Radio News Providers for Broadcasters
Never miss breaking stories with automated news broadcasts. Choose from your favourite radio news providers to make life easier.
When people think of radio, chances are theyâre going to imagine larger than life DJâs, great songs, charismatic hosts, and news on the top of every hour. While this may be true for mainstream stations like the BBC, getting the latest news delivered professionally isnât always easy for independent radio stations.
Radio news bulletins offer a simple solution to a difficult problem. Instead of struggling to keep up with mainstream news outlets and allocate precious resources you canât waste, get the news sent to you! Radio news providers can send you up to date news, on the hour, every hour, for a monthly fee, and goes hand in hand with our Top of the Hour news bulletin feature!
There are a few businesses providing radio bulletin services, so here are the best.
Note: The Top of Hour feature is only available on the Plus and Premium plans.
Craft Personalised Bulletins with Top of the Hour News
Our Top of the Hour news feature allows you to broadcast a hosted news feed, on the hour, every hour automatically. Itâs simple and easy to set up, so you never have to worry about missing the latest news ever again.
First, head over to Media > News, where you can access the two main bulletin sections, âBulletin Builderâ and âBulletin Settingsâ.
Bulletin Builder
This is where you build your bulletin. For the most professional results, complete every section. This includes:
- Intro: Maximum file length of 60 seconds. We recommend a short jingle to announce the news and state your station name.
- Background Audio: This is where you can place an audio bed that will play at 30% volume through your news links. We recommend using a bed longer than your news link.
- Outro: This is limited to 60 seconds. Another short jingle should do, similar to your intro.
When choosing your news source, you can only use a hosted mp3 file, live streams and relays are not supported. Simply click on the âNews Sourceâ box and enter the URL of the news source in the field. You can use the âTestâ button to make sure it works. Once this is all set up, hit âSaveâ and youâre good to go!
Bulletin Settings
This is where you can set the frequency and metadata for your bulletin.
You can set your bulletins to only play out during certain hours, rather than every hour. To do so, choose âEvery Hourâ. Two drop-down boxes will appear, where you can set the hours your bulletin will play between. Beneath this drop-down, you can set which days your bulletin broadcasts, useful if you only want it to play on weekends or weekdays.
Within the metadata section, you can add the title and artist for each bulletin. For instance;
- Title: The Biggest News
- Artist: Radio.co
This information will be seen by listeners on web players.
Once youâre happy, click âSave and Enableâ, and youâre all set!
Radio News Providers
Radio news providers for broadcasters are few and far between. But there are a handful that work seamlessly with your radio station. Choose a reliable source to broadcast top of hour news.
Feature Story News
Founded in 1992, Feature Story News provides news coverage for television and radio around the world, working alongside ITV, PBS, Fox News, LBC, and many more. FSN has global resources, allowing them to provide worldwide coverage.
Bulletins from FSN feature the latest breaking news, sports and politics, on the hour. Their bulletins come in 3 varieties; 30 seconds, 3 minutes and 5 minutes, giving you control over how your bulletins fit into your shows. Each bulletin reports multiple news stories, with the 30-second clip being the simplest; a concise summary of the news by a single reporter, whereas the 3 and 5-minute bulletins go into greater detail, featuring added contributors and extra stories.
Once youâve subscribed to FSN, receiving their bulletins is simple, and works perfectly with our Top of the Hour news feature. Simply download their hosted link via email, and copy it into your news source, and voila, you have a professional-quality news bulletin. Along with how convenient they are to use, FSN bulletins are updated hourly, so you can always be confident that youâre up to date with all the latest news.
Independent Radio News/Sky
IRN works in collaboration with Sky, a partnership established since 2009, which gives IRN access to Skyâs global news network and their experienced team of radio journalists. IRN is used by stations like Capital FM, LBC, KISS and many more.
Amongst radio news providers, IRN is a well-respected name, and their bulletins uphold a level of quality you would expect from a prestigious brand. The bulletins received are a uniform 120 seconds, reporting on a wide range of global news, with several English-speaking contributors. Like FSN, the news covered ranges from politics and worldwide news to sports, although IRN have the advantage of holding match reporting rights to the Premier League.
However, IRNâs method of delivering their news bulletins isnât as efficient as FSNâs when paired with our systems. IRN typically sends their bulletins via satellite feed to your station, which can cause minor delays of up to 2 and a half seconds and requires a Sky receiver thatâs tuned correctly, making this a bit of a hassle to use with our systems than FSN. Thankfully, IRN can send you their scripts and audio so you can craft your own news reports, or have them send you a downloadable file for the previous hourâs news instead.
Radio News Hub
The newest of the radio news providers here, RNH was established in 2014 and works with numerous local stations across the UK, and are currently in the process of establishing a service specific to Scotland, exclusively reporting on Scottish news and events.
Donât let their relative infancy turn you off though, RNH reports on events and news from across the globe, just like FSN and IRN! RNH provides users with 60-120 second news bulletins, which feature a single 30-second advert. There are options for bulletins without these adverts if you prefer. Their bulletins feature diverse voices reporting on all the essentials; politics, breaking news, sports, and more.
Receive RNH bulletins via secure email, FTP and Dropbox, depending on your preference, at 50 minutes past the hour, ensuring the most up to date coverage possible.
Dailycast Syndicated News
Dailycast is a free radio news provider that distributes content similarly to FSN by providing a file URL that updates its content daily so youâre never behind the times. They provide you with a URL through an embed code that can be inserted onto your website or social pages. If youâd prefer to schedule them as part of your shows, you can also download the latest news clips and place them in your schedule.
What sets Dailycast apart is their players are âwhite labelledâ. This means they donât include any of their own visual or audio branding as part of their players and allow you to customise them with your own images and branding, even on the free version. This can really keep your image consistent and help your listeners feel like the news broadcasts are coming directly from your station and not a service.
BBC News
Earlier this year the BBC was offering the use of their news bulletin services to local commercial stations across the UK during lockdown. These came as Dropbox files that stations could access.
At the time of writing, the BBC is no longer offering this service. Attempts to discover if it is something they are looking to expand in the future have so far been unsuccessful. Watch this space for updates.
Craft Professional Bulletins Today
With radio news providers, you can launch your station to the next level. Upgrade to a Plus or Premium plan to access to our Top of the Hour news feature and connect your listeners to the world.
