To make it easier than ever to listen to college radio stations, a Chicago startup has created a streaming app just for them.
RadioFX, founded by John Wanzung in 2016, operates a mobile app that allows users to search for and listen to dozens of college radio stations. The startup has nearly 200 stations on its app and Wanzung said they have more than 100,000 active listeners.
College radio stations using RadioFX include Vanderbilt University and Miami University. Additionally, Chicago-area institutions like Columbia College Chicago and Harper College list their stations on the app. RadioFX charges college stations $109 per month to operate on the platform, and its other revenue comes from advertising.
Wanzung identified the need for RadioFX after realizing that many college radio stations don’t have the resources to build their own mobile apps.
“We did a bunch of market research about two years ago, and at that time, about 90 percent of college radio stations didn’t have a mobile platform, but they all wanted one,” Wanzung said. “They all knew they needed to have one, but it was just too cost prohibitive to go out and build your own mobile app, and then have to manage it.”
For listeners, RadioFX makes the process easier because they don’t have to download a different app for each radio station they want to listen to. The app also allows listeners to engage with the radio station by giving them an option to directly call in to the station, view their social media feeds and set alerts for certain segments they want to remember to listen to.
“We wanted to create a channel that is exclusively for radio where they can interact with the listeners in real time,” Wanzung said.
The mobile app also has a charting feature that ranks the top stations on the app, which is the first college radio charting system.
About two months ago, the startup launched its second product, a commercial version of its app called RadioMax, which features independently-owned radio stations. RadioMax has about 22 stations streaming on it right now, and each pay $149 per month to be on it.
“There’s 12,000 of those stations out there and we want to service them by providing them the same type of mobile platform,” Wanzung said.
Though podcasts are becoming an increasingly popular way to consume audio-based news and storytelling, radio remains a dominant media industry. In 2017, radio was the third most powerful medium in the U.S., reaching 54 percent of the nation’s population every day, according to Statistica. It hasn't and likely won't ever out-do television, which reached more than 75 percent of people every day in 2017, but radio is still a growing market.
Wanzung said RadioFX has raised $600,000 of a $700,000 seed round from angel investors, though he declined to disclose who they are. RadioFX’s staff has been working remotely for the last two years, but Wanzung said that’s all changing in about a week when the team moves into a WeWork in Chicago.
