Control Room started as a spreadsheet replacement for East Side Radio. Seven years later, it's powering 12 hours of live shows a day, 24/7 scheduling, and a community of 80+ hosts. We're sharing it to see if other stations need something similar.
The features we built because we needed them. Nothing more, nothing less.
Recurring shows with automatic episode generation. Repeat rules that understand fortnightly slots. Visual dashboard for the whole programme.
Track episodes from TBC → Confirmed → Cancelled. Shows can be On, Paused, or Finished. Rich metadata: titles, descriptions, pictures, tags.
Tag slots as UFG and let approved hosts self-propose. Perfect for cover shows, one-offs, and keeping the schedule full without the back-and-forth.
One URL for hosts to manage everything: show info, upcoming episodes, station guides, announce no-shows, request UFG slots. Self-service, mobile-friendly.
Manager and assistant accounts with different access levels. Host contact directory for quick daily operations. Everyone sees what they need to see.
Current live status, replay/fallback info, upcoming schedule, archives. Build your own frontend, widgets, or integrations.
Streamlined uploads reusing your backoffice metadata. Coming soon: Mixcloud and plain podcast feed generation.
Smart fallback and replay selection for off-air hours. Keep the station sounding curated even when nobody's live. Automatic programming.
Weekly emails to hosts with their upcoming shows. Coming: iCal feeds and Telegram bot for schedule reminders.
Inbox — Receive one-off show requests from your website, reply with available slots, assign shows directly. Mixcloud and podcast feeds. Recording retrieval for hosts. Social media auto-posting.
Control Room has been in the making since the early days of East Side Radio, serving as the backoffice for all our operations.
Since 2018 it replaced a half-assed spreadsheet with something that actually works. We went from struggling to manage 4 hours of live shows a day to broadcasting 12 hours daily with a curated schedule running 24/7.
It helps us plan the programme, fill the schedule, operate a broadcasting day, and upload the archives. Without it, we'd be lost.
This is a spin-off, not a startup. We're gauging interest to see if other stations face the same chaos we did. If you do, maybe this helps.
We're figuring out if this should become a proper SaaS. Drop your details and we'll be in touch if/when we open up.