Tuning in SmithtownRadio

Surrounded by electronic equipment in the basement of his parents' Nesconset home, James Brierton looks at first like any college student messing around with his computer while home on summer break.

There's rock music humming softly in the background. Then Brierton, 20, glances at a digital weather gauge perched near his computer screen, leans into a microphone and announces that it's sunny and warm outside.

"It'll be a gorgeous night for the Nesconset Summer Concert Series," he says.

He's not indulging some post-adolescent fantasy of being a radio disc jockey. Brierton is the program director and afternoon DJ for SmithtownRadio.com, an online station that broadcasts via a website of the same name.

The 24-hour station got its start five years ago as an after-school project when Brierton and some friends were students at Smithtown High School East.

Since then, Brierton and company -- Nanci Hammer and Alejandra Gomez, both 20 and of Nesconset, and Andrew Natoli, 19, of  St. James -- have found an audience of loyal listeners by playing a mix of adult contemporary hits, oldies tunes, and news, weather and traffic reports.

Catering to local listeners
This is pirate radio for the Internet age: A network of personal computers and a digital music archive allows Natoli to broadcast his overnight show from the comfort of his home, while Hammer and Gomez co-host a Saturday night show from Gomez's house.

"It makes it seem like a full-fledged station," Brierton said. "It's a little trickery."

Although the staff says they have listeners as far away as Europe and Latin America -- "Someone in Mexico listens to my overnight show all the time," Natoli said -- SmithtownRadio is partial to its hometown. Traffic reports focus mainly on roads such as Route 347 and Veterans Memorial Highway, and the station offers live coverage of concerts in town parks.

How many people are listening is difficult to determine, but Natoli says the station's website averages 1,000 hits per week.

Fans include office workers and business owners, such as Mary Scotti, 50, who plays the station in the Nesconset podiatry office of her husband, Dr. Louis Scotti. She said she likes the music and local traffic updates.

"We don't get to hear Smithtown news in our little town. On the way home, what roads to take, what roads not to take -- we haven't had that," she said.

The music ranges from Katy Perry and Bruno Mars to Duran Duran and The Beatles. The station avoids Lady Gaga -- too risque, Brierton said.

"Even though we're online and not regulated by the [Federal Communications Commission], we do everything family friendly," he said. "We think that's part of being a community-based radio station."

The station is commercial-free, although it carries short on-air shout-outs to local businesses that provide financial support or in-kind services. Overhead is low -- no rent, and the staff is not paid -- and Brierton said he gets technical assistance from WALK/97.5 FM in Patchogue, where he has a part-time summer job setting up live remote broadcasts and providing technical support.

Broadcasting from Georgia
The station's Long Island accent has a Southern twang. Brierton is entering his junior year at the University of Georgia, where he broadcasts his SmithtownRadio show either from his dormitory room or from campus radio station WUOG. He enlisted two college classmates, David Youmans and Mamie Shepherd, to host the morning show from a studio at the Athens, Ga., school. Other college pals host oldies music shows and technology programs.

All of them are Georgia natives who had never heard of Smithtown before meeting Brierton, so they've had to learn how to pronounce names such as Commack -- KOH-mak, not KAH-mak.

"One thing they're learning," Gomez said of the Georgia DJs, "is that we have very strange name pronunciations here."

Brierton, Gomez and Hammer said they briefly considered closing SmithtownRadio two years ago when they finished high school; Natoli graduated last year. But they said a surge of listener interest persuaded them to keep it going, and they plan to stay on the air until "the real world comes knocking," Brierton said.

"It keeps us together," Hammer added.