Radio dashboard user guide

1. Find your station

1. Once you are signed in, open Radio from the left-hand menu of your dashboard. Starting from the home page or an account page? Use Manage station; it lands you in the same spot.
2. You get one card per station. Across the top of each card you'll see the name, account number and plan, plus a status pill such as Online or Stopped.
3. Top right are the buttons for the whole station: Start, Stop, Restart, and Skip track if your plan has Auto DJ. There's no "are you sure?" step. Press one and it happens.
4. The tabs sit just below the card's header. With Auto DJ you get Overview, Audience, Music, Format, Playlists, Schedule, Clocks, Programs, Voice tracks, Licensing, Commercials, Share and Go live. Free stations are live-only with no Auto DJ, so they show just Overview, Audience, Schedule, Licensing, Share and Go live.

Looking for a "Settings" tab? You won't find one. The time zone lives in Go live › Live settings, and the change link at the bottom of the Audience tab gets you there too. Your plan decides the bitrate and the listener limit; you can see both on the Overview.

Being set up on a card means a brand-new station. Allow about 15 minutes after payment and it's ready.

2. Saving your changes

Start here, especially if you're coming from another panel: this is what trips people up most. Some changes need you to save them, and others save themselves.

Programming waits for Save programming

The Format, Playlists, Schedule, Clocks and Programs tabs all work on one shared draft. Your listeners hear none of it until you save.

1. Change whatever you need. Hop between those five tabs as much as you like; the draft comes with you.
2. You'll know something is waiting: a bar shows up above your stations saying Unsaved programming changes. Your station plays them only after you save. It follows you down the page, just under the dashboard header. At the bottom of the tab, Save programming sits next to Unsaved changes.
3. Click Save programming, either in that bar or at the bottom of the tab. You'll briefly see Saving… and then Programming saved. Your station picks it up in a moment.
4. The bar disappears and the line next to the button reads All changes saved. Now your changes are live.

Leaving an editor

• The Tracks editor and the clock editor give you two ways out. Done & save closes it and puts everything on air right away. Done, save later closes it but leaves the change waiting in the draft, handy when you still have other edits to make.
• The editors for schedule slots, seasonal schedules and folder playlists end with Done, Add slot, Create or Play this folder. None of those saves on its own, so follow up with Save programming.

When saving fails

You'll see Not saved in red next to the button, plus a red bar that begins Not saved: and tells you the reason. It ends with Your changes are still here., and they are.

• Is the reason something in your programming, like A playlist needs a name.? Fix it, then click Try again.
• Does it blame our network or our servers? Give it a minute and click Try again. Still failing? Message us in chat with the error number from the bar.

Unsaved work isn't lost, and you can drop it

• Try to close the tab or click elsewhere in the dashboard with changes pending, and you'll be asked to confirm, either by your browser or by a Leave without saving? window. Leave anyway and this browser holds on to your draft for up to 30 days. Come back to Radio and the bar brings it up again (You have unsaved changes from a given time) with Save, Discard and Show. Meanwhile your station carries on with its last saved programming.
• Don't want those changes after all? Click Discard changes next to Save programming, or Discard in the bar, then confirm. Your station keeps what it was already playing. There's no undo.
• Click Show in the bar to jump to the station with the waiting changes.

What saves by itself

• Music library: uploads, deletions, Edit track › Save, and any folder or file you create, rename, move or delete. Move or rename something and your saved playlists follow along automatically.
• Go live: DJ accounts and DJ hours, encoder passwords, contributor links and Live settings.
• Your shows (the public line-up on the Schedule tab), plus voice tracks, extra streams, the SHOUTcast switch and the time zone.
• Save episode (Programs tab) and Save in a podcast window. Careful: these save all of your programming, along with any other changes still waiting.
• Start, Stop, Restart and Skip track.

A few of these restart Auto DJ once, so listeners get a few seconds of silence. The panel always tells you first. Live settings and the time zone are two of them. Changing DJ hours never restarts a thing.

