Meet the maintainers: Open Source Sessions recap

The studio is small, the monitors are loud and the coffee machine has its own on-call rotation. 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.

A short history

Our community Discord is where most show ideas start and where most bad puns go to live forever. 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. The chat is moderated by humans, which keeps it friendly, weird and welcoming.

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. Our favourite metric is the number of listeners who stay through the ad break. The studio is small, the monitors are loud and the coffee machine has its own on-call rotation.

• Shows archived for 90 days
• Weekend throwbacks from 08:00
• No autoplay, ever
• New shows every weekday at 06:00

Morning shows are for energy, weather, traffic and the one story everyone at work will talk about. Behind the scenes, the playout system is a small pile of open source tools glued together with very careful shell scripts. A radio station is really a promise: that there will be something good playing whenever you tune in.

Why we did it

Our engineers obsess over latency because a stream that stutters is a stream people switch off. We measure success in hours listened, not clicks, which keeps us honest about what actually matters. 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.

Listeners tell us they tune in while they code, study, drive, cook and occasionally while they should be sleeping. 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. Morning shows are for energy, weather, traffic and the one story everyone at work will talk about. The best feedback we ever got was a single line: “you made my deploy go faster”.

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

We still print the weekly playlist and pin it on the studio wall, mostly out of habit. Behind the scenes, the playout system is a small pile of open source tools glued together with very careful shell scripts. Our engineers obsess over latency because a stream that stutters is a stream people switch off.

The numbers

The request line gets more messages than ever, and our DJs read every single one on air. We keep the stream running around the clock, which means someone is always awake, caffeinated and slightly too excited about a B-side. We learned early that a stable stream matters more than a fancy one. A radio station is really a promise: that there will be something good playing whenever you tune in.

We learned early that a stable stream matters more than a fancy one. 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. Listeners tell us they tune in while they code, study, drive, cook and occasionally while they should be sleeping.

The short version

The mixing desk is older than some of our interns, and it still sounds better than anything new. Morning shows are for energy, weather, traffic and the one story everyone at work will talk about. We keep a strict no-autoplay policy on the site: you press play, and then we never interrupt you. The request line gets more messages than ever, and our DJs read every single one on air.

We keep the stream running around the clock, which means someone is always awake, caffeinated and slightly too excited about a B-side. 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.

How to tune in

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

Every show on ArrayFM starts with a simple rule: play the track you would send to a friend at 2am. A good transition is invisible: you only notice it when it goes wrong, like a page that flashes white between clicks. If you have ever wondered why a song sounds warmer on air, the answer is a ridiculous amount of compression. The chat is moderated by humans, which keeps it friendly, weird and welcoming. We keep a strict no-autoplay policy on the site: you press play, and then we never interrupt you.

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. The studio is small, the monitors are loud and the coffee machine has its own on-call rotation. A good transition is invisible: you only notice it when it goes wrong, like a page that flashes white between clicks. If you have ever wondered why a song sounds warmer on air, the answer is a ridiculous amount of compression.

What changes for listeners

Some weeks the playlist is meticulously planned; other weeks it is a group chat argument that somehow turns into a show. We run on a tiny budget, a lot of goodwill and a very generous hosting sponsor. We keep the stream running around the clock, which means someone is always awake, caffeinated and slightly too excited about a B-side.

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. Radio has always been about company, and that has not changed just because the transmitter is now a rack of servers.

• Transcripts for every talk segment
• Late-night mixes with no talking
• Weekend throwbacks from 08:00
• Listen on the web, in the app or on a smart speaker

Radio has always been about company, and that has not changed just because the transmitter is now a rack of servers. The request line gets more messages than ever, and our DJs read every single one on air. Accessibility matters to us, so every show gets a transcript and every page works with a keyboard.

The playlist

Some weeks the playlist is meticulously planned; other weeks it is a group chat argument that somehow turns into a show. A radio station is really a promise: that there will be something good playing whenever you tune in. The request line gets more messages than ever, and our DJs read every single one on air.

The mixing desk is older than some of our interns, and it still sounds better than anything new. Most of our DJs have day jobs in software, design or support, which explains the jokes. Morning shows are for energy, weather, traffic and the one story everyone at work will talk about.

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

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. The mixing desk is older than some of our interns, and it still sounds better than anything new. Listeners tell us they tune in while they code, study, drive, cook and occasionally while they should be sleeping.

Where to find us

Every show on ArrayFM starts with a simple rule: play the track you would send to a friend at 2am. Listeners tell us they tune in while they code, study, drive, cook and occasionally while they should be sleeping. 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.

Radio has always been about company, and that has not changed just because the transmitter is now a rack of servers. Some of our most-loved segments started as a joke in the green room. Behind the scenes, the playout system is a small pile of open source tools glued together with very careful shell scripts. We learned early that a stable stream matters more than a fancy one. The station started as a side project in a spare room and a borrowed microphone.

The short version

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

The chat is moderated by humans, which keeps it friendly, weird and welcoming. We still print the weekly playlist and pin it on the studio wall, mostly out of habit. 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. Every Friday we look at the numbers, and every Friday the numbers say people want more synthwave.

What we learned

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 record every show, trim the talk, and publish it as a podcast by the next morning.

Accessibility matters to us, so every show gets a transcript and every page works with a keyboard. Radio has always been about company, and that has not changed just because the transmitter is now a rack of servers. Late nights are for experiments: long mixes, ambient sets and the occasional field recording. We believe the music should never stop just because you clicked a link.

Our engineers obsess over latency because a stream that stutters is a stream people switch off. 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 learned early that a stable stream matters more than a fancy one. We believe the music should never stop just because you clicked a link.