Aside from server issues, digital rights and legal concerns were also an obstacle.

“It was a hassle, it really was,” Ray said. “It was a lot of paperwork and legal stuff, but we had a lot of listeners and a lot of students who really wanted us to stream again.”

WT students are not the only ones whose demand for more online streaming is high. The Infinite Dial 2011: Navigating Digital Platforms, a survey by Arbitron and Edison Research, shows about 89 million Americans listened to online radio with a one-month period in 2011. Weekly online radio audiences have doubled every five years since 2001, jumping from five percent in 2001 to 12 percent in 2006 and 22 percent, or approximately 57 million, in 2011.

In the same survey, 58 percent of people said they would rather eliminate television in their lives than their smartphones.

“I really think that’s the way radio is going to go,” Ray said. “Everyone these days has a smart phone. If everyone has a smartphone and they have that app, they can listen to KWTS wherever they are.”