3. Overview

Here's what the Overview tab shows, top to bottom:

• On air: the song playing, the current show and the one after it, plus a Recently played list. It refreshes on its own every few seconds.
• The status, and what to do about it:

  Status	Your move
  Online	All good. Your station is running: Auto DJ is playing, or you can connect your encoder and go live.
  Not responding	Try Restart. Still the same? Chat with us.
  Stopped	It was switched off. Press Start.
  Starting / Stopping	Give it a few seconds.
  Suspended	Chat with us and we'll get it restored.

• A warning about missing files shows up when a playlist names files that are gone from your library. Click Fix in Format to jump straight to them.
• Listeners: how many are tuned in right now against your plan's maximum, plus the peak and average over 24 hours. Below that, Listener hours this month shows how much of your plan's allowance you've used.
• Listen: links to your station, each with Copy link and Open. More in Listen links.
• Streaming server: Icecast or SHOUTcast, with a switch to change between them.
• Your station's own app, and Extra streams if your plan includes more than one stream.

4. Music: your library

Everything Auto DJ can play lives on the Music tab. The bar at the top tells you how much storage you've used. Underneath you'll find your folders, the upload box and the tracks of whichever folder is selected.

Folders

First in the folder list come All files (your whole library) and Top level (files outside any folder). Your own folders follow. Click a folder to list its tracks; click the arrow next to it to open its subfolders.

1. Make a folder: click New folder and enter a Name, News for example. Pick its place under Inside, or leave it at Top level. Then click Create folder.
2. Rename or move a folder: select it, then click Rename / move. Edit the Name or choose a different Inside folder, and click Save. The tracks travel with it and your playlists keep up. Dragging one folder onto another works too.
3. Delete a folder: select it, then click Delete folder. Before anything goes, you're told how many tracks it holds and which playlists use them. Its tracks are deleted along with it.
4. Turn a folder into a playlist: select it, then click Make a playlist. More under folder playlists.

Uploading

1. First pick the folder you want the files in. If All files or Top level is selected, they land at the top level.
2. Drop audio files from your computer onto the box marked Drag audio files here, or choose files. Or click choose files and select them. Under the box you'll see which formats your station takes and the biggest file allowed.
3. You'll see each file's progress, then Done. If a file can't be uploaded, it stays in the list with the reason.

Another way: drop files onto a folder in the folder list and they go straight into it. For a little while a new track shows Analyzing… as we read its tags and measure its loudness. Until that's finished, its Edit button stays greyed out.

Rather upload by FTP or SFTP? Ask us in chat and we'll set up a login. Anything you upload that way appears in the library on its own.

Editing a track

Click Edit on any track to open Edit track. There you can change:

• Title, Artist, Album: shown to listeners in their player.
• Cover art: Upload a cover or Remove cover, in JPEG or PNG.
• Royalty info: ISRC, Year, Label, Composer, Genre. You can also set a Rights end on date; past it, the track is off the air but still in your library.
• Category & tags, used by smart playlists.
• Weight from 1 to 10 (higher plays more often), Explicit, Cue in / out and Intro / outro markers. You get these four on Platinum.

Click Save and it applies right away.

Move or rename a file

1. Click Move on the track.
2. Pick a different Folder or edit the File name (no need to type the extension; it stays). Then click Move.

Any playlist with that track follows it. Dragging a track onto a folder in the list does the same.

Deleting a track

Click Delete on the track, then confirm. It's gone straight away and Auto DJ won't play it again. You can't undo this, so hang on to a copy of anything you might want later.

Duplicates

When two tracks have the same audio, they're tagged Duplicate. To list only those, click Duplicates only above the list. Show all brings everything back.

5. Playlists

Unless the format or the schedule picks something else, Auto DJ plays your default playlist. No playlists yet? Then it shuffles your entire library.

Build a playlist

1. Go to the Playlists tab and click New playlist. One called "New playlist" appears. Type the name you want over it.
2. Pick how it plays: Shuffle or In order.
3. Click Edit tracks to open the Tracks editor. You'll see In this playlist on the left and your Library on the right.
4. Use Search title, artist or folder or the folder menu to find tracks. Click Add on the ones you want, or Add all shown. Dragging them across works too.
5. Take a track out with the × next to it. In an In order playlist, reorder with the ↑ ↓ arrows or by dragging.
6. Click Done & save and wait until you see All changes saved. Planning to edit a few more playlists first? Use Done, save later, and click Save programming at the end.

