The radio dashboard, step by step

1. Finding your station

1. Sign in to your dashboard and choose Radio in the menu on the left. From the home page or an account page, Manage station takes you to the same place.
2. Each station is a card. Its header shows the station name, its account number, its plan and a status pill (Online, Stopped and so on).
3. The buttons at the top right of the card act on the whole station: Start, Stop, Restart and, on Auto DJ plans, Skip track. They act at once, without asking first.
4. Under the header are the station's tabs. A station with Auto DJ has: Overview, Audience, Music, Format, Playlists, Schedule, Clocks, Programs, Voice tracks, Licensing, Commercials, Share and Go live. A Free station (live only, no Auto DJ) has Overview, Audience, Schedule, Licensing, Share and Go live.

There is no "Settings" tab. Your station's time zone is under Go live › Live settings (or the change link at the foot of the Audience tab). Bitrate and listener limits come with your plan and are shown on the Overview.

A card that says Current platform belongs to a station that has not moved yet: Open service page takes you to its old control panel. A card that says Being set up is a new station; it is ready within about 15 minutes of payment.

2. Saving: what goes on air when

This is the part most people moving from Centova miss, so it comes first. The dashboard saves in two different ways.

Programming is a draft until you press Save programming

Everything on the Format, Playlists, Schedule, Clocks and Programs tabs edits one draft of your programming. Nothing in that draft reaches the air until you send it.

1. Make your changes. You can move between those five tabs freely; the draft stays with you.
2. As soon as something is unsaved, a bar appears above your stations: Unsaved programming changes. Your station plays them only after you save. Once you scroll, it stays pinned under the dashboard header. The bottom of the tab shows Save programming with Unsaved changes beside it.
3. Press Save programming (in the bar or at the bottom of the tab). The line reads Saving…, then the message Programming saved. Your station picks it up in a moment. appears.
4. Check that the line beside the button now reads All changes saved and the bar has gone. That is your proof it is on air.

Closing an editor: Done, save later or Done & save

• In a playlist's Tracks editor and in the clock editor, Done & save closes the editor and saves your whole programming in one go. Done, save later closes it and keeps the change in the draft, for when you have more to do first.
• The schedule slot, seasonal schedule and folder playlist editors close with Done (or Add slot, Create, Play this folder). These put the change in the draft only; then press Save programming.

If a save does not go through

The line beside the button turns red and reads Not saved, and a red bar explains why: it starts Not saved:, gives the reason, and ends Your changes are still here. Nothing is lost.

• If the reason is about your programming (for example A playlist needs a name.), fix that and press Try again.
• If it says our network or our servers turned the save away, press Try again in a minute. If it keeps happening, chat with us and quote the error number it shows.

Unsaved changes are kept, and can be thrown away

• Close the tab or follow a dashboard link with unsaved changes and you are asked first: by your browser, or by the panel's Leave without saving? window. If you leave anyway, this browser keeps your draft for up to 30 days, and next time you open Radio the bar offers it again: You have unsaved changes from a given time, with Save, Discard and Show. Until you save, your station keeps playing the programming it had.
• To throw a draft away, press Discard changes (beside Save programming) or Discard in the bar, and confirm. Your station keeps its saved programming. This cannot be undone.
• Show in the bar takes you to the station whose changes are waiting.

These take effect at once

• Music library: uploading, deleting, Edit track › Save, and creating, renaming, moving or deleting folders and files. When you move or rename something, your saved playlists are updated to follow it.
• Go live: encoder passwords, DJ accounts, DJ hours, Live settings and contributor links.
• Your shows (the public line-up on the Schedule tab), voice tracks, extra streams, the time zone and the SHOUTcast switch.
• Save episode on the Programs tab and Save in a podcast window: these save your whole programming at once, other unsaved changes included.
• Start, Stop, Restart and Skip track.

Some of these restart Auto DJ once, and the panel warns you before it does: listeners hear a few seconds of silence. Live settings and the time zone work this way. DJ hours never restart anything.

