As I have found out to my great dismay, success is indeed a double-edged sword.
On one hand, you cannot imagine the great joy I feel that KoHoSo Radio 66 has become so successful. I am thrilled that, with so many choices for entertainment, a notable amount of people spend time with my station. I would also not be telling you the truth if I did not add that there is also a huge amount of personal satisfaction in proving decades worth of naysayers wrong that my take on the oldies format would never be successful.
On the other hand, so many listeners brings a big problem. The more people listen, the more I must pay for music licensing fees. At this time, I am facing a 46% increase in the cost to run KoHoSo Radio 66. Unfortunately, that is putting it at the point where it is exceeding my expendable income.
This increase will only get worse, and it will probably be sooner rather than later.
How things work with my music licensing company and streaming host, Live365, is in tiers. Each tier allows a set number of listening hours per month.
To explain, every time you listen to KoHoSo Radio 66, it is monitored for how long you stay connected. This is added up among all listeners over my one-month billing period.
The 46% increase I mention above is for the next tier of service after the one I am on now. The problem is, so many people are listening that KoHoSo Radio 66 is already close to surpassing that level and reaching the top one: Pro Level.
Live365 doesn't even list how much Pro Level costs. I will have to call and have a consultation. Whatever the rate is, I'm sure I'm not going to like finding out what it is.
Yes, I could go back to what I did when Radionomy was my host and run commercials. While KoHoSo Radio 66 has succeeded beyond my wildest dreams, even with all the people that listen, the income generated by having ads would come nowhere near what is needed to pay Live365 so it can then, in turn, pay all the music licensing agencies that own the rights to the music I play.
I would have to have the same number of listeners as an over-the-air radio station in order to make running commercials pay for the higher cost. As relatively successful as KoHoSo Radio 66 is, having that many listeners for oldies -- now a seriously niche format -- is simply unrealistic.
I had not expected to reach this point for quite some time. I hoped the small increases I get in my income every year would keep up with the costs to run the station. Unfortunately, that will not be the case.
I need you to understand that, despite how everybody else providing online entertainment does it, asking people for money for something like this goes against every fiber of my being. I want what I put online to be one of the few breaks from all the other places that always have a hand out asking for money (or, an unwanted advertisement breaking the flow or barging into your web browser).
However, I have a choice. I either ask for money or KoHoSo Radio 66 will go offline and, this time, forever.
At the advice of my two best friends in the whole world, I have chosen to see if I can take "tips" to sustain the station. I am going to try my best to make this as easy and non-intrusive as possible.
This is why I have chosen Buy Me a Coffee (BMC) as my partner in taking your online tips. You don't need a BMC account to tip. Initially, you can pay through almost all major methods with Apple Pay and Google Pay to be added later. You can make a one-time donation any time you wish or you can set up monthly payments. BMC will not bother you with promotional emails unless you ask for them. Best of all, you don't have to worry about paying the transaction fees as I have set my account to pay them for you...and I receive 95% of anything you donate.
I must be clear that this is not going to be like a Patreon account. I cannot offer any special content or rewards for your donation. I will not run a regular list of donors on the station or its website.
Your donation is strictly to help pay the bills to keep the station online for your enjoyment. If the donations don't keep up with the costs, I can offer no guarantee that KoHoSo Radio 66 won't disappear at any moment.
What I will do is promise I will do my best to pay what I can to keep the station going. I also promise that whatever is donated will go strictly to the things for which I pay money for KoHoSo Radio 66 to be online, available through popular platforms such as Alexa and mobile apps, and sound the way it does.
If donations exceed my monthly Live365 bill, the excess will go to pay for side items such as my virtual server, automation software, mobile app provider, or even new equipment and my electricity bill. Anything left over in any given month will be rolled over for a time when donations come up short. In other words, while my "tip jar" partner is called Buy Me a Coffee, whatever you donate will not be spent over at Paradise Mountain Coffee here in Crestline.
Well, folks, that's where we're at. This either floats or it doesn't. Whatever happens, just know the following.
However long it lasts, I will be grateful to my dying breath for every single person that enjoyed listening to KoHoSo Radio 66 whether or not they ever put anything in the tip jar. However, for those that do contribute, if there is indeed a Heaven and I'm lucky enough to slip past St. Peter without him noticing, I'll be sure to put in a good word for you with The Big Guy Upstairs to be sure you get good seats for the next Buddy Holly concert. ;^)
Keep on cruisin'!
KoHoSo