Synth State

Synth State is synthwave radio, hosted by @bytequeen. The studio is small, the monitors are loud and the coffee machine has its own on-call rotation. The archive now holds more than two thousand hours of shows, all searchable by track and guest.

The tech stack

Accessibility matters to us, so every show gets a transcript and every page works with a keyboard. Our community Discord is where most show ideas start and where most bad puns go to live forever. We believe the music should never stop just because you clicked a link. Good radio sounds effortless, but every minute on air has at least ten minutes of prep behind it. Local artists make up almost a third of what we play, and that number keeps going up.

We believe the music should never stop just because you clicked a link. 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. Every show on ArrayFM starts with a simple rule: play the track you would send to a friend at 2am.

• Listen on the web, in the app or on a smart speaker
• Keyboard-friendly player controls
• Weekend throwbacks from 08:00
• Late-night mixes with no talking

Good radio sounds effortless, but every minute on air has at least ten minutes of prep behind it. 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.

Small details

The best feedback we ever got was a single line: “you made my deploy go faster”. Morning shows are for energy, weather, traffic and the one story everyone at work will talk about. We still print the weekly playlist and pin it on the studio wall, mostly out of habit. 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. We keep the site lightweight on purpose, so it loads fast on a train, a tired laptop or a phone at 5% battery. The best feedback we ever got was a single line: “you made my deploy go faster”.

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

When a listener sends a track we have never heard, it goes straight into the next hour. Radio has always been about company, and that has not changed just because the transmitter is now a rack of servers. 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. Behind the scenes, the playout system is a small pile of open source tools glued together with very careful shell scripts.

What changes for listeners

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

We believe the music should never stop just because you clicked a link. Accessibility matters to us, so every show gets a transcript and every page works with a keyboard. The mixing desk is older than some of our interns, and it still sounds better than anything new. A radio station is really a promise: that there will be something good playing whenever you tune in.

The short version

Some weeks the playlist is meticulously planned; other weeks it is a group chat argument that somehow turns into a show. 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.

The best feedback we ever got was a single line: “you made my deploy go faster”. Listeners tell us they tune in while they code, study, drive, cook and occasionally while they should be sleeping. We still print the weekly playlist and pin it on the studio wall, mostly out of habit. 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.

A few thank-yous

Local artists make up almost a third of what we play, and that number keeps going up. 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.

The station started as a side project in a spare room and a borrowed microphone. Our engineers obsess over latency because a stream that stutters is a stream people switch off. Behind the scenes, the playout system is a small pile of open source tools glued together with very careful shell scripts. Our community Discord is where most show ideas start and where most bad puns go to live forever. Some weeks the playlist is meticulously planned; other weeks it is a group chat argument that somehow turns into a show.

Some weeks the playlist is meticulously planned; other weeks it is a group chat argument that somehow turns into a show. Listeners tell us they tune in while they code, study, drive, cook and occasionally while they should be sleeping. We keep the stream running around the clock, which means someone is always awake, caffeinated and slightly too excited about a B-side. Our engineers obsess over latency because a stream that stutters is a stream people switch off.

The setup

Late nights are for experiments: long mixes, ambient sets and the occasional field recording. 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. We keep the site lightweight on purpose, so it loads fast on a train, a tired laptop or a phone at 5% battery. The archive now holds more than two thousand hours of shows, all searchable by track and guest.

We keep a strict no-autoplay policy on the site: you press play, and then we never interrupt you. The archive now holds more than two thousand hours of shows, all searchable by track and guest. 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.

• Late-night mixes with no talking
• No autoplay, ever
• Weekend throwbacks from 08:00
• Listen on the web, in the app or on a smart speaker

The studio is small, the monitors are loud and the coffee machine has its own on-call rotation. The request line gets more messages than ever, and our DJs read every single one on air. We still print the weekly playlist and pin it on the studio wall, mostly out of habit. Every show on ArrayFM starts with a simple rule: play the track you would send to a friend at 2am. Guests are always surprised by how relaxed the studio is, until the ON AIR light turns red.

Lessons from the studio

The station started as a side project in a spare room and a borrowed microphone. Some weeks the playlist is meticulously planned; other weeks it is a group chat argument that somehow turns into a show. Late nights are for experiments: long mixes, ambient sets and the occasional field recording. If you have ever wondered why a song sounds warmer on air, the answer is a ridiculous amount of compression.

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. Most of our DJs have day jobs in software, design or support, which explains the jokes. Our community Discord is where most show ideas start and where most bad puns go to live forever.

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

A radio station is really a promise: that there will be something good playing whenever you tune in. 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. We believe the music should never stop just because you clicked a link.