Got new files to add while you're in the Tracks editor? Click Upload… at the top. They join the end of the playlist, and Done & save puts them on air.

The Format tab can make playlists too, with New playlist under All playlists. Go that way and you're asked right off what the playlist is for: General (songs mixed by weight), Interval (every N songs or minutes), Scheduled (at a set time) or Nothing yet. Finish with Create and add tracks.

What each playlist's controls do

• Default: plays whenever nothing else is scheduled.
• On / Off: switch a playlist Off to silence it while keeping it, and every place it's used, intact. Nothing gets deleted.
• Edit tracks, Play a folder…, Smart… and Delete. A deleted playlist also leaves the rotation and the schedule, but your files stay put in the library.

Folder playlists: shows that refresh themselves

Point a playlist at a folder and it plays whatever that folder holds at the moment. Upload a file there and it's on air; delete it and it's off, all without touching the playlist. It's the easy way to run a weekly show or a daily news bulletin.

1. Create a folder for the show in Music (say, Morning News) and upload episode one into it.
2. Click Play a folder… on the playlist. Or select the folder in Music and click Make a playlist.
3. Choose the Folder. Then, under Plays, pick one:
   • Every track in the folder
   • Every track in the folder and its subfolders
   • Only the newest track (this week’s episode, a daily bulletin): whenever you upload a new episode, that's the one on air. Keep the old ones or delete them, as you like.
4. Set the Order: Shuffle or In order (by file name). Did the playlist already have tracks? You can keep them so they play first, as an intro or a jingle.
5. Click Play this folder (or Done), and then Save programming.
6. Last step: schedule the playlist for the show's slot, as described in Format.

After that, all you do is upload each new episode to the folder. FTP uploads get picked up just the same.

Smart playlists

A smart playlist fills itself. Click Smart… on a playlist and choose a Category, some Tags, or both (you set these in Music › Edit track). Every matching track joins, including ones you tag later on. Click Save, then Save programming.

6. Format: your mix, breaks and timed playlists

The Format tab puts your whole station on one page, laid out the way a program director would plan it. It opens with a few plain sentences telling you what will play, followed by five parts. All of it goes into the draft, so finish with Save programming.

General rotation: your everyday music mix

1. Click Add a playlist under General rotation and pick one.
2. Set a Weight for each playlist. For every song, Auto DJ picks one of these playlists at random, by weight. So with 18 and 6, you hear three songs from the first for each one from the second. The bar next to each playlist shows its share.

No rotation set? Then the default playlist plays.

Interval playlists: commercials, IDs, promos

1. Click Add an interval, then pick the Playlist with your ads or jingles.
2. Choose Plays every N songs or minutes. Then decide how much Each break plays: a number of tracks, or the whole playlist.
3. Pick the Order, the Days and the Hours (or All day). Click Add interval.

Breaks never chop a song off. They wait until the song on air has ended.

Scheduled playlists: shows at fixed times

Reach for this when something has to start at a given time: a show, a bulletin, a countdown.

1. Click Add a scheduled playlist, then pick the Playlist.
2. Under Repeats, choose Weekly, on the days below, Daily or One time, on a date. Next set the Days or Date, and the start time under At.
3. Pick the Order, and when it Stops: When the playlist has played through, At a set time, or After so many minutes.
4. Need it to start bang on time, like the news at the top of the hour? Tick Start on the minute: fade out whatever is playing. Leave it unticked and it waits until the current song ends.
5. Click Add, and then Save programming.

Once it's over, your rotation picks up again.

The week

Your week planner, the very same one you'll find on the Schedule tab. Details in Schedule.

Fades and levels

Set Crossfade, Fade in and Fade out in seconds. A crossfade starts the next song that many seconds before the current one finishes. Set it to 0 for a clean cut. Loudness levelling (Platinum) keeps the volume even from one track to the next.

