How to build a radio station in 2025

So, the good news.

You don’t need towers anymore. Or trucks. Or transmitters the size of houses. You don’t even need an FM license. And, you don’t need sales staff, celebrity presenters, or huge studios in Soho.

Technically, building a radio station is easier and more economical than it ever has been.

But that’s not the hard part. The hard part is building a station that matters.

There’s already so much noise out there, and the world doesn’t need even more podcasts, or another voice that sounds like all the other voices.

So, if you want to build a radio station in 2025, you need a different kind of toolkit.

You need belief.

The kind that doesn’t ask permission. The kind that stumbles forward in the dark but is guided by an intangible, and often irrational, inner knowing that you are doing something worthwhile.

You need attitude.

Not the performative kind. Not noise for noise’s sake. But rather a swagger that comes with knowing that, regardless of what anyone else says, you are going to put this thing out into the world in the hope that it does some good.

You need clarity.

On what you stand for. What you refuse to imitate. What you want people to feel when they tune in.

If you don’t know that, all the kit in the world won’t help you.

But most of all, you need good people.

People who get it.

People who are brilliant at what they do and generous with what they share.

People who believe that radio can still make you feel something.

People who’ve maybe never presented a show before but have something to say that stops you in your tracks.

So, yes, you’ll absolutely need to master the tech.

And yes, you’ll need the workflows, the meetings, the discussions, the notes, the to-do-lists.

But most of all, you’ll need the nerve to make something true, because the future of radio isn’t a template, or a format. It’s a feeling.

And in a world full of algorithms, sometimes the most radical thing you can do…is be human.

We believe deeply in the power of radio, and if you do too, then get in touch and see if we can find a way to work together.