Island Radio
Rocket 5 Studios partnered with Island Radio to transform their aging digital infrastructure and unlock 15 years of broadcast history. Working closely with station leadership, we replaced a problematic WordPress site with a purpose-built platform that puts archive accessibility and listener experience at the center to redefine how the community connects with their local station.
The Challenge
Island Radio is one of Ontario's last five independent community stations, broadcasting volunteer-powered programming since 2006. But their WordPress website had become a liability. Slow load times frustrated listeners. Expensive FTP hosting limited their accessible archive to just a few months of recent shows, while 15 years of broadcast history sat trapped on offline storage. And bot traffic inflated their analytics to the point where they couldn't distinguish real listeners from automated attacks.
The Solution
We rebuilt the station's digital presence on Next.js with a modern cloud architecture designed specifically for community radio. The new platform delivers sub-second page loads, a reliable streaming player across all devices, and intuitive tools for volunteer staff to manage content.
The real transformation came through archive modernization. By migrating to Backblaze B2 storage with CloudFlare CDN delivery, we made the station's complete 3.1TB archive—approximately 11,300 episodes spanning their entire history—instantly accessible to listeners worldwide. A custom admin dashboard handles episode management, analytics tracking, and automated ingestion of new recordings, all while preserving the station's existing upload workflow.
Outcome
Island Radio now hosts 8.8 times more content at 35% of their previous cost, with projected savings of nearly $14,000 over the next decade. More importantly, listeners can finally explore 15 years of community programming that was previously locked away. The station has accurate analytics for the first time, a platform that scales gracefully for decades of future growth, and a digital home that matches the quality of their on-air presence.
“Our old website had become a Frankenstein of outdated technology that was increasingly difficult to maintain. Tim took a needs-based approach, thoroughly documenting our requirements while understanding both our visitors' experience and our staff's workflows. When we launched the new site, we immediately received positive feedback. I highly recommend Tim—he's amazing at leveraging modern technologies to bring custom solutions to life.”
Technical Architecture
Frontend: Next.js, React
Database: Neon
Storage: Backblaze B2 with CloudFlare CDN
CMS: Sanity Studio
Hosting: Vercel
Forms: Resend
Streaming: StreamGuys integration
Analytics: Vercel Analytics with custom event tracking
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