3. Overview

The Overview tab, from top to bottom:

• On air: the song playing now, the show on now and the next show, and a Recently played list. It updates itself every few seconds.
• The status and what it means:

  Status	What to do
  Online	Nothing; your station is up. Auto DJ plays, or connect your encoder to go live.
  Not responding	Press Restart. If it stays like this, chat with us.
  Stopped	Someone switched it off. Press Start.
  Starting / Stopping	Wait a few seconds.
  Suspended	Chat with us to have it restored.

• A warning about missing files, if a playlist names files that are no longer in your library. Fix in Format takes you to them.
• Listeners: how many are listening now, out of your plan's maximum, with the peak and average of the last 24 hours. Under it, Listener hours this month, used against your plan's allowance.
• Listen: your station's links, with Copy link and Open. See Listen links.
• Streaming server: Icecast or SHOUTcast, and the switch between them.
• Your station's own app and, on plans with more than one stream, Extra streams.

4. Music: your library

The Music tab holds every file Auto DJ can play. At the top, a bar shows how much of your storage you are using. Below it are the folders, the upload box, and the tracks in the folder you have selected.

Folders

The folder list starts with All files (everything) and Top level (files that are not in any folder), then your folders. Click a folder to see its tracks; the arrow beside it opens its subfolders.

1. Make a folder: press New folder, type a Name (for example News), choose where it goes under Inside (or leave Top level), then press Create folder.
2. Rename or move a folder: select it, press Rename / move, change the Name or the Inside folder, and press Save. Its tracks go with it and your playlists follow. You can also drag a folder onto another folder.
3. Delete a folder: select it and press Delete folder. The confirmation tells you how many tracks are inside and which playlists use them. Deleting a folder deletes the tracks in it.
4. Make a playlist from a folder: select it and press Make a playlist. See folder playlists.

Uploading

1. Select the folder the files should go into. With All files or Top level selected they go to the top level.
2. Drag audio files from your computer onto the box that says Drag audio files here, or choose files, or click choose files and pick them. The line under the box lists the formats your station accepts and the largest file size.
3. Each file shows its progress and then Done. A file that could not be uploaded stays on screen with the reason.

You can also drop files from your computer straight onto a folder in the folder list, and they upload into that folder. A new track shows Analyzing… for a short while as we read its tags and measure its loudness; until then its Edit button is greyed out.

Stations that moved from Centova keep their FTP login: same server, username and password as before, and files uploaded that way show up in the library by themselves. If you would like an FTP or SFTP login for another station, ask us in chat.

Editing a track

Press Edit on a track. In Edit track you can change:

• Title, Artist, Album: what listeners see in their player.
• The cover: Upload a cover or Remove cover (JPEG or PNG).
• The royalty details: ISRC, Year, Label, Composer, Genre, and an optional Rights end on date, after which the track leaves the air but stays in your library.
• Category & tags, which smart playlists use.
• Weight (1 to 10: a higher weight plays more often) and Explicit, plus Cue in / out and Intro / outro markers. These four come with Platinum.

Press Save. The change takes effect at once.

Moving or renaming a file

1. Press Move on the track.
2. Choose another Folder, or change the File name (the extension is kept for you), and press Move.

Playlists that list the track follow it. You can also drag a track onto a folder in the folder list.

Deleting a track

Press Delete on the track and confirm. It is removed at once and Auto DJ stops playing it. There is no undo, so keep your own copy of anything you may want back.

Duplicates

A track with the same audio as another is marked Duplicate. Press Duplicates only above the list to see just those, and Show all to go back.

5. Playlists

Auto DJ plays your default playlist unless the format or the schedule picks another. With no playlists at all, it shuffles your whole library.

