Some people expressed interest in joining the ds106radio DJ roster, so we can maintain our status as the only station with more DJs than listeners. One common question that comes up is When to broadcast? The only regular broadcast that I know of currently is on Friday evenings from 7 to 8 or so, so almost anytime is free. If you go to https://listen.ds106rad.io/ and see that it’s broadcasting WFMU, that means the stream is free. It’s a good idea to check the #ds106radio hashtag on Mastodon to see if someone is planning to broadcast, and a good protocol to announce your set there as well.
listen.ds106rad.io screen shows WFMU broadcast. This means the stream is free.
I’ve used a few different setups for ds106radio over the years. I started with
Ladiocast, a free Mac program. I believe I used Soundflower in conjunction. Soundflower functions as a virtual audio device, so in my system settings I would make Soundflower the output device and in Ladiocast I would set it as the input. Ladiocast has a section where you can put in metadata. ds106radio automatically pushes that out to Mastodon with the #ds106radio hashtag and URL.
Soundflower settings for ds106radio broadcast
Ladiocast settings. When the Main button is on, the Soundflower 64 input goes to the Soundflower 2 output which goes to ds106radio. The Aux 1 button sends the sound to my headphones. I can use the Main button under Input 2 to speak on air.
Ladiocast Streamer settings. This shows the info needed to connect to the radio. If you don’t know the password, just ask and someone will give it to you. The Connect button will start streaming. You can input song info under the Metadata tab.
There is a free cross-platform program called Mixxx that I also use sometimes. It has more of a learning curve, and a ton of options that I’ve yet to explore, but once you get the settings right it’s easy. It eliminates the need for a virtual device like Soundflower as well.
Mixxx output settings
Mixxx input settings
Mixxx connection settings
Mixxx screen. Turn up the Head Mix to send sound to headphones. Click the satellite icon to broadcast. You have to start playing track 1 before you can cue up track 2.
All the cool kids use Audio Hijack these days. It’s also a Mac program, and it’s not free, but it makes a lot of things easier. There’s a slight learning curve with setting up blocks and connecting them, but you only have to set it up once.
Audio Hijack screens. This shows the settings. The Run button starts broadcast. It also records the broadcast.
Audio Hijack metadata window. You can set it to pull metadata from sources like iTunes or Spotify
There is also an iPhone app called PocketStreamer that can be set up to broadcast using the same settings as above.
Those are the bare basics of streaming to ds106radio. With Ladiocast and Audio Hijack you can set up multiple input sources so you can do a call-in show while playing audio.
