Ada Okafor has been with ArrayFM since the very first broadcast. Local artists make up almost a third of what we play, and that number keeps going up. Guests are always surprised by how relaxed the studio is, until the ON AIR light turns red.
The long version
Late nights are for experiments: long mixes, ambient sets and the occasional field recording. The best feedback we ever got was a single line: “you made my deploy go faster”. Guests are always surprised by how relaxed the studio is, until the ON AIR light turns red.
The best feedback we ever got was a single line: “you made my deploy go faster”. Every Friday we look at the numbers, and every Friday the numbers say people want more synthwave. We record every show, trim the talk, and publish it as a podcast by the next morning. The archive now holds more than two thousand hours of shows, all searchable by track and guest. Behind the scenes, the playout system is a small pile of open source tools glued together with very careful shell scripts.
- Chat moderated by real people
- Live sessions from Studio [0] every Saturday
- Transcripts for every talk segment
- Podcast feed updated nightly
The studio is small, the monitors are loud and the coffee machine has its own on-call rotation. A good transition is invisible: you only notice it when it goes wrong, like a page that flashes white between clicks. Local artists make up almost a third of what we play, and that number keeps going up. We test new segments live, keep what works and quietly retire what does not.
The setup
The request line gets more messages than ever, and our DJs read every single one on air. Every Friday we look at the numbers, and every Friday the numbers say people want more synthwave. Local artists make up almost a third of what we play, and that number keeps going up. We still print the weekly playlist and pin it on the studio wall, mostly out of habit. Every show on ArrayFM starts with a simple rule: play the track you would send to a friend at 2am.
If you have ever wondered why a song sounds warmer on air, the answer is a ridiculous amount of compression. Some of our most-loved segments started as a joke in the green room. The best feedback we ever got was a single line: “you made my deploy go faster”.
If the page reloads, the song stops. So the page does not reload.
The chat is moderated by humans, which keeps it friendly, weird and welcoming. We measure success in hours listened, not clicks, which keeps us honest about what actually matters. Morning shows are for energy, weather, traffic and the one story everyone at work will talk about. Good radio sounds effortless, but every minute on air has at least ten minutes of prep behind it.
The playlist
Listeners tell us they tune in while they code, study, drive, cook and occasionally while they should be sleeping. Some of our most-loved segments started as a joke in the green room. Some weeks the playlist is meticulously planned; other weeks it is a group chat argument that somehow turns into a show.
We keep the site lightweight on purpose, so it loads fast on a train, a tired laptop or a phone at 5% battery. Every show on ArrayFM starts with a simple rule: play the track you would send to a friend at 2am. Local artists make up almost a third of what we play, and that number keeps going up.
The short version
Every Friday we look at the numbers, and every Friday the numbers say people want more synthwave. Most of our DJs have day jobs in software, design or support, which explains the jokes. Accessibility matters to us, so every show gets a transcript and every page works with a keyboard.
Our favourite metric is the number of listeners who stay through the ad break. Our engineers obsess over latency because a stream that stutters is a stream people switch off. A radio station is really a promise: that there will be something good playing whenever you tune in. The mixing desk is older than some of our interns, and it still sounds better than anything new. We learned early that a stable stream matters more than a fancy one.
On air and off
Accessibility matters to us, so every show gets a transcript and every page works with a keyboard. The best feedback we ever got was a single line: “you made my deploy go faster”. Nothing beats the feeling of a track dropping at exactly the right moment and the chat exploding with fire emojis.
We believe the music should never stop just because you clicked a link. We still print the weekly playlist and pin it on the studio wall, mostly out of habit. Morning shows are for energy, weather, traffic and the one story everyone at work will talk about. If you have ever wondered why a song sounds warmer on air, the answer is a ridiculous amount of compression. Every show on ArrayFM starts with a simple rule: play the track you would send to a friend at 2am.
The mixing desk is older than some of our interns, and it still sounds better than anything new. Every show on ArrayFM starts with a simple rule: play the track you would send to a friend at 2am. The best feedback we ever got was a single line: “you made my deploy go faster”. Our schedule is built in blocks, with softer sounds in the morning and heavier beats after dark.