Practical, honest advice for radio station operators — from community programming to station setup, remote broadcasting to budgeting. Written by people who've been building radio software for 25 years.
Macs cost more on the sticker. So why do stations running on them tend to spend less on computers over time? Doubling up jobs on one Mac, longer hardware lifespans, and the total-cost math that flips the price argument on its head.
The production room has quietly become Apple country. So why is the on-air computer still Windows? A look at the divide between production and on-air — and why it's finally starting to close.
Everyone says radio is dying. Over 220 million Americans still listen every week. What the research actually shows — and why the answer matters.
Technology changes. The fundamentals of great local radio — a trusted voice, useful information, community connection — are the same as they were in 1930.
Apple's entry-level laptop is more capable than its price suggests. For a budget station, a school broadcaster, or anyone who needs their station to be portable, it may be exactly the right computer.
An independent reviewer tested budget and premium machines from both platforms across 12 categories. The results were lopsided — and they explain exactly why TuneTracker runs on Mac.
How Windows became the default for radio automation, the baggage that came with it, and why we chose a different room.
The assumption that radio automation means Windows has a history — and that history is worth understanding, because the world it describes no longer exists.
A big-city signal has more staff, higher-paid talent, and slicker production. The one thing it can never have is your town. Here’s why that’s enough to win.
Local news, sports, PSAs, lost pets, obituaries, school closings, community calendar — the specific formats that make a station feel indispensable to the people it serves.
Remote broadcasts turn your station from a voice in the room into a physical presence in your community. Here’s why it matters, where to go, and how to make it great radio.
What actually makes people choose your local station over everything else competing for their ears? Swap shops, obituaries, name mentions, local sports, and the morning voice that knows the place. The specific programming elements that build real loyalty.
Remote broadcasts, community events, charity drives, school connections, and showing up when things go wrong. The off-air moments that build the on-air audience.
Money, volunteers, programming, signal, and FCC compliance — the same five answers come back from a roomful of LPFM operators, in roughly the same order. What's hard, why, and what the long-lasting stations do about each one.
Twenty-five years after the FCC created Low Power FM, how's the experiment going? How many stations made it, where they are, what they're broadcasting — and how the rest of the world has built community radio of its own.
AI voices have gotten genuinely good. They belong on a radio station — in some places. Where they help, where they hurt, what listeners can tell, the disclosure question, and a practical approach for stations weighing the call.
Format clocks are the architectural blueprint of every radio hour. What's on a clock, why every station needs them, how to design one — with a sample hour walked through minute by minute.
Quality programming isn't really about how much money the station has. It's about decisions. A practical look at how small stations sound big — voice, music, imaging, local content, and the small details that make the difference.
Your small station can't outspend the big signals. But you can out-local them. Being the community touchpoint is how small stations win.
There was a time when your radio station knew your town. That kind of radio didn't disappear because people stopped wanting it. It disappeared because stations stopped doing it.
The news doesn't have to be big to matter. On a local station, the stories your neighbors care about are the ones nobody else is telling.
Beyond the community calendar — Pet Patrol, the lunch menu, local history, the garden report, and a dozen more segments your station should be running.
A one-person station doesn't have to sound like one. Community contributors, voice banks, AI voices, and remote recording — without adding to your payroll.
The Marti earned its reputation, but from the places stations actually broadcast, which is more likely to get your signal home today? A look at the coverage numbers, the honest weak spots, and what's changed.
The Marti RPU served radio stations faithfully for half a century. CastAway does the same job — over Wi-Fi, from any laptop, without an antenna, a truck, or anyone back at the station.
Step-by-step: everything you need to set up and run a live remote broadcast with CastAway — from connecting to your station to taking yourself live from anywhere.
Walking into a new remote location cold on broadcast day is where things go wrong. Here’s how to do an advance visit and test broadcast so nothing surprises you on the day.
You don't need a remote truck. A laptop, a mic, and a folding table. That's a remote broadcast — and it might be the most important thing your station does.
The county fair and the car dealership are obvious. The vet's office, the barber shop, the fire station, and the post office at Christmas? Those are the ones that surprise people.
Sketchy internet? No connection at all? You can still get great event coverage on the air — from phone call-ins and portable recordings to driving a thumb drive back to the station.
A practical, phase-by-phase guide for moving an existing Windows-based station to a Mac. Library transfer, clock recreation, parallel running, staff training, the switchover day — without dead air.