Making a playlist and adding tracks

1. On the Playlists tab press New playlist. A playlist called "New playlist" appears; type its real name over it.
2. Choose its play order: Shuffle or In order.
3. Press Edit tracks. The Tracks editor opens with In this playlist on the left and your Library on the right.
4. Find tracks with Search title, artist or folder or the folder menu, then press Add on each track, or Add all shown. You can also drag tracks across.
5. To take a track out, press × beside it. In an In order playlist, use the ↑ ↓ arrows or drag to change the order.
6. Press Done & save and wait for All changes saved. (Or Done, save later if you want to edit more playlists first, then Save programming.)

To add brand-new files while you are in the Tracks editor, use Upload… at the top of it. They are added to the end of the playlist and go on air when you press Done & save.

You can also create a playlist from the Format tab (New playlist under All playlists). That version asks straight away what the playlist is for: General (songs mixed by weight), Interval (every N songs or minutes), Scheduled (at a set time) or Nothing yet. Then press Create and add tracks.

The controls on each playlist

• Default: the playlist that plays when nothing else is scheduled.
• The On / Off switch: Off keeps the playlist and all the places it is used, but stops it playing. Nothing is deleted.
• Edit tracks, Play a folder…, Smart… and Delete. Deleting a playlist removes it from the rotation and schedule too; your files stay in the library.

Folder playlists: a show that updates itself

A folder playlist plays whatever is in its folder at the time. Upload a file into the folder and it plays; delete it and it stops, with no playlist editing. This is the way to run a daily news bulletin or a weekly show.

1. In Music, make a folder for the show (for example Morning News) and upload the first episode into it.
2. On the playlist, press Play a folder… (or select the folder in Music and press Make a playlist).
3. Pick the Folder, then under Plays choose one of:
   • Every track in the folder
   • Every track in the folder and its subfolders
   • Only the newest track (this week’s episode, a daily bulletin): each time you upload the new episode, that one plays. You may delete the old ones or leave them.
4. Choose the Order (Shuffle or In order (by file name)). If the playlist already had tracks, you can keep them to play first, as an intro or jingle.
5. Press Play this folder (or Done), then Save programming.
6. Now schedule the playlist at the show's time; see Format.

From then on, just upload each new episode into the folder. Files that arrive by FTP are picked up the same way.

Smart playlists

Press Smart… on a playlist to fill it with every track of a Category and/or with certain Tags (set them in Music › Edit track). A track you tag later joins by itself. Press Save, then Save programming.

6. Format: rotation, spots and set times

The Format tab shows your whole station on one page, the way a program director thinks about it, starting with a few plain sentences that describe what will play. It has five parts. Everything here is part of the draft: finish with Save programming.

General rotation: which playlists make up your music

1. Under General rotation press Add a playlist and choose one.
2. Give each playlist a Weight. Each song is picked from one of the playlists at random by weight: with weights 18 and 6, the first plays three songs for every one of the second. The bar beside each shows its share.

Without a rotation, the default playlist plays.

Interval playlists: commercials, IDs, promos

1. Press Add an interval and choose the Playlist (your jingles or ads).
2. Set Plays every N songs or minutes, and how much Each break plays (a number of tracks, or the whole playlist).
3. Choose the Order, the Days and the Hours (or All day), and press Add interval.

A break waits for the end of the song on air, so no song is ever cut.

Scheduled playlists: play at a set time

Use this for a show, a bulletin or a countdown that starts at a given time.

1. Press Add a scheduled playlist and choose the Playlist.
2. Under Repeats pick Weekly, on the days below, Daily or One time, on a date, then the Days or Date and the time it starts (At).
3. Choose the Order and when it Stops: When the playlist has played through, At a time, or After a number of minutes.
4. Tick Start on the minute: fade out whatever is playing if it must start exactly on time (for the news at the top of the hour). Without it, it waits for the song on air to finish.
5. Press Add, then Save programming.

When it has finished, the rotation carries on.

The week

A planner of your week, the same one as on the Schedule tab. See Schedule.

Fades and levels

Crossfade, Fade in and Fade out, in seconds. With a crossfade the next song starts that many seconds before the current one ends; 0 is a clean cut. Loudness levelling (Platinum) evens out the volume between tracks.

