A station is one radio channel: its own stream servers, music library, playlists and schedule. You manage stations on the Stations page.
Create a station
- Open Stations.
- Fill in the New station form on the right (the settings are explained below).
- Click Save station. The stream servers start within a few seconds.
To change a station later, click it in the table, edit the form and save. The number of stations you can create depends on your plan.
Station settings
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Name | Your station's name. It also appears in the Icecast and SHOUTcast directories if you list your station. |
| Server software | Icecast-KH, SHOUTcast DNAS 2, or Both. Choose Icecast-KH unless you need SHOUTcast (for example, for the SHOUTcast directory). With Icecast, live DJs take over from the AutoDJ automatically. |
| Bitrate (kbps) | Stream quality. 128 kbps is a good balance. Higher sounds better but uses more of your listeners' data. Your plan may cap the maximum. |
| Sample rate | 44100 Hz suits almost all music. Use lower rates only for talk stations at low bitrates. |
| Channels | Stereo for music. Mono for speech-only stations at low bitrates. |
| Max listeners | How many people can listen at the same time. Your plan sets the upper limit. |
| Crossfade (ms) | How long songs overlap as one ends and the next begins. 5000 ms (5 seconds) is the default; 0 turns crossfading off. |
| Station ID every N | Plays a jingle after every N songs (0 = off). See Jingles, Sweepers and Station Imaging. |
| Sweeper every N | Mixes a sweeper over the start of every Nth song (0 = off). |
| Time zone | Your schedule runs in this time zone. Set it to your local zone before you create shows. |
| Normalize loudness of uploads | Evens out volume so quiet and loud tracks sound similar. Leave it on unless your files are already mastered for broadcast. |
Why uploads are re-encoded: every file is converted to your station's bitrate and sample rate at a constant bitrate, so the stream never changes format mid-song and listeners don't buffer. If you change the bitrate later, new uploads use the new setting.
The Stations table
The table lists each station's servers, ports, quality, listener limit, CPU and RAM use and status. A station marked suspended is off air until the service is restored.
