Studio Mug

Description

Holds exactly one standup worth of coffee. The best feedback we ever got was a single line: “you made my deploy go faster”. Some weeks the playlist is meticulously planned; other weeks it is a group chat argument that somehow turns into a show.

Lessons from the studio

Nothing beats the feeling of a track dropping at exactly the right moment and the chat exploding with fire emojis. A radio station is really a promise: that there will be something good playing whenever you tune in. If you have ever wondered why a song sounds warmer on air, the answer is a ridiculous amount of compression.

Guests are always surprised by how relaxed the studio is, until the ON AIR light turns red. Accessibility matters to us, so every show gets a transcript and every page works with a keyboard. Every Friday we look at the numbers, and every Friday the numbers say people want more synthwave.

• Podcast feed updated nightly
• Weekend throwbacks from 08:00
• Stream in 128 kbps MP3 or 320 kbps AAC
• Listen on the web, in the app or on a smart speaker

The chat is moderated by humans, which keeps it friendly, weird and welcoming. We believe the music should never stop just because you clicked a link. Some weeks the playlist is meticulously planned; other weeks it is a group chat argument that somehow turns into a show.

A few thank-yous

The station started as a side project in a spare room and a borrowed microphone. Guests are always surprised by how relaxed the studio is, until the ON AIR light turns red. Morning shows are for energy, weather, traffic and the one story everyone at work will talk about.

The mixing desk is older than some of our interns, and it still sounds better than anything new. Some weeks the playlist is meticulously planned; other weeks it is a group chat argument that somehow turns into a show. If you have ever wondered why a song sounds warmer on air, the answer is a ridiculous amount of compression. Some of our most-loved segments started as a joke in the green room. We still print the weekly playlist and pin it on the studio wall, mostly out of habit.

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

We keep the site lightweight on purpose, so it loads fast on a train, a tired laptop or a phone at 5% battery. 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.

The playlist

Behind the scenes, the playout system is a small pile of open source tools glued together with very careful shell scripts. Nothing beats the feeling of a track dropping at exactly the right moment and the chat exploding with fire emojis. Good radio sounds effortless, but every minute on air has at least ten minutes of prep behind it.

Every Friday we look at the numbers, and every Friday the numbers say people want more synthwave. The station started as a side project in a spare room and a borrowed microphone. Morning shows are for energy, weather, traffic and the one story everyone at work will talk about. A good transition is invisible: you only notice it when it goes wrong, like a page that flashes white between clicks.

The short version

Every show on ArrayFM starts with a simple rule: play the track you would send to a friend at 2am. We learned early that a stable stream matters more than a fancy one. The mixing desk is older than some of our interns, and it still sounds better than anything new. Good radio sounds effortless, but every minute on air has at least ten minutes of prep behind it.

We record every show, trim the talk, and publish it as a podcast by the next morning. Every Friday we look at the numbers, and every Friday the numbers say people want more synthwave. The mixing desk is older than some of our interns, and it still sounds better than anything new. We keep a strict no-autoplay policy on the site: you press play, and then we never interrupt you.