All playlists

A table of every playlist and what it does: in the rotation, an interval, scheduled, in a clock, the default, or Not used. Use as… gives a playlist another job; a playlist can do more than one.

7. Schedule: the week

The Schedule tab has two separate things on it. Keep them apart:

• Your shows, at the top, is the line-up listeners see in your app, on your public page and in the directory ("Breakfast with Ana, weekdays 7 to 10"). It is a description only: nothing plays from it, and it saves as soon as you press Add show or Save.
• The week planner, below it, decides what actually plays when. It is part of the programming draft.

Adding a show to the line-up

Press Add a show, fill in the Title, Host (optional), Days and the times, add a square Picture if you like, and press Add show.

Planning the week

On the left of the planner are your playlists (and clocks). The grid shows Monday to Sunday, hour by hour, in your station's time zone.

1. Choose what a drop creates: Dropping makes a show (the playlist plays through once at that time, then the rotation carries on) or a time window (the playlist or clock plays for the whole window).
2. Drag a playlist onto a day and time. Or press + beside it, or press Add a slot and fill in Days, From — to and Plays (easier on a phone).
3. Drag a block up or down to change its time on all its days, or onto another day to move that day only. Hold Shift to move every day along, Ctrl or Alt to copy. Drag the bottom edge of a window to change its end. Everything snaps to 5 minutes.
4. Click a block to change it: its playlist, days and time, Start on the minute for a show, or Remove.
5. Press Save programming.

Copy… copies one day to other days (Copy day) or replaces the whole week from another schedule (Replace week).

Where nothing is scheduled, the default playlist plays (or, with no default, the whole library shuffles). A window cannot run past midnight: split it into two.

The week check

Under the planner, the week check lists anything to look at before you save: two windows that overlap (it tells you which one plays), a slot whose playlist is empty or deleted so it would fall silent, and shows that run into each other. ✓ Week check: no overlaps, gaps or silent slots. means all is well.

Seasonal schedules (holidays and special weeks)

A seasonal schedule takes over from your normal week between two dates, at the times it has slots for; outside those times, and outside those dates, your normal week plays.

1. Press + Seasonal, give it a Name (for example Christmas), choose the dates under From — to, and press Create.
2. With its name selected in the row of buttons above the planner, add its slots as above. Base takes you back to your normal week.
3. If two seasons share dates, ↑ Higher and ↓ Lower decide which wins. Edit dates and Delete season are on the same bar.
4. Press Save programming.

Playout settings

Also on this tab: Crossfade, Clean mode (no explicit tracks), Smart shuffle (don't repeat a track, artist or album too soon, with an option to follow the US webcasting rules), Compress uploads (WAV/AIFF to MP3), Take listener requests and Loudness levelling. They are part of the draft too.

8. Clocks

A clock is one hour of programming you can reuse: for example, a station ID, four songs from your hits playlist, a jingle, three more songs, the news fixed at :00 and a commercial break fixed at :20. Clocks are built from your playlists, so make those first.

1. On the Clocks tab press New clock and name it.
2. Press Add element for each part. Choose its type (Music, Jingle, Station ID, Commercial, News, Weather, Program), the playlist it plays from, and how many tracks.
3. Set each element In sequence (plays in turn) or Fixed at a minute of the hour. Drag the elements to put them in order.
4. Read The hour preview and the Check box underneath, which warns about empty or thin playlists.
5. Press Done & save (or Done, save later).
6. Put the clock on the week: on the Schedule tab, drag it onto the planner (a clock always makes a time window) or choose it under Plays in Add a slot. Then Save programming.

9. Programs and voice tracks

Programs: pre-recorded and syndicated shows

1. Upload the show's files in Music.
2. On the Programs tab press New program and name it. If its episodes have breaks, choose the playlists for Station IDs from and Ads from.
3. Press New episode, give it a Title, and add what plays in order: Add file for each file and Add break for each break. For a syndicated show with a cue sheet, use Import a cue sheet and Read cue sheet: the commercials in the file are left out and your own break plays instead.
4. Under When it airs, choose Once or Weekly, the day and time, and press Add airing. Add more airings for reruns, and an Expires (optional) date if it should stop.
5. Press Save episode. This saves straight away: it puts the episode on air together with any other programming changes not saved yet.

