@bytequeen on live-coding a synth set

Listeners tell us they tune in while they code, study, drive, cook and occasionally while they should be sleeping. We test new segments live, keep what works and quietly retire what does not. The archive now holds more than two thousand hours of shows, all searchable by track and guest.

What comes next

We measure success in hours listened, not clicks, which keeps us honest about what actually matters. Nothing beats the feeling of a track dropping at exactly the right moment and the chat exploding with fire emojis. The mixing desk is older than some of our interns, and it still sounds better than anything new. We still print the weekly playlist and pin it on the studio wall, mostly out of habit. We believe the music should never stop just because you clicked a link.

We measure success in hours listened, not clicks, which keeps us honest about what actually matters. The studio is small, the monitors are loud and the coffee machine has its own on-call rotation. Late nights are for experiments: long mixes, ambient sets and the occasional field recording.

• Late-night mixes with no talking
• Stream in 128 kbps MP3 or 320 kbps AAC
• Shows archived for 90 days
• Transcripts for every talk segment

The studio is small, the monitors are loud and the coffee machine has its own on-call rotation. Behind the scenes, the playout system is a small pile of open source tools glued together with very careful shell scripts. The best feedback we ever got was a single line: “you made my deploy go faster”.

What changes for listeners

Local artists make up almost a third of what we play, and that number keeps going up. The studio is small, the monitors are loud and the coffee machine has its own on-call rotation. The chat is moderated by humans, which keeps it friendly, weird and welcoming. 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. 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.

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

We keep the site lightweight on purpose, so it loads fast on a train, a tired laptop or a phone at 5% battery. We record every show, trim the talk, and publish it as a podcast by the next morning. The mixing desk is older than some of our interns, and it still sounds better than anything new.

A few thank-yous

Our favourite metric is the number of listeners who stay through the ad break. Good radio sounds effortless, but every minute on air has at least ten minutes of prep behind it. Morning shows are for energy, weather, traffic and the one story everyone at work will talk about.

Our engineers obsess over latency because a stream that stutters is a stream people switch off. Listeners tell us they tune in while they code, study, drive, cook and occasionally while they should be sleeping. The best feedback we ever got was a single line: “you made my deploy go faster”.

The short version

Our favourite metric is the number of listeners who stay through the ad break. We keep the stream running around the clock, which means someone is always awake, caffeinated and slightly too excited about a B-side. Most of our DJs have day jobs in software, design or support, which explains the jokes. The studio is small, the monitors are loud and the coffee machine has its own on-call rotation. We keep the site lightweight on purpose, so it loads fast on a train, a tired laptop or a phone at 5% battery.

We record every show, trim the talk, and publish it as a podcast by the next morning. We keep the stream running around the clock, which means someone is always awake, caffeinated and slightly too excited about a B-side. Accessibility matters to us, so every show gets a transcript and every page works with a keyboard. The chat is moderated by humans, which keeps it friendly, weird and welcoming.

On air and off

Radio has always been about company, and that has not changed just because the transmitter is now a rack of servers. The mixing desk is older than some of our interns, and it still sounds better than anything new. 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.

We test new segments live, keep what works and quietly retire what does not. The best feedback we ever got was a single line: “you made my deploy go faster”. We believe the music should never stop just because you clicked a link.

We record every show, trim the talk, and publish it as a podcast by the next morning. Every show on ArrayFM starts with a simple rule: play the track you would send to a friend at 2am. We measure success in hours listened, not clicks, which keeps us honest about what actually matters.

Small details

We record every show, trim the talk, and publish it as a podcast by the next morning. Most of our DJs have day jobs in software, design or support, which explains the jokes. The best feedback we ever got was a single line: “you made my deploy go faster”.

When a listener sends a track we have never heard, it goes straight into the next hour. A radio station is really a promise: that there will be something good playing whenever you tune in. Most of our DJs have day jobs in software, design or support, which explains the jokes.

• Keyboard-friendly player controls
• Podcast feed updated nightly
• Low-data mode for mobile
• Chat moderated by real people

When a listener sends a track we have never heard, it goes straight into the next hour. If you have ever wondered why a song sounds warmer on air, the answer is a ridiculous amount of compression. The request line gets more messages than ever, and our DJs read every single one on air.

Lessons from the studio

Accessibility matters to us, so every show gets a transcript and every page works with a keyboard. We keep the stream running around the clock, which means someone is always awake, caffeinated and slightly too excited about a B-side. Late nights are for experiments: long mixes, ambient sets and the occasional field recording. Nothing beats the feeling of a track dropping at exactly the right moment and the chat exploding with fire emojis.

The chat is moderated by humans, which keeps it friendly, weird and welcoming. A radio station is really a promise: that there will be something good playing whenever you tune in. Our favourite metric is the number of listeners who stay through the ad break.

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

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.