Hello Radio. Your First Stream in One Evening.
Stream your voice to a public URL in one evening. No platforms in between. The fastest path to being a host.
The point is not a production radio station. The point is one person texting back "I hear you" before you close your laptop. Pick that person now. If you have no one in mind, or you do not want to depend on anyone's schedule, the audience is you. Streaming is always delayed, so you can always tune in and hear yourself.
Radio at its lowest layer is two things: source and distribution. Source can be a playlist, or you speaking into a mic. Tonight we go for the mic. Simpler. More real. More immediate. Everything else on this site is what you do AFTER this first-joy moment.
1. What you need before you start
- A laptop or desktop with audio input. A built-in mic works. An external mic works better. Mac, Windows, or Linux. All fine.
- One streaming account you can spin up in five minutes. We pick it in the next section.
- One human you can text the stream URL to. Optional, but preferred.
2. Setup the distribution platform
We are looking for free. Caster.fm fits the case.
Register
Open Caster.fm. Click the "Free Streaming" tab, then the Register button. You will be redirected to the registration form at cloud.caster.fm/register. Create an account and confirm your email.
Create your channel
On first login you are forwarded to the channel-creation form. Fill the required fields: name, country, timezone, language, genre. Press Create Channel.
Start the server
Go to the Dashboard. Press Start Server.
That is a working distribution endpoint. Every setting you need for the next section is on the dashboard. We did not set up the full channel profile or the public landing page. Out of scope for the first broadcast.
The dashboard also shows a "Start Broadcasting" banner. If anything below is unclear, Caster's own Broadcasting Tutorials are solid.
3. Setup BUTT
BUTT (Broadcast Using This Tool) is free, open-source broadcasting software for Windows, Mac, and Linux. The UI looks like the last century. It still does exactly what it promises. It broadcasts. It records, too.
BUTT does not stream audio files directly. To stream files instead of mic input, you bring in audio-routing tools like Voicemeeter (Windows), BlackHole (macOS), or PulseAudio (Linux). We are not doing that tonight. Tonight is mic only.
If you want the deep version, read the BUTT manual.
Install BUTT
Download from danielnoethen.de/butt. Install. Open.
Add your Caster.fm server
Click the Settings button. On the Main tab, click Add in the Server section. Fill in:
- Name. Anything memorable.
- Type. Icecast.
- Address. Copy "Server Hostname" from the Caster.fm dashboard.
- Port. Copy "Server Port".
- Mount Point. Copy "Mount Point".
- Password. Copy "Broadcast Password".
Click Add to save the server.
Set your audio input
On the Audio tab, choose the audio device that receives your mic input. Change the streaming bitrate to 96 kbps. Caster.fm requires it.
Close settings and check levels
Close the Settings window. On the main BUTT screen, speak into the mic. The audio meter should bounce green. That means BUTT is receiving input and ready to broadcast.
Go on the air
Press the Connect to Server button. It looks like a play button.
Say "Hello, world." into the mic.
This is it. You are a broadcaster. You are a host. This is your radio. Welcome to the family of rebels.
4. Notes on Caster.fm
Caster preserves its resources. If you are not streaming, the server gets stopped automatically. Its status is visible on the dashboard. If you find it stopped, press Start Server again.
Caster does not provide a public stream URL on free accounts. There is a workaround. It is a bit nerdy, but it works.
Open the stream player
On the dashboard, press Open Stream Player. A popup appears. Do not press Play yet.
Open DevTools
Right-click anywhere in the popup content and choose Inspect. DevTools opens. Go to the Network tab.
Capture the stream
Press Play in the popup. Wait five seconds. Press Pause.
Find the stream URL
In the DevTools Network tab, filter by your Mount Point. The one entry that matches is your stream URL with a token.
The URL looks like:
https://sapircast.caster.fm:15305/xKqGw?token=99c4bf40359bddfe5344575a85f19172Copy that and send it to your friend. The URL will work for a limited time. This is not a public, permanent link. This is a test.
5. The first-joy moment
It is a small thing. One person, listening to whatever you have on your mind, on a URL.
It is the first experience of being a host. You talk to everyone by talking to yourself.
It changes how you think about the rest of the site. You stop reading about radio and start being on the radio.
This is the rung the whole site is built to lift you off of.
6. Why this is not real radio yet
State the limits and move on.
- The platform owns your audience, your URL, and your discovery. You are renting.
- You are not broadcasting 24/7. The moment you stop talking and close BUTT, the station is silent.
- No licensing conversation yet. Caster has its own deals with rights organizations. The moment you move to your own origin, that conversation begins.
This is the starter rung. You graduate. The graduation is the rest of the site.
7. Where to go next, by what surprised you tonight
This site is built in public. As of publication, Foundation is the only live section. The chapters listed below describe what is coming next. Bookmark the site or check back as each chapter ships.
- "I want music, not just talk." Music Library & Metadata, then Programming & Rotation. Tag a library, build clocks, run a rotation that sounds like a station.
- "I want my own URL, not a rented one." Streaming Infrastructure. RadioDJ playout and an HLS origin in your own corner of the internet.
- "My friend asked what was playing." Music Library & Metadata. The now-playing card lives here, even when you are the source.
- "I want this on my phone." Web, Mobile & APIs.
Each of these is a future weekend. None is necessary tonight. Tonight you went on the air.