WFUV Boosts Podcasting Efficiency and Creative Freedom with StreamGuys’ SGrecast Platform

BAYSIDE, CALIFORNIA, December 7, 2021 – Known as New York’s source for music discovery, WFUV (90.7FM) has been a non-commercial, member-supported, public media service of Fordham University for more than 70 years. Striving to ramp up its podcast presence and streamline the creation of its on-demand archives, the station deployed the SGrecast podcast management and live stream repurposing solution from StreamGuys earlier this year. The comprehensive, SaaS solution has delivered new operational efficiencies while also eliminating barriers that previously impeded creativity.

WFUV has received national recognition for its unique weekday format of adult album alternative music, award-winning local news and sports, as well as a diverse weekend programming lineup. 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 monetization 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. Extremely pleased with StreamGuys’ solutions and white-glove customer service, WFUV again turned to the company to help meet the station’s podcasting ambitions.

“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.”

In addition to easing the burden on the technical team, SGrecast also brings benefits across the station as a whole. “It really allows all of our departments to act with freedom,” said O’Hara. “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.”

Pictured Above: Jim O'Hara reviewing and editing WFUV's podcast episodes from his command center.

WFUV’s website also offers a two-week, rolling, on-demand archive of programs from its live weekend broadcasts, and SGrecast has enabled the station to automate the process. “We use SGrecast’s side channel recorders to capture our live stream and make audio of our shows instantly available on demand,” O’Hara explained. “It’s a completely automated system, which is great for us since we don’t have a lot of human resources to dedicate to these jobs. It’s also great for our listeners, since it lets them catch up on any shows that they miss.”

Beyond the product-related benefits of SGrecast and StreamGuys’ other solutions, O’Hara also appreciates the exceptional support and personal communication WFUV gets from the vendor. “The StreamGuys team is great to work with,” he said. “We get to build relationships with the staff there, not just the automatic responses and form letter-like emails you often get from other vendors. StreamGuys is always willing to go that extra mile and works with us on custom solutions to fit our specific needs.”

WFUV plans to continue expanding its podcast offerings, and SGrecast will play a key role in achieving that. “We’ve only just begun to realize the potential of what SGrecast offers,” said O’Hara. “It’s a brilliant solution that ‘just works’ and doesn’t require any manual intervention or babysitting. It’s exactly what we needed.”