All playlists

Every playlist in one table, with its job: rotation, interval, scheduled, in a clock, default, or Not used. To give a playlist another job, use Use as…. One playlist can hold several jobs at once.

7. Schedule: your week

Two different things live on the Schedule tab, and it helps to keep them separate in your head:

• Your shows, up top, is the line-up your listeners see in your app, on your public page and in the directory ("Breakfast with Ana, weekdays 7 to 10"). It only describes your shows; nothing ever plays from it. It saves the moment you click Add show or Save.
• The week planner, further down, is what really decides what plays and when. It belongs to the programming draft.

Add a show to the line-up

Click Add a show. Enter the Title, Host (optional), Days and times, add a square Picture if you want one, then click Add show.

Plan your week

Your playlists (and clocks) are listed down the planner's left side. The grid runs Monday to Sunday, one hour at a time, in your station's time zone.

1. First decide what a drop creates. Under Dropping makes, pick a show (it plays through once at that time, then the rotation resumes) or a time window (the playlist or clock fills the whole window).
2. Drag a playlist to a day and time. You can also press + next to it, or click Add a slot and enter Days, From — to and Plays. That last way is easier on a phone.
3. To shift a block's time on all its days, drag it up or down. Drop it on another day to move just that day. Hold Shift to bring every day along, or Ctrl or Alt to make a copy. To change where a window ends, drag its bottom edge. Everything lines up in 5-minute steps.
4. To edit a block, click it. You can swap its playlist, change its days and time, set Start on the minute for a show, or Remove it.
5. Click Save programming.

Use Copy… to copy one day onto others (Copy day), or to swap your whole week for another schedule (Replace week).

Any time with nothing scheduled gets the default playlist, or the whole library on shuffle if there's no default. Windows can't cross midnight, so split a late one into two.

The week check

Before you save, glance at the week check below the planner. It flags windows that overlap (and says which one wins), slots that would go silent because their playlist is empty or deleted, and shows that run into each other. If it reads ✓ Week check: no overlaps, gaps or silent slots., you're all set.

Seasonal schedules: holidays and one-off weeks

Between two dates, a seasonal schedule replaces your normal week, but only at the times where it has slots. Outside those times, or outside those dates, your normal week plays as usual.

1. Click + Seasonal. Give it a Name (Christmas, say), set the dates under From — to, and click Create.
2. Select its name in the row of buttons over the planner, then add slots the same way as above. Click Base to get back to your normal week.
3. When two seasons overlap, ↑ Higher and ↓ Lower set which one takes priority. Edit dates and Delete season sit on that bar as well.
4. Click Save programming.

Playout settings

You'll also find these here: Crossfade, Clean mode (no explicit tracks), Smart shuffle (keeps a track, artist or album from coming back too soon, and can follow the US webcasting rules), Compress uploads (turns WAV/AIFF into MP3), Take listener requests and Loudness levelling. They go into the draft as well.

8. Clocks

Think of a clock as an hour of programming you can use again and again. For example: a station ID, four songs from your hits playlist, a jingle, three more songs, news locked to :00 and an ad break locked to :20. Clocks draw on your playlists, so set those up first.

1. Go to the Clocks tab, click New clock and give it a name.
2. For each part, click Add element. Pick a type (Music, Jingle, Station ID, Commercial, News, Weather, Program), the playlist to draw from, and the number of tracks.
3. Make each element In sequence (it takes its turn) or Fixed at a set minute past the hour. Drag elements to reorder them.
4. Check The hour preview and the Check box below it. That box warns you about playlists that are empty or running thin.
5. Click Done & save, or Done, save later if you're not finished.
6. Now place the clock in your week. On the Schedule tab, drag it onto the planner (clocks always make a time window), or pick it under Plays in Add a slot. Finish with Save programming.