Publish as podcast on a program turns its episodes into a podcast feed (without the breaks) that you can submit to Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Voice tracks: talk breaks recorded ahead

1. On the Voice tracks tab, press Turn on (Auto DJ restarts once).
2. Press Switch on the microphone, then Record, then Stop. Give it a label and press Save.
3. Under your recordings, press Air next or Air at… to choose the day and time. It plays between two songs.

10. Go live: encoders and DJs

When you or a DJ connect an encoder, you take over from Auto DJ, and Auto DJ takes back over the moment you disconnect. Everything for live broadcasting is on the Go live tab.

Your encoder settings

Under Encoder settings you find what to type into BUTT, Mixxx, RadioBOSS, OBS, SAM Broadcaster or any other encoder:

Set your encoder's bitrate no higher than your plan's (shown on the Overview as Up to N kbps). An encoder that sends more is disconnected, and Encoder settings then says so: Your encoder was disconnected, with the bitrate it sent and the one to use.

A SHOUTcast encoder needs only the server, port and password. If you think someone else has your password, press Get a new password: your encoder is disconnected and must reconnect with the new one.

On Platinum, a Nearest server block comes first: one server and port that connects your encoder to our server nearest to you and passes your broadcast on, which holds up better over long distances. It lists the settings for Icecast, SHOUTcast v1 and SHOUTcast 2 encoders. The direct settings underneath keep working.

DJ accounts

1. Under DJ accounts, type a name in New DJ username and press Add DJ.
2. The DJ account created window shows the Server, Port, Mount, Username and Password to give your DJ. You can reveal the password again later with Show passwords.
3. To limit when a DJ may broadcast, go to Live settings › DJ hours and press Set hours. A DJ with no hours can go live any time; with hours, they can connect only inside them and are taken off the air when their time is up.
4. Remove deletes a DJ account.

DJs from your old control panel are listed separately, under DJs from your old control panel. They keep connecting at your station's old address with their own username and password. Their passwords cannot be shown; if one is lost, press Set new password.

On air now

At the top of Go live, On air now shows who is live and how good their connection is. Disconnect takes a DJ off the air; under And then you can keep them out for 15 minutes up to 7 days, since most encoders reconnect by themselves. Let back in lifts that.

Live settings

Press Change these settings to set:

• Time zone: your schedule and DJ hours run in it.
• Dead-air detection: a DJ who is connected but silent counts as gone after the time you choose, and Auto DJ plays instead of dead air.
• Next-show handoff (Platinum): the next DJ connects early to the /next mount and takes over the moment the current one leaves. Also a standby source adds a /standby mount for a backup encoder.
• Talk over the music: a DJ who connects to /talk with just a microphone is heard over the music, which dips while they talk.
• Record every live broadcast: each live show is saved as an MP3 in the Recordings folder of your Music library.

Saving these restarts Auto DJ once (a few seconds of silence, and a DJ on air has to reconnect).

Contributor links (Platinum)

Send a guest a link and they go live from their browser, as one of your DJs, with nothing to install and no password. Choose the DJ and how long the link works, press Make a link, and copy it straight away: it is shown only once. Withdraw stops it.

11. The browser studio

Go live from your browser, with no encoder to install. You need at least one DJ account, because the studio broadcasts as one of your DJs, with their hours.

1. On Go live, under Broadcast from your browser, press Open the studio. It opens in a new tab. Use Chrome, Edge or Firefox, and wear headphones.
2. Choose the DJ under Broadcast as.
3. Under Microphone press Switch on and allow the browser to use it. M on your keyboard turns the mic on and off.
4. Drop music onto Deck A or Deck B and use Play, Next and the crossfader. Cue lets you hear a deck in your headphones only. Lower the music while the mic is on dips the music for you.
5. Press Go live. The pill shows On air and the time. To tell listeners what is playing, type it under Now playing and press Send title, or tick From the decks.
6. Press End show when you finish; Auto DJ takes over.

