How to broadcast radio from your mobile phone

Did you know that you can broadcast live to your internet radio station from your phone? That’s right! Your mobile phone, or tablet (for you fancy people), can be your very own mobile radio studio.

Broadcasting live is a core part of radio. Internet radio platforms, like ourselves here at Radio Cult, normally come with a range of tools that enable you to automate your broadcast but sometimes going live to all of your listeners is just more fun.

Interested? Let’s get into it.

Requirements

You need exactly four things to broadcast live from your mobile phone:

• A mobile phone or tablet (pretty self explanatory),
• A stable internet connection,
• A mobile broadcasting client and
• Your very own radio station

We can’t help with a mobile phone or fast fibre but we can help with setting up your own radio station. Interested? Consider us if you’re wanting to start your radio station on a simple, yet powerful internet radio platform.

Additionally, for the optimal experience some extra, nice to haves are:

• A good pair of headphones
• A quality microphone for recording audio

Why would I want to broadcast from my mobile phone?

Now that you’ve gotten the prerequisites for broadcasting live: maybe now is the time to ask not can we broadcast live from our mobile phones, but should we?

The short answer is yes. The long answer is that broadcasting live from your mobile makes sense for a variety of reasons. Maybe you want to present a laid back, relaxed show without expensive broadcasting equipment. Maybe you’re out at a festival or a game and don’t have your laptop with you. Maybe it’s been a long week and you can’t make it into your studio so you want to go live on your radio station from the comfort of your home.

Whatever your reason for broadcasting from your mobile phone to your radio station, we’re here to make it a reality.

Broadcasting live radio from your mobile device

Let’s get into the nitty-gritty details. Once you’ve got your internet radio station set up and your mobile phone connected to a good cellular or wi-fi connection then you’re ready for the next step: choosing your broadcasting client.

It’s actually quite an easy decision as there aren’t too many options. It all really depends if you’re on iOS or Android. If you’re on iOS then you’ll want to go with iziCast. If you’re on Android then you’ll be choosing BroadcastSelf.

Broadcast live radio from iOS

To broadcast live radio on iOS we recommend using iziCast. iziCast was created by the same person who made BUTT - a popular live streaming client for Mac, Linux and Windows.

Izicast is only available on iOS and is a paid app. It’s very stable and well-liked by it’s users.

Broadcast live radio from Android

To broadcast live radio on Android we recommend using BroadcastSelf.

Broadcast self is free to download but some features are unlocked via in-app purchases. There’s also a standalone version of BroadcastSelf Pro that you can purchase directly.

BroadcastSelf is only available on Android.

Connecting with live with your client

Once you’ve downloaded a mobile streaming client you’ll invariably want to connect live. If you’re using Radio Cult then all of your live connection details are displayed on your dashboard. Simply enter them into your mobile streaming client and click connect live.

Your mobile client should let you know whether the connection was successful. You’ll also see a “Live now” indicator in Radio Cult after a few seconds, letting you know that you are connected live and broadcasting to all of your listeners via your mobile device.

Both apps support broadcasting internet audio files or external audio captured by your phone’s microphone.

That’s a wrap

Broadcasting live radio from your phone couldn’t be easier. Simply download an app, fill in some details and connect. It shouldn’t take more than a few minutes to have everything setup!

If you’re using Radio Cult to host your internet radio station’s stream then you’ll also have all of the safe guards around going live that we provide.

You’ll be able to ensure station presenters only go live during their own slots, that the live show doesn’t go over other scheduled content and more. You’ll also be able to specify a fallback for live radio shows in case you connect late or your internet connection out in the field is spotty.

However you run your radio station, Radio Cult has the tools you need to make your station sound professional. Try us for free and see if Radio Cult is a fit for your station.