Open Source Sessions

Open Source Sessions is live radio, hosted by @gitpush. The station started as a side project in a spare room and a borrowed microphone. Late nights are for experiments: long mixes, ambient sets and the occasional field recording.

A short history

Local artists make up almost a third of what we play, and that number keeps going up. Behind the scenes, the playout system is a small pile of open source tools glued together with very careful shell scripts. 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. Most of our DJs have day jobs in software, design or support, which explains the jokes.

We run on a tiny budget, a lot of goodwill and a very generous hosting sponsor. Our engineers obsess over latency because a stream that stutters is a stream people switch off. Accessibility matters to us, so every show gets a transcript and every page works with a keyboard. We still print the weekly playlist and pin it on the studio wall, mostly out of habit.

• New shows every weekday at 06:00
• Request a song from any page
• Transcripts for every talk segment
• Podcast feed updated nightly

Guests are always surprised by how relaxed the studio is, until the ON AIR light turns red. We record every show, trim the talk, and publish it as a podcast by the next morning. 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”. The archive now holds more than two thousand hours of shows, all searchable by track and guest.

What we learned

If you have ever wondered why a song sounds warmer on air, the answer is a ridiculous amount of compression. We believe the music should never stop just because you clicked a link. The station started as a side project in a spare room and a borrowed microphone. The archive now holds more than two thousand hours of shows, all searchable by track and guest.

The archive now holds more than two thousand hours of shows, all searchable by track and guest. We learned early that a stable stream matters more than a fancy one. We test new segments live, keep what works and quietly retire what does not. Morning shows are for energy, weather, traffic and the one story everyone at work will talk about. We measure success in hours listened, not clicks, which keeps us honest about what actually matters.

The music never stops. That is not a slogan, it is a technical requirement.

We measure success in hours listened, not clicks, which keeps us honest about what actually matters. The mixing desk is older than some of our interns, and it still sounds better than anything new. We record every show, trim the talk, and publish it as a podcast by the next morning.

What changes for listeners

We keep a strict no-autoplay policy on the site: you press play, and then we never interrupt you. When a listener sends a track we have never heard, it goes straight into the next hour. We measure success in hours listened, not clicks, which keeps us honest about what actually matters. Late nights are for experiments: long mixes, ambient sets and the occasional field recording. Most of our DJs have day jobs in software, design or support, which explains the jokes.

Some of our most-loved segments started as a joke in the green room. Our schedule is built in blocks, with softer sounds in the morning and heavier beats after dark. We record every show, trim the talk, and publish it as a podcast by the next morning. A good transition is invisible: you only notice it when it goes wrong, like a page that flashes white between clicks. We measure success in hours listened, not clicks, which keeps us honest about what actually matters.

The short version

A good transition is invisible: you only notice it when it goes wrong, like a page that flashes white between clicks. Listeners tell us they tune in while they code, study, drive, cook and occasionally while they should be sleeping. When a listener sends a track we have never heard, it goes straight into the next hour. We test new segments live, keep what works and quietly retire what does not. Our schedule is built in blocks, with softer sounds in the morning and heavier beats after dark.

We keep a strict no-autoplay policy on the site: you press play, and then we never interrupt you. Radio has always been about company, and that has not changed just because the transmitter is now a rack of servers. Good radio sounds effortless, but every minute on air has at least ten minutes of prep behind it.

Where to find us

Late nights are for experiments: long mixes, ambient sets and the occasional field recording. Listeners tell us they tune in while they code, study, drive, cook and occasionally while they should be sleeping. Good radio sounds effortless, but every minute on air has at least ten minutes of prep behind it.

A radio station is really a promise: that there will be something good playing whenever you tune in. The best feedback we ever got was a single line: “you made my deploy go faster”. Every show on ArrayFM starts with a simple rule: play the track you would send to a friend at 2am.

Some of our most-loved segments started as a joke in the green room. We keep a strict no-autoplay policy on the site: you press play, and then we never interrupt you. Good radio sounds effortless, but every minute on air has at least ten minutes of prep behind it. The archive now holds more than two thousand hours of shows, all searchable by track and guest. The chat is moderated by humans, which keeps it friendly, weird and welcoming.

Lessons from the studio

Late nights are for experiments: long mixes, ambient sets and the occasional field recording. Listeners tell us they tune in while they code, study, drive, cook and occasionally while they should be sleeping. Our schedule is built in blocks, with softer sounds in the morning and heavier beats after dark. Local artists make up almost a third of what we play, and that number keeps going up. Behind the scenes, the playout system is a small pile of open source tools glued together with very careful shell scripts.

We run on a tiny budget, a lot of goodwill and a very generous hosting sponsor. Every show on ArrayFM starts with a simple rule: play the track you would send to a friend at 2am. We test new segments live, keep what works and quietly retire what does not. The station started as a side project in a spare room and a borrowed microphone.

• New shows every weekday at 06:00
• Late-night mixes with no talking
• Live sessions from Studio [0] every Saturday
• Community playlist every Sunday

We keep the site lightweight on purpose, so it loads fast on a train, a tired laptop or a phone at 5% battery. Behind the scenes, the playout system is a small pile of open source tools glued together with very careful shell scripts. We still print the weekly playlist and pin it on the studio wall, mostly out of habit.

A few thank-yous

Our community Discord is where most show ideas start and where most bad puns go to live forever. A radio station is really a promise: that there will be something good playing whenever you tune in. 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. Some of our most-loved segments started as a joke in the green room. Nothing beats the feeling of a track dropping at exactly the right moment and the chat exploding with fire emojis. We learned early that a stable stream matters more than a fancy one.

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

The request line gets more messages than ever, and our DJs read every single one on air. Guests are always surprised by how relaxed the studio is, until the ON AIR light turns red. If you have ever wondered why a song sounds warmer on air, the answer is a ridiculous amount of compression.