How our stream stays up 24/7

The archive now holds more than two thousand hours of shows, all searchable by track and guest. 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.

Where to find us

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. We believe the music should never stop just because you clicked a link. The mixing desk is older than some of our interns, and it still sounds better than anything new. We test new segments live, keep what works and quietly retire what does not.

A good transition is invisible: you only notice it when it goes wrong, like a page that flashes white between clicks. Our favourite metric is the number of listeners who stay through the ad break. Every show on ArrayFM starts with a simple rule: play the track you would send to a friend at 2am. 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.

• Listen on the web, in the app or on a smart speaker
• Chat moderated by real people
• Transcripts for every talk segment
• Shows archived for 90 days

We keep the stream running around the clock, which means someone is always awake, caffeinated and slightly too excited about a B-side. Behind the scenes, the playout system is a small pile of open source tools glued together with very careful shell scripts. 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”. A radio station is really a promise: that there will be something good playing whenever you tune in.

What changes for listeners

The request line gets more messages than ever, and our DJs read every single one on air. Our community Discord is where most show ideas start and where most bad puns go to live forever. The studio is small, the monitors are loud and the coffee machine has its own on-call rotation. The mixing desk is older than some of our interns, and it still sounds better than anything new. 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 test new segments live, keep what works and quietly retire what does not. A good transition is invisible: you only notice it when it goes wrong, like a page that flashes white between clicks. We keep the site lightweight on purpose, so it loads fast on a train, a tired laptop or a phone at 5% battery.

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

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. If you have ever wondered why a song sounds warmer on air, the answer is a ridiculous amount of compression.

Lessons from the studio

The chat is moderated by humans, which keeps it friendly, weird and welcoming. Radio has always been about company, and that has not changed just because the transmitter is now a rack of servers. The archive now holds more than two thousand hours of shows, all searchable by track and guest. The best feedback we ever got was a single line: “you made my deploy go faster”. 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. The chat is moderated by humans, which keeps it friendly, weird and welcoming. We keep the stream running around the clock, which means someone is always awake, caffeinated and slightly too excited about a B-side. The best feedback we ever got was a single line: “you made my deploy go faster”.

const res = await fetch("/api/now-playing")
const { artist, title } = await res.json()
console.log(`${artist} — ${title}`)

Morning shows are for energy, weather, traffic and the one story everyone at work will talk about. 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. Our community Discord is where most show ideas start and where most bad puns go to live forever.

The tech stack

We still print the weekly playlist and pin it on the studio wall, mostly out of habit. We test new segments live, keep what works and quietly retire what does not. Radio has always been about company, and that has not changed just because the transmitter is now a rack of servers.

We record every show, trim the talk, and publish it as a podcast by the next morning. Morning shows are for energy, weather, traffic and the one story everyone at work will talk about. 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”. 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. Late nights are for experiments: long mixes, ambient sets and the occasional field recording. We keep the site lightweight on purpose, so it loads fast on a train, a tired laptop or a phone at 5% battery. Radio has always been about company, and that has not changed just because the transmitter is now a rack of servers.

The setup

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. We measure success in hours listened, not clicks, which keeps us honest about what actually matters. The request line gets more messages than ever, and our DJs read every single one on air. Good radio sounds effortless, but every minute on air has at least ten minutes of prep behind it.

We keep the site lightweight on purpose, so it loads fast on a train, a tired laptop or a phone at 5% battery. We test new segments live, keep what works and quietly retire what does not. Behind the scenes, the playout system is a small pile of open source tools glued together with very careful shell scripts. The station started as a side project in a spare room and a borrowed microphone.

• Shows archived for 90 days
• Chat moderated by real people
• Low-data mode for mobile
• Transcripts for every talk segment

A radio station is really a promise: that there will be something good playing whenever you tune in. Nothing beats the feeling of a track dropping at exactly the right moment and the chat exploding with fire emojis. Our engineers obsess over latency because a stream that stutters is a stream people switch off. We believe the music should never stop just because you clicked a link. Behind the scenes, the playout system is a small pile of open source tools glued together with very careful shell scripts.

The playlist

The mixing desk is older than some of our interns, and it still sounds better than anything new. 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.

Most of our DJs have day jobs in software, design or support, which explains the jokes. Listeners tell us they tune in while they code, study, drive, cook and occasionally while they should be sleeping. We keep the site lightweight on purpose, so it loads fast on a train, a tired laptop or a phone at 5% battery. 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.

If the page reloads, the song stops. So the page does not reload.

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. Every show on ArrayFM starts with a simple rule: play the track you would send to a friend at 2am.