MakRadio

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MakRadio is one of the leading top 40/pop Internet radio stations. The station was founded by Alex Reed and Mak McKeehan in June 2003 and has increased in audience drastically having only 9 listeners in 2003 and has launched more than 100 million streams since then. It can be listened to on iTunes, through Live365 and various other media players, including Windows Media Player, RealPlayer and Winamp. It is also commercial free and relies on donations for funds as do most other internet radio stations. Their studio is located in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

MakRadio has received several awards including #1 Overall on Live 365, Top 10 iTunes and Fastest Growing Station on Live 365.

On July 15, 2006, Mak Radio officially terminated its broadcast and signed off from the Internet.

[edit] History

MakRadio was formed as a project to promote new music by its founder Mak McKeehan. Frustrated by the radio industry's lack of creativity fueled by big business and commercialism, Mak took to the internet to see if his ideas "would work." After just two months of podcast like shows that were made available for download, a friend and future business partner Alex Reed suggested a 24 hour streaming broadcast in the format of the average Top 40 radio station. Alex is also credited with naming the station MakRadio.

Two months later MakRadio.com signed on the air (via Live365) on June 26, 2003. Exactly 6 weeks later, MakRadio Incorporated was founded by four businessmen, two of them being Alex Reed and Mak McKeehan. On August 1st, 2003, MakRadio was added to the itunes radio directory as one of seven stations in the Top40/Pop Category. By November 1st 2003, MakRadio had launched more than 800,000 streams and became the #1 station broadcast on Live365.

Continued growth fueled the addition of three more formats including: Dance (The MakRadio Pulse), Alternative (The MakRadio Alternative) and Country (MaKountry USA). Each station employed at least one program director and creative consultant. The "Pulse" was programmed by Sam Buca (host of MakRadio's popular Mixology 101 program), The MakRadio Alternative was programmed by Dave Kohn (who was also the famous voice of MakRadio's Top 40 station) and MaKountry USA was programmed by country radio veteran Scott Donato. In addition to these formats, MakRadio moved from Mak's basement office to an office building with brand new state-of-the-art broadcast facilities with the introduction of live DJs on a regularly scheduled basis. MakRadio's founder, Mak McKeehan, hosted "The Mak McKeehan Experience" weekdays from 9am - 1pm, Sam Buca hosted "The Sam Buca Show" weekdays from 1 - 6pm and Tim Clarke hosted "Xtreme Weekends" a syndicated internet radio show Saturday nights from 7pm - Midnight. All times are Eastern Standard Time.

MakRadio left Live365 in August of 2004 for an independent streaming company, The Stream Guys.

Shortly after MakRadio's one year anniversary, they moved to a subscription based model charging $5.99 per month for access to their 128k Windows Media based streams. The subscription service remained in place until January 1, 2006 when MakRadio partnered with Fusion Radio Chicago to once again offer subscription free 128k streams.

MakRadio remained with Fusion through July 15, 2006 when Mak McKeehan chose to close MakRadio.com in pursuit of other business ventures citing, "It has been a great three years, but its time to move on."

At present, Mak McKeehan launched, with Fusion Radio Chicago, "PopFusion Radio" and operates as the station's program director. Additionally, they are rumored to be developing a new network of online stations called 1PlusRadio.