9. Programs and voice tracks

Programs: recorded and syndicated shows

1. Upload the show's files to Music.
2. Go to the Programs tab, click New program and name it. Do its episodes have breaks? Then pick playlists for Station IDs from and Ads from.
3. Click New episode and give it a Title. Then build the running order: Add file for every file, Add break for every break. Syndicated show with a cue sheet? Use Import a cue sheet and Read cue sheet. The file's own commercials get skipped and your break plays in their place.
4. Under When it airs, pick Once or Weekly, set the day and time, and click Add airing. Add extra airings for repeats, and an Expires (optional) date if it should come off.
5. Click Save episode. That saves on the spot: the episode goes on air together with any other programming changes you haven't saved.

Want a podcast? Publish as podcast on a program turns its episodes into a feed, minus the breaks, ready to submit to Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

Voice tracks: record your talk breaks early

1. Go to the Voice tracks tab and click Turn on. Auto DJ restarts once.
2. Click Switch on the microphone, Record, then Stop. Label it and click Save.
3. Below your recordings, click Air next, or Air at… to pick a day and time. It plays in between two songs.

10. Go live: encoders and DJs

Connect an encoder, yours or a DJ's, and you take over from Auto DJ. Disconnect, and Auto DJ is back instantly. All the live tools sit on the Go live tab.

Your encoder settings

Encoder settings has what you enter in BUTT, Mixxx, RadioBOSS, OBS, SAM Broadcaster, or whatever encoder you use:

Keep your encoder's bitrate at or below your plan's. The Overview shows that limit as Up to N kbps. Send more and the encoder gets dropped, and Encoder settings tells you why with Your encoder was disconnected, next to the bitrate you sent and the one you should use.

SHOUTcast encoders only need the server, port and password. Worried someone else knows your password? Click Get a new password. Your encoder gets disconnected and has to reconnect using the new one.

Platinum plans show a Nearest server block first. It's one server and port that links your encoder to whichever of our servers is closest to you, and that server relays your broadcast. You get a steadier connection over long distances. Settings are listed for Icecast, SHOUTcast v1 and SHOUTcast 2 encoders, and the direct settings below it still work.

DJ accounts

1. In DJ accounts, enter a name under New DJ username and click Add DJ.
2. A DJ account created window pops up with the Server, Port, Mount, Username and Password for your DJ. Need the password again later? Show passwords reveals it.
3. Want to limit when a DJ can broadcast? Open Live settings › DJ hours and click Set hours. Without hours, a DJ can go live whenever they like. With hours, they can only connect within them, and they're taken off air once their time runs out.
4. To delete a DJ account, click Remove.

If your old panel's DJ logins came across, they're listed on their own under DJs from your old control panel. Their passwords can't be shown; if one gets lost, click Set new password.

On air now

On air now, at the top of Go live, tells you who's live and how strong their connection is. To pull a DJ off air, click Disconnect. Most encoders reconnect on their own, so under And then you can lock them out for anywhere from 15 minutes to 7 days. Let back in lifts the lock.

Live settings

Click Change these settings to set these:

• Time zone: the one your schedule and DJ hours follow.
• Dead-air detection: if a connected DJ stays silent past the time you pick, they count as gone and Auto DJ fills in, so there's no dead air.
• Next-show handoff (Platinum): the next DJ connects ahead of time to the /next mount and goes on air as soon as the current DJ leaves. Also a standby source gives a backup encoder its own /standby mount.
• Talk over the music: connect to /talk with only a microphone and you're heard over the music, which ducks while you speak.
• Record every live broadcast: every live show is kept as an MP3 in your Music library's Recordings folder.

When you save these, Auto DJ restarts once. Expect a few seconds of silence, and any DJ on air must reconnect.

Contributor links (Platinum)

Give a guest a link and they can broadcast from their browser as one of your DJs. They install nothing and need no password. Pick the DJ and how long the link lasts, click Make a link, and copy it right away, because you'll only see it once. To cancel it, click Withdraw.

11. Broadcasting from the browser

Broadcast straight from your browser, no encoder needed. The studio goes on air as one of your DJs and follows that DJ's hours, so you'll need at least one DJ account.