A practical, ordered guide to turning a fresh Mac into a complete radio station — automation, production, and streaming on one machine. Storage layout, audio routing, OS tuning, and a first-week shakedown plan.
The two-computer rule made sense in 2005. On a modern Mac, one machine handles automation and production without breaking a sweat.
An honest look at which Macs work for 24/7 radio automation — from the M1 Mac mini sweet spot to older Intel machines with caveats.
The M2 Mac mini from 2022 and 2023 is selling used on Facebook Marketplace for $350-$400, and it runs the whole TuneTracker System like a walk in the park. Where to find one, what to ask, and why "like new" really means it.
Login items, cloud syncing, notifications, Spotlight indexing — the things eating your processor's lunch and how to clean them up in fifteen minutes.
You don't need a $600 DAW. Audacity, TwistedWave, and GarageBand handle everything a small station produces. Here's what actually matters.
We're not sitting on our hands. New features, real improvements, bug fixes, and constant polish — here's how to check for updates and see exactly what's new in each build.
Real studio processing — compression, EQ, reverb, delay — right on your program audio, using Audio Unit plugins already built into your Mac. Included with System 7 Basic and Pro.
You spend hours a day looking at your automation screen, so why not make it a pleasant place to be? Backgrounds that follow the time and weather, Light and Dark modes, button colors from vivid to grayscale, and your own station logo.
Test hour turnovers, time-corrects, and interrupts on your own schedule — AutoCast's Mock Clock lets you rehearse any moment in your program log without waiting for the real clock to get there.
A power blip or an update will restart your station Mac eventually. How to make sure it comes all the way back on its own, including the new FileVault wrinkle in recent versions of macOS that can leave it stuck at a password prompt.
One setting keeps your Mac from ever sleeping — plus the companion settings for power failures, automatic login, and software updates that people forget.
Straight from Dane: what's landed recently across AutoCast, Librarian, AirStaff Studio, ClockWork, TuneVault, and SignalCaster — new features and reliability fixes worth updating for.
Those old MP3s on your station's hard drive are lossy, inconsistent, and often unauthorized copies. Here's why they're holding your station back, and a better way to build a lossless library from your own CDs.
Thrift stores and garage sales are full of professionally mastered music selling for pennies. Where to find it, how to prep it right for radio, and the new Librarian tab that does the whole job for you.
A backup that deletes files the moment they leave your station folder isn't really a backup. Why differential backups keep those "orphan" files around, and how to manage them without giving up the safety net.
The case for, the case against, the costs, the licensing, and how it actually works. A complete guide to putting your station online.
Cloud platforms are convenient. They also take your programming decisions out of your hands. Why local control makes your internet station better.
What radio automation software does, the parts every station needs, local vs. cloud, Windows vs. Mac, what it costs — and a 12-point checklist for comparing any system.
TuneTracker is built exclusively for macOS. Not ported from Windows. Not running through an emulator. Here's what Mac-native means for your station.
Playout is the heart of every station. What it does, how it differs from automation and live assist, and what really matters when you’re choosing playout software for the Mac.
Not a demo. Not a trial. Real automation software with playout, scheduling, and library management — free, with no time limit and no credit card.
No other free radio automation system comes close to what System 7 Free delivers. Here’s why that matters — and why we’re doing it.
AutoCast has four work areas — MessagePad, WeatherPad, SearchPad, and ButtonPad — each designed for a specific job. Here’s what each one does and why it’s there.
Running a station on a tight budget means knowing the difference between the corners you can cut and the ones that will cut you back.
Announcements, releases, and updates from TuneTracker Systems.
Balanced song rotation, smarter artist recognition, and a built-in test run: ClockWork’s TuneStacker now spreads airplay fairly and lets you check your spacing settings before you generate.
Read more →Marking the ending of every song by ear gets old after the first fifty. AutoCue, new on Librarian’s Transitions tab, does it for you: it listens to how each song in your Music folder ends and marks it with a Cue or an EOM, right where the next song should come in. It recognizes fades, cold endings, ring-outs, even live applause, and it can keep marking new songs as they arrive. It only fills in songs that aren’t marked yet, never touches your audio files, and any mark can be fine-tuned by hand. Available now in the latest Librarian update.
Read more →Ripper, a new tab inside Librarian, detects a disc the moment you insert it, looks up the track information, and rips it losslessly. It can trim silence and normalize loudness, then walks you through the Attribute and Transitions editors so your files are ready for AutoCast. Ripper is a one-time $39.95 purchase with no subscription.
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