Local Man Creates Successful Internet Radio Service Radioio Connects The High Country With The World Through Music By Susan McDonald Connecting the world through music is Michael Roe’s dream. He is the local man who created Radioio, one of the top five independent internet radio services, according to webcastMetrics.com. But Roe insisted that “I do not want this story to be just about me.” This is a story about reconnecting to home and contacting old friends who share the love of music. Michael Roe, founder of Radioio. Photo submitted World renown jazz musician Poncho Sanchez (left) and dr mike/Michael Matheny (right)host of radioioJAZZ. Tom Klein, on Radioio, a rock history expert. Radioio was born six years ago when Roe found himself at loose ends after becoming unemployed. He didn’t have much left but the dream and an abundance of memories. He decided to pursue something he had always been passionate about... music, radio and technology. Roe said he researched internet radio, and thought “hey, let’s create something new... something that you can be happy about and proud of.” He started Radioio in a back bedroom in Jacksonville, Fla. in the year 2000, and later sought to hire what he calls “the best staff in internet radio”. Now it is the only publically held internet broadcast entity, known as ioWorldMedia (ticker symbol iwdm.pk). Roe literally went from a back room to a boardroom as the Founder and Creative Director of Radioio. Michael Roe grew up in Wilkes County where he met the man who he calls “the inspiration for Radioio”, Tom Klein. Klein worked at WKBC FM of Wilkesboro from 1975-1977. At the age of 16, Roe became excited about Klein’s show. It was something truly different on radio, the beginnings of what is known as album oriented rock and was a change from singles based radio, Roe said. Klein invited the passionate and persistent teenager into the relatively new world of FM radio, and Roe was allowed to hang around the studio as an unofficial intern, learning all he could about music and programming. Roe was inspired to create Radioio many years later because he wanted to “recreate the experience I had when I was 16 and listening to Tom Klein.” Meanwhile, Roe was also a student in high school in Wilkes. He began conversing with a teacher on lunchroom duty named Dr. Michael Matheny who just happened to be the band director and was also a jazz afficionado. In 1979, Roe got his own jazz show on WKBC, and he enlisted Dr. Matheny for technical assistance. Dr. Matheny explained, “My part involved bringing my albums to the WKBC studio, and Mike and I would select the tunes. I would provide what I knew about the music, and it was a team effort.” After Mike left WKBC to pursue a career in marketing, the show ended, and Dr. Matheny remained in Wilkes County as a music teacher and weekend musician for a couple of decades. He became a high school principal, and was chosen Principal of the Year for N.C. in 2002. After leaving Wilkesboro in 1977 Klein had a popular morning show on WQUT, a well known free form rock station that broadcasts out of Johnson City, Tenn. In 1982, Klein left radio and started a yacht sales business in Florida. When Roe first began his internet radio service, he contacted his old friends, believing they would want to be a part of his dream and eventually they both became internet radio streamhosts for Roe’s station. Klein does Radioio History of Rock, and Dr. Matheny does Radioio Jazz. Dr. Matheny said “when Mike first called, I thought he was kidding.” Now retired, school is finally out and Dr. Matheny can focus on being a host for his jazz show on Radioio. Klein explained his speciality on Radioio as a rock history expert. He said, “Radioio History of Rock is about exposing listeners of all ages who love rock music to the entire 50 year history of the genre. It has been an extremely conscientious effort researching and coming up with all the music and along the way I’ve become known as the professor of rock history. Thus, the name History Professor. I focus on a basic rock sound from the 60’s, 70’s and early 80’s.” Roe has described this type of music as “the soundtrack of our lifetime”. Klein also has two large maps in his studio of the U.S. and the world, and each time he receives an e-mail from a new listener, he places a pin in the appropriate map marking their location. In addition to the United States, Klein has received e-mail from eight European countries, Canada, South America, Australia and New Zealand, illustrating the concept of connecting the world through music. Dr. Matheny explained the technical side of what internet streamhosts do. Imagine a radio studio right in your own home, a home that could be anywhere. He demonstrated how the music is programmed in advance using special software, through an internet server all the way out in Arizona. An internet streamhost can also go live at the flip of a switch, and change music selections. Dr. Matheny’s favorite experience while hosting internet radio is receiving e-mails from listeners and from artists who have been featured on his show. He collects hard copy e-mails from around the world. “I build a rapport with people I never dreamed I would know,” he said. He believes in sharing music with the world. “I make the listeners want to find out what I have discovered,” Dr. Matheny said while explaining how the music is chosen. He also explained the important distinction between independent internet radio and corporate radio. “We do not cop to major labels. Nobody tells us what to play, and no one is paying us to play these songs, we have freedom. We know our genre and what our listeners want to hear, and they are the ones who tell me what to play.” Michael Roe also broadcasts live from his home in the High Country from noon to four weekdays. This station is called Radioio One. The link to all 20 stations is www.radioio.com, which includes classical music, 70’s and 80’s era music, rock, country, and others. Shortly, two new stations will become available. RadioioDEAD will be hosted by the official archivist of the Grateful Dead organization, David Lemieux, and RadioioDISCO will be hosted by Rolling Stone Magazine’s senior music critic and world renowned disco expert, Barry Walters. The music is free, with few commercials, but a Sound Pass can be purchased for $4.99 a month to access a commercial free stream. All of the internet radio hosts are listed with their biographies. Contacting them is encouraged at Radioio. Free downloads are available, and music can be purchased on line. For optimum performance of streaming radio, a high speed cable or DSL connection works best. There are 28 employees of Radioio and they live in eight different states, most of them working out of their homes on their own computers, making ioWorldMedia a virtual company. Roe explained, “Technology allows us to be wherever we want to be, doing something we want to do. Radioio is a shining example of how technology has changed the workplace. The phenomenon is transforming the High Country. I have met four others who have left urban areas, moved to this area, and now run their businesses from home. In other words, the digital revolution has leveled many political, trade and social barriers, making it virtually possible for anyone to do business with anyone, anywhere in the world, at anytime.” Roe has been politically active in assuring small business protections for a certain class of webcasters. He and four of his colleagues went to Washington, met with every senator and representative on Capitol Hill, and were successful in getting a piece of legislation passed known as the Small Webcaster Settlement Act. After that effort, the press described Roe as an “internet radio evangelist” because he believed so strongly that internet only (IO) radio is the future of radio, and was willing to fight so hard to protect it. Log on and turn it up to experience Radioio. It’s possible to hear something new that becomes a favorite, or something old that brings memories streaming back. It is what dreams sound like when they come true.