Live Streaming From the Heart of the Community

No matter what kind of music you love, you’ve probably listened to KLAD-FM 92.5, “Oregon’s country giant.” They’ll tell you they’re more than just a country station, and they’re right.

“People who don’t listen to country music listen to KLAD just to find out what’s going on in the community,” says Rob Siems, host of the KLAD Wake-Up Crew. “It’s unique. You don’t have everyone listening to the country station like that in most places.

Siems is not only the host of the KLAD morning show — which broadcasts across the Klamath Basin. He’s also the general manager of Basin Mediactive, the radio group that runs 92.5 KLAD, 99.5 The Rock, Big 98.5, ESPN 83.3 and 1150 KAGO.

Big Bandwidth for Broadcasting

Beaming five radio stations to the Basin and beyond takes some serious bandwidth.

“We’re uploading music, we’re downloading video, and meanwhile we’re streaming four of our five stations 24 hours a day.” Siems says. “Before we got Cal-Ore Fiber internet, I used to sit in here during the morning show and I’d have to keep getting up and rebooting the router. Morning is our busiest time and it just wasn’t productive.”

The last straw came two years ago when Basin Mediactive was broadcasting from a basketball game — a paid gig where everything had to work. The Comrex device was broadcasting perfectly, but when the signal hit the slow internet connection back at the station, it buffered and cut out — on live radio. That was it. They called Cal-Ore and made the switch to fiber.

“As soon as we got fiber, I knew it was worth it,” says Siems. “We went from three or five reboots every morning to none. It was an easy business decision once you figure in lost time and lost advertisement orders. The fiber was our savior.”

Cal-Ore is proud to help the Basin Mediactive team serve their community instead of worrying about rebooting their router.