Karena Ashton tunes into WIUV just like students on the Castleton State College campus, locals and alumni. But she’s a little different.

She never attended Castleton, lives in the United Kingdom and tunes in to a weekly show by communication adjunct professor Robert Wuagneux,  also known as the Rock Doc, over the WIUV web stream.

Ashton, like many others in today’s Internet age, has decided to listen to radio channels and shows over the internet instead of over a radio.

Based on the fact WIUV has had about 1,060 listeners to their online web stream in the last month or so, Ashton isn’t alone.

“It’s obviously a very useful concept to be able to connect with radio shows, other musicians and presenters across the world and be able to listen to them live from anywhere in the world,” said Ashton in a Facebook interview.

WIUV has offered streaming since at least 2008, but since the beginning of the school year it has seen a real increase in usage after a needed software upgrade and app installation.

“We’ve been broadcasting since 2008, but it’s been a little more under the radar … I knew we needed better online streaming, so I just donated the stuff,” said WIUV program director Zach Scheffler, who added that the software wasn’t that expensive.

Scheffler hosts a show on WIUV with fellow student Matt Trombley in which they discuss what people should watch on Netflix. He hosted a music show last year, which he said averaged around 10-12 online listeners per show.

He also spoke quite enthusiastically about the increased number of online listeners the station gets for their collegiate sports broadcasts.

“We had 40-50 people listening in our sports broadcasts, which was huge,” he said.

Online streaming is also great for people like Wuagneux, a musician himself.

“I tweet, I Facebook, whatever else it takes,” he said.

By just watching Wuagneux for a half hour, you can see how consumed he is with WIUV’s social media aspects, which led to him almost forgetting to play a new song twice.

He has many listeners, he said, from as east as the United Kingdom to the southern United States in Houston.

Though the streaming has come a long way, there is room for improvement. The software WIUV uses for streaming called Nicecast keeps track of how long a listener tunes in for, whether they are using the TuneIn radio app or what type of web browser they are using.

It also tells you the total number of connected listeners and how long they listen for on average, which was at 11 minutes and 36 minutes.

“We’re working on making this a better station,” said Wuagneux.

Scheffler knows there is still work to be done, but has high hopes for the future of WIUV.

“Five years, I can only see it getting bigger,” he said.