perfect solution!
When we installed the software, we had some problems and since I've noticed probably the most beautiful thing about Airtime: the support team! I think that Airtime has the best support team in the world. They are professionals, they're quick, they respond promptly to any problem and they create a relationship with every user of Airtime. It is not a simple service, they make you part of the family as well. I even have the personal contact information of an admin from the support team and he told me to contact him anytime we have a problem with Airtime. That is awesome! No support team does this! When we have a problem, we resolve it and we post it on the Airtime forum, so anyone that has that problem can find the solution. This is how things must work in a community!

We have a number of electronic dance stations using Airtime, could you share your ideas behind why offering an online station for this music is important? What communities are you reaching?

The majority of communities we reach are trance music communities, but they are not the only ones. You see, music is connecting people from any country. By offering a radio that provides good music, we offer a connection between people across barriers and boundaries. I saw how people from different parts of the world are connecting, sharing ideas and in the end becoming friends and building a strong relationship. We provide a connection! It's quite amazing when you see people from countries that are in conflict, discussing and sharing ideas. I can see this on our posts and in their comments, or in our chat room. It's something beautiful and I'm so proud of it.

Part of this achievement belongs to Airtime because it helps us share our music worldwide. Airtime helps us reach our goal and at the same time, Airtime brings different radio stations together under the same roof.

Do you have any tips on how radio enthusiasts can get started with their own station?

This question is good! First of all, if you want to start a radio station, you must have tons of patience, you must have the confidence to do it and at the same time you must have an open mind and be optimistic. Running a radio station is not easy. I've seen many fail after a few months, and I was always sorry to see that happen.

When you start a radio station, and you are new in this, prepare to be nervous, prepare to spend days and nights to make everything run smooth. Nothing will work perfectly from the start. In time, you learn how to handle different situations, but first you must find solutions and this needs patience.

Problems can be at any level, starting from posting on social networks to server problems. The server problems are the most annoying! Everybody must understand that any radio runs on a machine, and every machine breaks from time to time. But this is not the end of the world. Just fix it!

At the same time, any owner of a radio must know that you'll have competition. Some of them can be friendly and some of them...not. We're all humans, we compete in everything! If you start a radio station don't give up at the first obstacle that you bump into. Prevail in what you do. Try to be original in what you do and how you do it.

And the last advice....Use Airtime software! It will make your life easier and you'll have time to do more things. Trust me, I'm a radio owner!

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