12. Listen links and the player

• Listen (Overview): your station's https link. It plays in browsers, VLC and most radio apps. Press Copy link to share it.
• For older players (Winamp, hardware radios): the same stream over plain http, for players that cannot open https links.
• CDN link (Platinum): one link that connects each listener to our server nearest to them, in New York, Miami, San Francisco, Amsterdam or Bucharest, so the station starts faster and buffers less. Your other links keep working.
• Extra streams: on plans with more than one stream, Add a stream adds the same audio at a lower bitrate, for mobile listeners.
• Share tab: a player for your own website. Choose the Theme, Accent colour and Height, watch the preview, then press Copy under Embed code and paste it into your site. Below it you can set up your public station page and directory listing.

If your station moved from Centova, its old links (the old address and port, and the .pls / .m3u tune-in links) keep working, so listeners who saved them are not cut off. Use the new links for anything new.

SHOUTcast instead of Icecast: under Streaming server on the Overview, Switch to SHOUTcast moves your station to a SHOUTcast DNAS server on any plan, with its own status and admin pages and a SHOUTcast Directory listing. Links, encoder settings, music and schedule stay the same; listeners reconnect after a few seconds. Switch back to Icecast reverses it.

13. Audience

Listening now, at the top, lists who is connected right now: country, city, player, how long and which stream. Export CSV downloads the list.

Below it, choose a period (24 hours to 90 days, depending on your plan) for listener hours, sessions, unique listeners, average listen and peak, then when listeners tune in and leave, how long they stay, your programs and tracks, and where your listeners are and what they use. A listen counts once it lasts a minute. Take it with you downloads CSV files or emails you a weekly or monthly report.

14. Licensing and Commercials

• Licensing: your music licences, where the station may be heard (Everywhere, Only in these countries or Everywhere except these countries), royalty reports, and the Airplay history of every recording you played, searchable and downloadable.
• Commercials: proof of airing for your advertisers. Choose a period, press Find commercials, tick the commercials or a whole spot playlist, then View report, Download CSV or Print / Save as PDF. To schedule commercials, use Interval playlists on the Format tab.

15. Coming from Centova: where things are now

When your station moved, we copied your music with its folders, your playlists and their settings, your DJs, time zone and crossfade. If something you had is missing, tell us in chat. Here is where each Centova task lives now.

16. When something is wrong

I changed a playlist but the station still plays the old one.

Is there a bar above your stations saying your changes are unsaved, or does the line beside Save programming say Unsaved changes or Not saved? Then press Save programming and wait for All changes saved. The station picks it up within a moment.

Saving shows a red "Not saved" message.

Your changes are still there. Read the reason: if it is about your programming (often a playlist with no tracks, or a time that is not like 07:30), fix it and press Try again. If it says the network or our servers turned the save away, try again in a minute, and chat with us with the error number if it persists.

A playlist shows ⚠ missing files.

Files it lists have been deleted or renamed outside the panel. Open the playlist's tracks and remove or replace them, or turn it into a folder playlist so it always plays what is in the folder.

My encoder will not connect.

Copy the server, port, mount, username and password again from Go live › Encoder settings; a single wrong character is the usual cause. If a DJ cannot connect, check their DJ hours and whether they were kept out under On air now.

My encoder connects and is dropped straight away.

Look under Go live › Encoder settings. If it says Your encoder was disconnected, the encoder is sending a higher bitrate than your plan carries: lower it to the figure shown and connect again.

Listeners hear silence.

Look at On air on the Overview. With a DJ connected but silent, turn on Dead-air detection. With Auto DJ on air, make sure your default playlist or rotation has tracks. Otherwise press Restart.