Relaying another station
Relays are a great way to broadcast content from other stations. Whether you’re looking to do some form of radio syndication or you want to connect with other stations, relays have you covered.
What is a relay
A relay lets you broadcast content from another station using your own streaming server. When you set up a relay, your server receives the audio from a third-party stream and re-transmits it to your listeners. This allows you to share another station’s broadcast directly through your website - so your audience never has to leave your platform.
Adding a relay
On your computer, open Radio Cult. Then navigate to the Relays page by clicking the Media button in the top navigation bar, and then the Relays button in the side navigation bar (Home > Media > Relays).
Once on the Relays page, just click the Add relay button (positioned in the top right hand corner of the page) to add a new relay to your station. The Add relay window will appear:
From here, please complete the following:
- Enter the Name of the relay,
- Enter the URL of the relay (an audio URL),
- Click the Test relay button to ensure the URL you entered in the previous step is correct and working as expected and
- Click the Create button.
The relay will now be added to your station.
Some relays (especially HTTP relays) may fail the Test relay step due to browser limitations. When in doubt, reach out to us with the relay URL or schedule a test event to see if the relay works.
Scheduling a relay event
To actually begin broadcasting the relay you just added from your own station, you’ll need to schedule a relay event.
On your computer, open Radio Cult. Then navigate to the Schedule page by clicking the Schedule button in the top navigation bar (Home > Schedule).
Adding a relay event to your schedule is no different than adding other types of events:
- Create a new event by clicking the desired time on the calendar. Tip: To create a longer event, drag your mouse down the page while you’re selecting the time.
- In the Create event window, click the Relay option for the event’s Media type.
- The Select relay window will appear, click the relay you wish to broadcast for this event.
- Then click the Advanced button, the Fallback dropdown will appear. Use the dropdown to select a playlist that will be broadcast if the selected relay fails for whatever reason.
- Add any additional details to the event, and
- Then click the Create event button.
The relay event will now be added to your station’s schedule.
That’s all you need to do! When the event begins, your streaming server will automatically start broadcasting the audio from the relay URL.