Can someone explain this

[Adamwalsh627]

There is something that’s been on my mind for awhile now, all throughout the country with Broadcastify.

All of these feeds usually have a couple listeners, but as soon as a juicy call comes in, the numbers bump up to dozens or hundreds within the first 10 minutes of the dispatch.

If people are listening on a scanner, they don’t need to listen online. So how do all these people know about these calls so fast? Do they get text messages? Usually you can’t get text messages from departments unless you are a member, and then you would have a pager or portable,

 

[SVFC462]

I get an alert from a scanner app on my iPhone. If the broadcaster (through the scanner manager page) can add an alert for that scanner feed. I also have a couple alerts come to my phone for when a scanner have more than a set number of people listening to it.

 

[W8RMH]

My listener numbers have jumped during or after a news broadcast of an active incident, or after people learn of an incident by other means. They can also do a Google search and a feed link will pop up. I average around 150 during the day and 450 at night, and a little higher on weekends or when I post an alert.

On November 28, 2016 a man drove his car into a group of people on the OSU campus and attacked them with a knife, thereby being shot by a police officer. My listener count climbed to 41038 that day. I was not aware of this incident and did not post an alert.

Some apps like Scanner Radio you can set up alerts that activate when any feed jumps above a certain number of listeners or there is an alert posted on the feed page.

Most listeners do not have a scanner. I have been contacted by listeners from around the world that just like to listen to an active feed.

 

[ibagli]

Some possibilities, which aren't mutually exclusive:

A) There are a bunch of social media groups that post this stuff.
B) I've seen bumps coinciding with things like activated fire alarms that I can only attribute to people wanting to know why they heard a bunch of sirens.
C) I have several scanners and still listen to local feeds all the time, especially if there are multiple incidents, or something is going on in an area where I don't get great reception.

 

[n0nhp]

In Colorado, we have the Mountain News Net where scanner listeners will report via Zello or email an incident alert. That is sent via text to all the subscribers of the system including news rooms across the state. Those news rooms will often hit their Twitter and other social media sites with the alert.

But as others have said, the number one number getter is sirens in the neighborhood.

Bruce

 

[KD0TAZ]

My feed covers a small college town in Kansas (pop 20k) and the rest of our county. I usually have a dozen or so listeners that are connected 24/7 (I know for a fact that the local TV and newspapers use it). As others have said, hearing police/fire sirens around town prompt people to fire up their app, and that will usually get me 40 or 50, sometimes more.. But I also listen to it quite a lot and if I hear something juicy such as a police chase, I will throw out an alert with the details. Depending on the time of day I can gain a hundred or two listeners within 5-10 minutes - because when I put out an alert, people in the area with a scanner app will get a push notification on their phone. The longer the incident goes on, the more people tune in.. I've noticed once you become the top feed, it starts to snowball at the 500, 1000, and 2000 listener levels (i think those are preconfigured national alert levels on the apps). My max was 5,192 on a 3 hour manhunt following a police chase. I went from 500 to 5,000 in about 45 minutes. About a month ago I caught another chase that went on for about an hour, and again I put out an alert, and once I made top feed (only about 400 at that time) it shot up to almost 1000, but then the chase ended when the suspect surrendered rather abruptly.

Just looked at my stats, and over the last month there were several spikes.. I'm pretty sure these corresponded with severe weather, but I'm not positive. I did not put out any alerts during this time.

 

[de784]

Feed

Would be nice if we could see where people are listening from

 

[Jay911]

I had an unusual situation last night.

My feed is relatively quiet and not advertised very widely. It has its regular listeners, and doesn't often garner interest from outside that group.

For a brief period last night, about 15-30 mins before the event at SeaTac (which is not in any way shape or form relatable to my feed), I had 12 times my year-to-date average listener count. The channel was active, but no more than usual, and by the time I loaded the admin page to check, it was back to normal.

No idea if it was a legitimate count or a Broadcastify glitch.

 

[frazpo]

I had an unusual situation last night.

My feed is relatively quiet and not advertised very widely. It has its regular listeners, and doesn't often garner interest from outside that group.

For a brief period last night, about 15-30 mins before the event at SeaTac (which is not in any way shape or form relatable to my feed), I had 12 times my year-to-date average listener count. The channel was active, but no more than usual, and by the time I loaded the admin page to check, it was back to normal.

No idea if it was a legitimate count or a Broadcastify glitch.

If your talking about the hijacked plane I am guessing your feed link was briefly passed around through a Facebook post or something similar. Just a theory. I’ve had this happen with a blog I once ran. Once people logged and heard nothing relevant they left.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

I had an unusual situation last night.

My feed is relatively quiet and not advertised very widely. It has its regular listeners, and doesn't often garner interest from outside that group.

For a brief period last night, about 15-30 mins before the event at SeaTac (which is not in any way shape or form relatable to my feed), I had 12 times my year-to-date average listener count. The channel was active, but no more than usual, and by the time I loaded the admin page to check, it was back to normal.

No idea if it was a legitimate count or a Broadcastify glitch.

Could it be that you have routine listeners who have book marked your feed, upon hearing about activity at seatac, went to your feed briefly and then switched to seatac? Of course this same pattern might appear on many feeds.

 

[seth21w]

One word or ... maybe two words. Facebook!