Imagine owning a business that stays open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Imagine managing over a dozen employees whom you have never even met in person.

Iowa State senior Dave Reid does just that with his music Web site 181.4 Degrees from the Norm. Reid describes the business as a “virtual office” and has writers stationed everywhere from California to Ohio to Japan.

A former disc jockey at KUSR and KURE, Reid decided to start up the site after he became frustrated with how things were going at the station.

Coming up on its third birthday, the Web site has built a fanbase which spans across the world, quite a change from the handful of listeners Reid had at KURE.

“The fact that people look at it and comeback is rewarding,” Reid said. “I must be doing something right.”

Reid had the idea of creating a Web site in the back of his mind ever since he entered ISU and witnessed the popularity of the Internet soar. The following summer he learned that a friend from Michigan was having similar ideas.

Eric Hultgren, Reid’s soon-to-be partner, was the program director at his college radio station. “KUSR was 91.5 and his was 89.9, so we just added up the two,” Reid said about the name of the site. “People ask how we came up with the name a lot. Sometimes people ask if its a radio station — they don’t realize you can’t have a frequency of 181.4.”

Reid said 181.4 could be an Internet radio station someday, and his Web site, equipped with a sound gallery, has taken the first step. Reid said he likes to feature “off-beat sounds people haven’t heard” in the gallery.

The focus of the monthly Internet magazine, however, is on music reviews. While Ried wrote most of the reviews when the site first went online, he has turned over a majority of the writing to his staff.

“We don’t cover just one kind of music,” Reid said. The Web site has music directors for different styles, which include alternative, hip-hop and British rock. ISU junior Steve “Flash” Juon is currently the director of the hip-hop department.

Reid said he does some kind of work on the site everyday. “That’s one of the things about the Web, it’s never ending,” he said.

Funding for 181.4 Degrees from the Norm has come mostly out of Reid’s pocket, although the site recently added its first advertiser. Reid said he pays $50 a year to use the 181-4.com address and nearly $200 to have a company host his files.

“You have to start from the bottom and build a name for your site,” Reid said. Two of the Internet’s most popular music Web sites, Addicted To Noise and SonicNet, were recently sold for $6 million, a thought Reid’s has kept in the back of his mind.

Reid said 181.4 Degrees from the Norm does have some major record label support, as well as contacts from independent labels and unsigned bands. Reid is currently on the mailing list for Scratchie Records, an indie label founded by Smashing Pumpkins bass player D’Arcy.

“We want to do some kind of Internet ‘show’ in the future,” Reid said. Other plans for the site include adding real audio and changing to a bimonthly.

“Once a month isn’t enough for the Web,” Reid said.

Current features on 181.4 Degrees from the Norm are a listing of tour dates for dozens of shows, a back issue catalog and links to other lesser-known music sites.

Amazingly enough, music is not the only hobby of Reid’s. He admits he is actually a bigger sports fan than music fan, at least this week. Around the time Reid created 181.4 Degrees from the Norm, he opened the popular ISU sports Web site Cyclone Fever, located at www.public.iastate.edu/`doctor42/ cyclone_fever/.

“It’s got up-to-date information from new recruits to what Troy Davis ate for dinner last night,” Reid said. With a degree in management information systems, Reid said he plans on designing Web pages as a career.