Solace.fm

Solace.fm is an Internet radio station network based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, broadcasting music styles from Easy Listening, Smooth Jazz, and Soft Rock. Solace.fm’s programming philosophy is to offer music to fit into people’s lifestyles with an emphasis on long-term listening. Users tune into Solace.fm’s radio stations from the station web page where streams are available through a custom radio player utilizing MP3 encoding for low bandwidth and higher bandwidth listeners. Solace.fm is operated by Brian P. McGlynn of Orpanc Media Ltd.
History
Lite 92
In 1997 while attending the Rochester Institute of Technology, Solace.fm founder Brian McGlynn and roommate Alfredo Torrejon put “Lite 92” on the air at 91.9 MHz with a 1 watt FM transmitter hit from Veronica along with a homemade four band audio compressor.
With the recent invention of MP3 file compression, Brian and Alfredo began digitizing Brian’s easy listening, smooth jazz, and soft rock record libraries. Automation software was developed to play music 24 hours a day on a surplus DEC Alpha computer running Red Hat Linux.
Lite 92 continued to run 24 hours a day programming a mix of smooth jazz, easy listening, and soft rock music covering the former Racquet Club apartments near the RIT campus in Henrietta, New York.
Lite 105.7
After graduation from RIT, Brian relocated to the Raleigh, North Carolina area in December 1998 and Alfredo took possession of the DEC Alpha broadcast automation system and relocated to Portland, Oregon where he put AM AM 1610 “The Globe” on the air in C-QUAM AM Stereo using a homemade compliant transmitter.
With 91.9 MHz not available in Raleigh, NC Lite 92 moved to 105.7 MHz and became “Lite 105.7” with the same style of music. With no DEC Alpha, Brian rewrote the broadcast automation software in Java under IBM’s OS/2 operating system and later on Linux.
Lite 105.7 ran as an FM station until February 2000 when Brian put Lite 105.7 on the web using Shoutcast MP3 technology. The Lite 105.7 web site was launched using a dynamic DNS service and an Intel Pentium 90 MHz computer running Red Hat Linux acted as the web server, radio station, Shoutcast server, and encoder.
Dreamradio.ca
In November 2000, Brian relocated to Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where the frequency of the station was moved to 1500 KHz (in AM Stereo) under the brand Dreamradio.ca. In 2001, the domain name Dreamradio.ca was registered and the web site went live. With changes in copyright legislation for webcasting
, Dreamradio.ca went live on the Live365 Internet radio platform under the user name of “Jazzeum”.
In August 2002, Brian relocated to Solace.fm’s current home of Montreal. Dreamradio.ca’s homemade automation software was traded in for Spacial Audio’s SAM broadcast automation software, and a more advanced music scheduling service was implemented.
With the advice of fellow internet-radio program director Ted Silver from Hitoldies.com Internet radio, slight changes were made to the Dreamradio.ca playlist formula. With these changes, Dreamradio.ca grew from 3,000 aggregate listening hours per month to its current 50,000 hours per month putting it in the top 10% of Live365 stations.
Solace.fm
In January 2007, Orpanc Media Ltd. was incorporated and the Solace.fm listening network was launched. The Dreamradio.ca easy listening station was added to the lineup as the flagship station along with a recently launched Soft Rock station. In April 2007, a Smooth Jazz station was added to the lineup of music formats.
Today, Solace.fm continues to grow in user functionalities such as community forums, a loyal listener club, and with information features such as news on the site.
Persons Mentioned
* Brian McGlynn - CEO of Orpanc Media Ltd., General Manager of Solace.fm
* Alfredo Torrejon - Inventor or “Alfredo-Lite” AM-Stereo Transmitter
* Ted Silver - Hitoldies.com Internet Radio co-founder
Awards
* Live365 Editor’s Pick

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