1. Under Broadcast from your browser on Go live, click Open the studio. A new tab opens. Use Chrome, Edge or Firefox, and put headphones on.
2. Pick the DJ under Broadcast as.
3. Click Switch on under Microphone and let the browser use it. Press M on your keyboard to flip the mic on or off.
4. Load music onto Deck A or Deck B, then use Play, Next and the crossfader. With Cue, a deck plays only in your headphones. Want the music to dip while you talk? That's what Lower the music while the mic is on is for.
5. Click Go live. The pill switches to On air, along with the time. To show listeners what's playing, type it in Now playing and click Send title, or tick From the decks.
6. When you're done, click End show and Auto DJ takes over again.

12. Your links and the web player

• Listen (Overview): the https link to your station. Browsers, VLC and most radio apps play it. Share it with Copy link.
• For older players (Winamp, hardware radios): the same stream on plain http, for players that can't handle https.
• Listen link marked Nearest server (Platinum): a single link that sends each listener to our closest server, so your station starts quicker and buffers less. Your other links still work.
• Extra streams: if your plan has more than one stream, Add a stream gives you the same audio at a lower bitrate for people listening on mobile.
• Share tab: a player to put on your own website. Pick the Theme, Accent colour and Height and check the preview. Then click Copy under Embed code and paste that onto your website. Further down, you can set up your public station page and your directory listing.

Hand out the links shown here wherever you list your station. If a listener says an old link from your previous panel no longer plays, tell us in chat.

SHOUTcast instead of Icecast: on any plan, go to Streaming server on the Overview and click Switch to SHOUTcast. Your station moves to a SHOUTcast DNAS server, with its own status and admin pages and a SHOUTcast Directory listing. Your links, encoder settings, music and schedule don't change; listeners reconnect within a few seconds. To undo it, click Switch back to Icecast.

13. Audience

Up top, Listening now shows everyone connected at this moment, with their country, city, player, listening time and stream. Click Export CSV to download it.

Further down, pick a period, from 24 hours up to 90 days depending on your plan. You'll see listener hours, sessions, unique listeners, average listen and peak; when people tune in and drop off, and how long they stay; your programs and tracks; and where your listeners are and what they listen with. A listen is counted after one minute. Use Take it with you to download CSV files or get a weekly or monthly report by email.

14. Licensing and Commercials

• Licensing: your music licences; where people can hear your station (Everywhere, Only in these countries or Everywhere except these countries); royalty reports; and Airplay history, a searchable, downloadable record of every recording you've played.
• Commercials: airing proof for your advertisers. Pick a period and click Find commercials. Tick the commercials you want, or a whole spot playlist, then choose View report, Download CSV or Print / Save as PDF. Scheduling commercials is done with Interval playlists on the Format tab.

15. Moving over from your old panel (MediaCP or Centova)

Your music and programming came across with your station. Anything missing? Let us know in chat. The table shows where the everyday jobs are done now.

16. Fixing common problems

My station still plays the old playlist after I changed it.

Look for the unsaved-changes bar above your stations, or check the line next to Save programming. Does it say Unsaved changes or Not saved? Click the button and wait for All changes saved. Your station switches over within moments.

Saving says "Not saved" in red.

Nothing is lost; your changes are still waiting. Read the reason in the red bar. A playlist without tracks or a time not written like 07:30 are the usual culprits: fix it and click Try again. If the bar points at our network or servers, retry in a minute, and if it keeps failing, send us the error number in chat.

A playlist says ⚠ missing files.

Some files it lists were deleted or renamed outside the panel. Open its tracks and remove or replace them. Or make it a folder playlist, so it always plays whatever is in the folder.

My encoder won't connect.

Copy all five again (server, port, mount, username, password) from Go live › Encoder settings. One wrong character is usually the culprit. If it's a DJ who can't connect, check their DJ hours, and whether they've been locked out under On air now.

My encoder connects, then gets dropped right away.

Open Go live › Encoder settings. Seeing Your encoder was disconnected? Then your encoder sends a higher bitrate than your plan allows. Turn it down to the number shown there and reconnect.

There's silence on air.

Check On air on the Overview. If a DJ is connected but silent, switch on Dead-air detection. If Auto DJ is on air, make sure your rotation or default playlist has tracks in it. If neither helps, click Restart.