Lab Fort Dodge, Iowa Est. 2026
Schema-First Broadcasting Lab
Technical architecture for modern independent broadcasting
For most of radio's history, listeners found a station on the dial. An internet-only station has no dial. It gets found when machines (search engines, voice assistants, car dashboards, AI models) can read exactly what the station is, where it serves, and who stands behind it.
Schema-first broadcasting means writing that description in structured data first, then building the pages, feeds and listings from it. This lab documents how Fort Dodge Radio and MyFortDodge.com do it: two properties, one operator, no debt, and no developer on staff other than the operator himself.
- '80s
- '70s
- ID + 2-min break
- 1981
- First full-time radio job
- 6
- NAB Crystal and Marconi awards, 1998–2000
- 2007
- MyFortDodge.com launched
- 2019
- Fort Dodge Radio signed on, internet-only
- $0
- Debt
In the lab
- About Bill GradyOver 40 years in radio, from a small-market general manager's office to an internet-only station built for listeners and the machines that find them.
- Schema-First BroadcastingWhat it is, why internet-only stations need it, and the day a terrestrial-only standard said no.
- Case StudiesFort Dodge Radio, the MyFortDodge events pipeline, the regional market pages and the Alexa listing: what was built, what didn't work, and what it taught.
- The ProtocolAn open framework for declaring who is behind a station and that a human made the work. Overview here; the full specification lives at fortdodgeradio.com.
- Field NotesShort, dated notes from the workbench.