The roots of Rasdio

Peter Day

Many people ask me quite often how Rasdio came to be from an idea to the fully fledged platform for changing lives. It's a story that started quite humbly between two friends that blossomed into something the two of us could never expect.

Rasdio is the byproduct of over 10 years of Radio work I started back in 2008. The project started under the initial brand "Tagged Radio" which was part of a collection of projects I devised starting in 2005 in order to learn web languages and frameworks.

The goal with this project was to learn the HLS protocol for MP3 Streaming. Utilising a shoutcast server I remember the sheer excitement of hearing 12 seconds later the first ever song come out of my friends PC whilst I was on the phone to her.

Throughout the rest of the day I furthered the resources for this project and at 7pm I went live with the very first show for my friends. I was so happy with myself that I had achieved this. From all of my projects surrounding streaming this one was so monumental I came back to it time and time again and kept it running for friends and family.

Time went by and we changed from Tagged Radio to PlayIt Radio UK, TheR, TheRadio and Redfox Radio overtime, each name change rebooting and improving the core tech behind the show and more ambition given to each project. It was during the time that my project was named TheRadio did the idea come up for a charity show.

The year is 2011. I'd moved from Cheltenham to Rainham, Kent and started breaking out of my isolation I'd placed upon myself for so long. Previously being such a social recluse it was very freeing to break that personality trait. It was my first week or so in my new flat that I met Rasdio Co-Founder Martin Tindell.

We hit it off straight away and Martin sat in on many of my shows I broadcasted from my new place. As he took part more and more we decided to become a double act and named ourself "Day and Tindell". I'd never presented shows with anyone before and those programmes were the most I'd ever laughed and the most fun I'd ever had during a show.

It was October 2012 and me and Martin were on air as usual. Martin bought up the topic of doing an all out radio show for charity. 24 hours non stop, Special guests, the lot. I was so excited by the prospect, we didn't even wait for it. 2 weeks from idea to execution, On 17th November 2012 at 12 noon, we went live to the world.

The original TheChallenge team with Wildside

It was one of the best shows I've ever been a part of. We laughed so hard and made so many jokes, It was amazing fun and although exhausting beyond belief we raised in excess of £200 for charity which was the icing on the cake for a great experience.

Every year since except for 2014 we put the show on again and again each time trying to go bigger and better than the last and I can without a shadow of a doubt confirm that we have achieved that. With more people being a part of the performance, More tech powering the show and making a more polished experience, More recurring jokes such as Huan, Attack Macaques etc and most importantly more money raised for those who need it.

We've targeted so many UK based charities and aided so many lives for the better which I could not be happier about. For an idea that we came up with and executed out of nowhere and decided to throw caution to the wind and do it because it'd be amazing fun to raise over £50k is mindblowing to say the least.

The equipment we used for TheChallenge 2015

In 2017 we changed the brand to Rasdio. I have been asked how to pronounce this loads of times, Most people pronounce it as "Razz-dee-oh" just to irritate me. But the correct pronunciation is "Raise-dee-oh" or essentially Raising and Radio smashed together. Our goal is simple; To put on a show unlike no other and raise as much as we can whilst having a laugh together.

I think our biggest pro's we have as a Team is that we are all great friends in real life. We look forward to this because we can all get to spend time with each other raising money for those who need it whilst having a great time doing so. It's the most fun we have in the year and I wouldn't want to change that for the world.

Rasdio17 during a song break

I cannot thank the likes of Martin Tindell enough for coming up with that initial idea. Without it we wouldn't have something every year to look forward to and we wouldn't have changed as many lives for the better.

Looking forward to 2019 and beyond, We've recently registered Rasdio as a business. We're owned by our parent company which is owned by myself and Nathan (Another member of Team Rasdio). This is huge news for us because it means we can start dealing with money ourselves which allows greater analytics of donations and more. It also allows us to further the production quality of our shows which is something we're hugely interested in.

For example we're launching Rasdio Fund in 2019 which allows you to donate directly to Rasdio itself like you were to donate to a charity. Just like a charity donation 100% of your money goes to the cause. With Rasdio fund it goes directly to catering to the team during the show and new equipment to keep the shows alive as right now both are provided out of our own back-pockets as a NPO.

I have no idea where Rasdio will be a few years from now but I'm so excited about it. From that first streaming test years ago to tens of thousands raised for people who truly need help, Us all banding together over a common cause is the best and I couldn't be prouder of the work my friends have done to achieve these incredible figures.