Radio User Manual

Introduction

Welcome to YonaCast Radio! This documentation is written clearly and simply, explaining every feature, folder, and settings screen inside your account. YonaCast Radio includes the core proxy engine of Lite, while adding powerful 24/7 cloud playlist automation and playout scheduling.

1. The Control Room (Dashboard)

Your main control deck displays live status metrics at the top of your screen:

• Listeners: Real-time count of active listeners across your stream.
• Status: Shows if the playout engine is active (e.g. LIVE or AutoDJ).
• Source: Displays the currently active playout source (e.g., autodj, live (for external DJs), extract, or silence).
• Uptime: The duration the station has been playing continuously.
• Server Time: Crucial reference clock synced to your configured timezone for schedule planning.

The dashboard also features a Now Playing card displaying the current track name, artist, and a live progress tracker showing track-level elapsed time and duration.

2. 7-Day Playout Scheduler

Move away from random music shufflers. YonaCast Radio features a precise day-aware schedule planner:

• Programs Page: Select any day of the week (Monday through Sunday) to schedule playlists.
• Create Scheduled Blocks: Drag and drop block shapes on the timeline or use the scheduler form to specify the start time, duration, and target playlist.
• Unique Daily Seeds: When you enable "Shuffle" mode on playlists, YonaCast generates unique seeds daily so that shuffles do not repeat the same sequence.
• EPG Timeline: The grid timeline automatically updates to show scheduled hours, block labels, and fallback hours.

3. Media Library & Folders

Keep your station's assets organized using advanced file management:

• Folder Management: Create, rename, and delete nested directories (e.g., Music, Jingles, Ads) to keep assets cataloged.
• Bulk Operations: Select multiple media files and move them into a folder in one click.
• Lossless WAV Transcoding: Upload high-fidelity WAV tracks alongside standard MP3s. YonaCast's built-in transcoder automatically processes them to the correct target bitrate during playback.

4. Playout Engine & Crossfades

The playout engine ensures your station sounds like a professional FM broadcast:

• Standby Fallback: On station creation, YonaCast automatically seeds a "Fallback" playlist with a silent track. If you have unscheduled hours, the engine automatically plays from this playlist to prevent dead air.
• Seamless Segues: The playout engine calculates crossfades on track transitions.
• Timing Drift Correction: The cue engine automatically aligns playouts to prevent timing drifts, ensuring schedules match the physical playback clock exactly.

5. Web DJ Console

Broadcast live directly from your web browser without downloading any software. When a DJ initiates a live session, YonaCast Radio gracefully ducks the AutoDJ playout engine and hands over the audio stream to the live DJ. Once the DJ disconnects, the AutoDJ picks up exactly where it left off.

6. Reports & Analytics

Generate compliance reports with one click. The **Licensing Report** tracks listener duration for every track, enabling easy CSV exports for royalty bodies (ASCAP, BMI, SoundExchange). Geolocation maps show where your listeners are located.

7. Geoblocking & DJ Shift Restricting

Enforce restrictions to stay within licensing budgets. Use Geoblocking to allow/deny access based on listener countries, and create separate guest DJ credentials with strict time-window blocks.

8. Settings & Output Bitrates

Customize your output settings from the dashboard Settings panel:

• Output Bitrate Selector: Choose from 64, 96, 128, 192, 256, or 320 kbps. Lower bitrates are perfect for saving bandwidth; higher ones offer studio quality.
• Clamping Limits: You cannot exceed the maximum bitrate allowed by your administrator. If the admin reduces your limit, your station's output is automatically clamped down.
• Applying Changes: Always click **Restart Services** after editing bitrates to apply changes to the playout engine.