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BASEMENT FM

net radio, broadcasting live from a bedroom floor somewhere in the suburbs. No ads, no schedule you can fully trust, and no DJ over the age of nineteen. Press play and stay a while. ~ DJ Dial-Up, station of one

~ * ~ * ~ 88.8 on your imaginary dial ~ * ~ * ~

Now playing LIVE

♪ NOW PLAYING, "Dial Tone Symphony" by The Handshake Modems  ♪  up next, "Teal Screensaver Waltz" by Bouncing DVD Logo  ♪  the request line is open all night  ♪  you are listener number forty-eight thousand and something  ♪

The booth is live. Whatever is spinning in the deck below is what is going out over the stream this very second, give or take one buffering hiccup and a cough into the mic.

On air 128 kbps stereo Best heard loud

♪ The Basement FM deck

Here is tonight's rotation, loaded into the player. Nothing plays until you press , we would never blast audio at a stranger who just walked in. Click any title to cue it up.


Today's lineup

The clock on the wall is a novelty item, so times are approximate. Slots run on basement standard time.

Basement FM broadcast schedule, Thursday
Slot Show On the decks
6-9 AMModem SunriseDJ Dial-Up
9-12 PMDesktop WallpaperDJ Teal
12-3 PMLunch Tray Lo-FiDJ Floppy
3-6 PMAfter-School StaticSelector Static
6-9 PMThe Dinner RushMC Ctrl-Alt
9 PM-1 AMBasement After DarkDJ Dial-Up
1-6 AMThe Night Sysop (unattended)a very long tape

The request line

Want to hear something? Dedicate a track to a friend, a crush, or your own future self? Fill this out and it prints to the little receipt printer by the mic. I read the good ones between songs.

How are you listening?

Heads up: this is a demo booth, so the receipt printer is imaginary and nothing you type leaves your machine.

Last played

Missed something and need to know what it was? The deck remembers the last few.

  • "Dial Tone Symphony", The Handshake Modems (11:58 PM)
  • "Autoexec Dreams", Config Sys (11:52 PM)
  • "Basement Window Blues", Fluorescent Hum (11:47 PM)
  • "56k Forever", The Buffering (11:41 PM)
  • "Cassette Deck Lullaby", Tape Hiss (11:36 PM)
  • "Teal Screensaver Waltz", Bouncing DVD Logo (11:30 PM)

Listeners tuned in

You are listener

Counted since we warmed up the transmitter for Y2K. Some of them are probably the same person hitting refresh. That person is welcome here.

How to tune in

Point any streaming MP3 player at the stream. Open your player, choose File then Open URL, and paste one of these. No plugins, no login, no account to make.

C:\NETCAST>
type basementfm.pls

[playlist]
NumberOfEntries=1
Title1=Basement FM - 128kbps stereo
File1=http://stream.basementfm.example:8000/listen.pls

  backup mount ...... http://stream.basementfm.example:8000/listen.m3u
  status ............ ON AIR
  bitrate ........... 128 kbps
  now buffering ..... this is normal, breathe

1 file(s) displayed, 0 ads served

That address is a prop, a fake dial for a fake station. Nothing here connects to anything; it is a picture of a stream, not a stream.

The booth

Basement FM signed on at midnight on the first of January, 2000, mostly to prove the computer would survive the date. It survived. The stream never went back off. It runs off one beige tower, a sound card with delusions of grandeur, and a microphone clipped to a desk lamp.

The whole operation is DJ Dial-Up, nineteen, nocturnal, and firmly of the opinion that a segue is a sacred thing. Guest DJs are friends who wandered downstairs. The overnight show is a tape that loops until someone trips over the cable.

Station ID

"You're locked into Basement FM, eighty-eight point eight on your imaginary dial, the only frequency broadcast entirely from below ground level. Stay warm, stay tuned."

From the request line, 2:14 AM

i have no idea who you are but the overnight tape got me through a whole history essay. please never fix the buffering, it is part of the sound now.

Fellow basements

We hold hands with other kids broadcasting off their bedroom floors. Follow the ring around and go get lost in someone else's static.

Basement FM is a proud node of the Bedroom Broadcasters webring, net radio from teenagers' floors, worldwide.