The SGrecast podcast management and live stream repurposing solution from StreamGuys has helped New York’s WFUV (90.7FM) station to ramp up its podcast presence and streamline the creation of its on-demand archives.
Known as New York’s source for music discovery, WFUV has been a non-commercial, member-supported, public media service for more than 70 years. Earlier this year, it deployed the comprehensive, SaaS (software as a service) solution from StreamGuys, a service provider of live and on-demand streaming, podcasting delivery, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) toolsets for enterprise-level broadcast media organisations.
Eliminating technical barriers, the podcast management and live stream repurposing system also automates creation of on-demand archives from live broadcasts. It delivered new operational efficiencies at WFUV, while eliminating barriers.
The station has used StreamGuys’ live streaming services for nearly 15 years, delivering streamed simulcasts of WFUV’s broadcasts to its large listener base across StreamGuys’ CDN.
WFUV also leverages StreamGuys’ third-party monetisation platform integration to incorporate pre-roll advertising from the station’s underwriters, and uses StreamGuys’ rich analytics and reporting tools to garner valuable audience insights.
“We were slow to join the podcasting game, but we knew we needed to ramp up our podcast presence,” said Jim O'Hara, Associate Director of Technical Operations at WFUV.
“SGrecast is the perfect platform to enable us to do that. We don’t have a very large technical staff, but users don’t need to be technical in nature to use the system.
“Our news and sports staff are mostly students at the university. They can just go into SGrecast, create a new podcast on the fly, and upload some episodes. They’ll have a brand new podcast up and running in minutes, without needing oversight or interaction from our technical staff.”
O’Hara added: “In addition to easing the burden on the technical team, SGrecast brings benefits across the station as a whole. It really allows all of our departments to act with freedom. It improves not only our efficiency but also their ability to be creative, as there are no hurdles to implementing new ideas they have.
“If a particular department has an idea for a new podcast, they can just go for it – they don’t need to go through other departments or wait for our technical team. They can do it independently, which really improves our creativity as a station.”