ArrayFM hits one million listening hours

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 request line gets more messages than ever, and our DJs read every single one on air.

The playlist

Every Friday we look at the numbers, and every Friday the numbers say people want more synthwave. 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.

Our community Discord is where most show ideas start and where most bad puns go to live forever. 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. We record every show, trim the talk, and publish it as a podcast by the next morning.

• Transcripts for every talk segment
• Shows archived for 90 days
• Keyboard-friendly player controls
• Low-data mode for mobile

We keep the stream running around the clock, which means someone is always awake, caffeinated and slightly too excited about a B-side. Our schedule is built in blocks, with softer sounds in the morning and heavier beats after dark. Our favourite metric is the number of listeners who stay through the ad break.

What we learned

We run on a tiny budget, a lot of goodwill and a very generous hosting sponsor. A good transition is invisible: you only notice it when it goes wrong, like a page that flashes white between clicks. A radio station is really a promise: that there will be something good playing whenever you tune in. We believe the music should never stop just because you clicked a link.

We keep the site lightweight on purpose, so it loads fast on a train, a tired laptop or a phone at 5% battery. A good transition is invisible: you only notice it when it goes wrong, like a page that flashes white between clicks. The best feedback we ever got was a single line: “you made my deploy go faster”. If you have ever wondered why a song sounds warmer on air, the answer is a ridiculous amount of compression.

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. 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. 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.

The numbers

We keep a strict no-autoplay policy on the site: you press play, and then we never interrupt you. Our community Discord is where most show ideas start and where most bad puns go to live forever. When a listener sends a track we have never heard, it goes straight into the next hour. 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.

Late nights are for experiments: long mixes, ambient sets and the occasional field recording. Some of our most-loved segments started as a joke in the green room. Accessibility matters to us, so every show gets a transcript and every page works with a keyboard. Some weeks the playlist is meticulously planned; other weeks it is a group chat argument that somehow turns into a show.

The short version

Our favourite metric is the number of listeners who stay through the ad break. Some weeks the playlist is meticulously planned; other weeks it is a group chat argument that somehow turns into a show. The chat is moderated by humans, which keeps it friendly, weird and welcoming. We test new segments live, keep what works and quietly retire what does not.

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. Our favourite metric is the number of listeners who stay through the ad break.

How to tune in

Good radio sounds effortless, but every minute on air has at least ten minutes of prep behind it. Accessibility matters to us, so every show gets a transcript and every page works with a keyboard. We learned early that a stable stream matters more than a fancy one. Morning shows are for energy, weather, traffic and the one story everyone at work will talk about. We test new segments live, keep what works and quietly retire what does not.

We still print the weekly playlist and pin it on the studio wall, mostly out of habit. We keep the stream running around the clock, which means someone is always awake, caffeinated and slightly too excited about a B-side. The mixing desk is older than some of our interns, and it still sounds better than anything new. Our community Discord is where most show ideas start and where most bad puns go to live forever. The archive now holds more than two thousand hours of shows, all searchable by track and guest.

Our schedule is built in blocks, with softer sounds in the morning and heavier beats after dark. Our favourite metric is the number of listeners who stay through the ad break. If you have ever wondered why a song sounds warmer on air, the answer is a ridiculous amount of compression.

Why we did it

Morning shows are for energy, weather, traffic and the one story everyone at work will talk about. Some weeks the playlist is meticulously planned; other weeks it is a group chat argument that somehow turns into a show. Every show on ArrayFM starts with a simple rule: play the track you would send to a friend at 2am. When a listener sends a track we have never heard, it goes straight into the next hour.

We keep the stream running around the clock, which means someone is always awake, caffeinated and slightly too excited about a B-side. Our community Discord is where most show ideas start and where most bad puns go to live forever. If you have ever wondered why a song sounds warmer on air, the answer is a ridiculous amount of compression. We keep a strict no-autoplay policy on the site: you press play, and then we never interrupt you. Accessibility matters to us, so every show gets a transcript and every page works with a keyboard.

• No autoplay, ever
• Transcripts for every talk segment
• Live sessions from Studio [0] every Saturday
• Weekend throwbacks from 08:00

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. We run on a tiny budget, a lot of goodwill and a very generous hosting sponsor. The best feedback we ever got was a single line: “you made my deploy go faster”.

A short history

The archive now holds more than two thousand hours of shows, all searchable by track and guest. Guests are always surprised by how relaxed the studio is, until the ON AIR light turns red. Every show on ArrayFM starts with a simple rule: play the track you would send to a friend at 2am.

When a listener sends a track we have never heard, it goes straight into the next hour. We run on a tiny budget, a lot of goodwill and a very generous hosting sponsor. Our favourite metric is the number of listeners who stay through the ad break.

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

We learned early that a stable stream matters more than a fancy one. A good transition is invisible: you only notice it when it goes wrong, like a page that flashes white between clicks. Some weeks the playlist is meticulously planned; other weeks it is a group chat argument that somehow turns into a show.