Retro Render

Retro Render is 8-bit / 90s radio, hosted by @deadbeef. Good radio sounds effortless, but every minute on air has at least ten minutes of prep behind it. Local artists make up almost a third of what we play, and that number keeps going up.

The setup

Most of our DJs have day jobs in software, design or support, which explains the jokes. Behind the scenes, the playout system is a small pile of open source tools glued together with very careful shell scripts. Radio has always been about company, and that has not changed just because the transmitter is now a rack of servers. We learned early that a stable stream matters more than a fancy one.

The archive now holds more than two thousand hours of shows, all searchable by track and guest. Late nights are for experiments: long mixes, ambient sets and the occasional field recording. Our engineers obsess over latency because a stream that stutters is a stream people switch off.

• Live sessions from Studio [0] every Saturday
• Weekend throwbacks from 08:00
• Keyboard-friendly player controls
• Listen on the web, in the app or on a smart speaker

A good transition is invisible: you only notice it when it goes wrong, like a page that flashes white between clicks. We test new segments live, keep what works and quietly retire what does not. Some weeks the playlist is meticulously planned; other weeks it is a group chat argument that somehow turns into a show. Our schedule is built in blocks, with softer sounds in the morning and heavier beats after dark.

Questions we keep getting

A good transition is invisible: you only notice it when it goes wrong, like a page that flashes white between clicks. The request line gets more messages than ever, and our DJs read every single one on air. Our engineers obsess over latency because a stream that stutters is a stream people switch off. The chat is moderated by humans, which keeps it friendly, weird and welcoming.

Our favourite metric is the number of listeners who stay through the ad break. We record every show, trim the talk, and publish it as a podcast by the next morning. When a listener sends a track we have never heard, it goes straight into the next hour.

We do not do playlists. We do conversations that happen to have a beat.

We measure success in hours listened, not clicks, which keeps us honest about what actually matters. Radio has always been about company, and that has not changed just because the transmitter is now a rack of servers. The station started as a side project in a spare room and a borrowed microphone. Some weeks the playlist is meticulously planned; other weeks it is a group chat argument that somehow turns into a show.

The tech stack

The chat is moderated by humans, which keeps it friendly, weird and welcoming. We record every show, trim the talk, and publish it as a podcast by the next morning. Our engineers obsess over latency because a stream that stutters is a stream people switch off. Behind the scenes, the playout system is a small pile of open source tools glued together with very careful shell scripts. We keep a strict no-autoplay policy on the site: you press play, and then we never interrupt you.

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. Our community Discord is where most show ideas start and where most bad puns go to live forever. Radio has always been about company, and that has not changed just because the transmitter is now a rack of servers. The chat is moderated by humans, which keeps it friendly, weird and welcoming.

The short version

We learned early that a stable stream matters more than a fancy one. Guests are always surprised by how relaxed the studio is, until the ON AIR light turns red. The archive now holds more than two thousand hours of shows, all searchable by track and guest.

A good transition is invisible: you only notice it when it goes wrong, like a page that flashes white between clicks. We run on a tiny budget, a lot of goodwill and a very generous hosting sponsor. The request line gets more messages than ever, and our DJs read every single one on air. Nothing beats the feeling of a track dropping at exactly the right moment and the chat exploding with fire emojis.

The numbers

We record every show, trim the talk, and publish it as a podcast by the next morning. We believe the music should never stop just because you clicked a link. Local artists make up almost a third of what we play, and that number keeps going up.

Nothing beats the feeling of a track dropping at exactly the right moment and the chat exploding with fire emojis. Our community Discord is where most show ideas start and where most bad puns go to live forever. We run on a tiny budget, a lot of goodwill and a very generous hosting sponsor. When a listener sends a track we have never heard, it goes straight into the next hour.

We keep the site lightweight on purpose, so it loads fast on a train, a tired laptop or a phone at 5% battery. We run on a tiny budget, a lot of goodwill and a very generous hosting sponsor. We keep a strict no-autoplay policy on the site: you press play, and then we never interrupt you.

The playlist

We keep a strict no-autoplay policy on the site: you press play, and then we never interrupt you. Behind the scenes, the playout system is a small pile of open source tools glued together with very careful shell scripts. We keep the site lightweight on purpose, so it loads fast on a train, a tired laptop or a phone at 5% battery. Local artists make up almost a third of what we play, and that number keeps going up. Every Friday we look at the numbers, and every Friday the numbers say people want more synthwave.

Morning shows are for energy, weather, traffic and the one story everyone at work will talk about. Radio has always been about company, and that has not changed just because the transmitter is now a rack of servers. Most of our DJs have day jobs in software, design or support, which explains the jokes.

• Keyboard-friendly player controls
• Community playlist every Sunday
• New shows every weekday at 06:00
• Chat moderated by real people

Morning shows are for energy, weather, traffic and the one story everyone at work will talk about. We keep the site lightweight on purpose, so it loads fast on a train, a tired laptop or a phone at 5% battery. We run on a tiny budget, a lot of goodwill and a very generous hosting sponsor. We keep a strict no-autoplay policy on the site: you press play, and then we never interrupt you. The best feedback we ever got was a single line: “you made my deploy go faster”.

What changes for listeners

Every show on ArrayFM starts with a simple rule: play the track you would send to a friend at 2am. We record every show, trim the talk, and publish it as a podcast by the next morning. Our favourite metric is the number of listeners who stay through the ad break.

Most of our DJs have day jobs in software, design or support, which explains the jokes. Some weeks the playlist is meticulously planned; other weeks it is a group chat argument that somehow turns into a show. Accessibility matters to us, so every show gets a transcript and every page works with a keyboard.

Play the track you would send to a friend at 2am. That is the whole format.

The best feedback we ever got was a single line: “you made my deploy go faster”. We measure success in hours listened, not clicks, which keeps us honest about what actually matters. Most of our DJs have day jobs in software, design or support, which explains the jokes. We learned early that a stable stream matters more than a fancy one. We keep the stream running around the clock, which means someone is always awake, caffeinated and slightly too excited about a B-side.