I wish people would understand that when you're using IceCast (or shoutcast for that matter) it's a 2 second thing to check how many listeners are currently online, and what your peak listening count has been.    

I have one friend who goes on that he once had 500,000 listeners tuned into his shoutcast station.  Not only is the computing power to provide that insane, but based on 128 kbps with 1000 listeners for 1 Hour using about 54.93 GB, the bandwidth for that little listening experience would be in the 29 Terrabyte range.  That's not a bad pipe, but imagine that overage .

The most listened to internet radio station currently is a Tamil station with 100541 listeners.  (I don't buy it, but I can't prove it's not true.  According to their shoutcast server Stream is up at 64 kbps with 1545 of 3000 listeners (1115 unique).  

In second place, there's an alternative station at 14,353.  Quite the jump down.

Anyway, Here's another of Toronto's coolest internet radio station.  Apparently based on the quality of their listener, rather than the number of listeners.

(Via Thump)

Let's be honest—when it comes to radio options for Toronto electronic and dance music fans, whether it be on-the-dial or on the internet, we're sorely lacking in choices. Save a handful of college radio shows and the occasional big room EDM anthem on Top 40 commercial stations, despite being North America's fourth largest city, there's nowhere to hear more left field and underrepresented genres.

Perhaps that's why discerning listeners have been drawn to Toronto Radio Project, an independent free-form online radio station, which features programming from artists and tastemakers including local crew Bedroomer, Berlin transplant Bwana, DJ and producer Nautiluss, rapper Rollie Pemberton (aka Cadence Weapon), and more. Started by Frazer Lavender in November 2014, TRP's since grown to "between 70 and 80 shows" five days a week, and graduated to a bricks-and-mortar storefront on College Street (which they share with City Beat Records).

While it's very much still a labour of love for Lavender, who moved to Toronto from the UK two years ago and funds the station almost entirely out-of-pocket (he has a day job in advertising), TRP is licensed to play by Canadian non-profit arts organization SOCAN (which means they broadcast copyrighted material legally and artists are paid royalties) and offers a range of diverse music unlike other stations across the country. They've also attracted plenty of one-off shows from guest DJs, including San Francisco's Honey Soundsystem, Volvox from New York City techno collective Discwoman, and various artists on Vancouver-based label 1080p.

"There wasn't a huge moment where I said, 'I should do this,'" says Lavender, who admits that while having studied journalism, he has no formal radio background. "People have been shifting towards things like Spotify and streaming services where you have every single song ever made available at your fingertips, but there's no real sense of curation, no theme, no thought."

We sat down for coffee recently with the founder to talk about the station's beginnings, what he's learned in the past year, and why TRP's winning cross-country and international accolades.

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