New Site is Live!

#1 · May 14, 2023, 10:27 pm

After months of work, we’re pleased to debut our new website!
We’ve been working hard to bring it more into 2023 standards.
Some Key points:

Opus Codec
-We are slowly rolling out new streams using the advanced Opus Codec, which allows for better sound quality with lower bitrates.
-Most streams should sound better/warmer, and Old Time radio should have a significant bump in quality.
MP3 streams are still active and considered our “main stream” for radio indexing services and are not going anywhere.
Mobile-Friendly Responsive design.
– Something that’s been sorely needed for a long time!
– Now the site looks and works the same on your phone as it does on your computer.
Cleaner design and faster response.
-All our album art has been converted to .webp format which makes some of the old files up to 1000x smaller than what we had without losing visual clarity.
The Christian Music station has been separated into two new stations:
-WALM – Contemporary Christian Music (Our Flagship Station)
-WALM 2 – Traditional Christian Music and Classical Music

Let us know what you think, and if you have any issues.

zack, eurybaric and Old Timer have reacted to this post.

Hi, I'm Dave. I'm Broehr's helper around here.

Old Timer@old-timer

#2 · May 14, 2023, 10:58 pm

Dave, it sounds great here! (Ohio)

So I don’t have to change my stream URLs to get opus?

My music player program isn’t showing song titles or artists at the moment. Can the Opus stream send metadata?

I think you folks are awesome. That’s what I think.

Dave has reacted to this post.

Dave@dave

Topic Author

#3 · May 14, 2023, 11:26 pm

stream urls are unchanged. It should automatically work if you have players made in the last decade.
Opus is supposed to be able to send metadata, but it has an issue where the stream hiccups every time the metadata changes so I was forced to switch it off. mp3 is really the only format that seems to handle metadata smoothly. I’d like to have it back too, so it’s something I will continue to research.

Thank for the kind words!

Hi, I'm Dave. I'm Broehr's helper around here.

Dave@dave

Topic Author

#4 · May 15, 2023, 3:28 pm

I’ve tried to implement metadata broadcasting, too many apps just can’t deal with it. VLC stops outputting audio after a few songs, Strawberry player completely crashes, and I watched the listener count suddenly drop off when I enabled it. So it looks like metadata is not on the table at the moment. bummer.

Hi, I'm Dave. I'm Broehr's helper around here.

zack@zack

#5 · May 18, 2023, 7:24 am

I really like the new division with contemp. Christian standing alone. This music may not always be as innovative as secular pop but the nice thing is you can let your guard down and just relax. No jarring surprises! I did like the old banner, especially when listening to classic vinyl, but this new format is clean and as you say, more functional. A nice change!

Dave has reacted to this post.

Old Timer@old-timer

#6 · May 19, 2023, 12:27 am

That Opus codec was impressive. I was listening to Classic Vinyl and Dad came in the room. He said, “Who is playing the clarinet?” I told him it was just my laptop and he said he thought there was a real live clarinet player somewhere in our house.

Any chance it could be available as a choice of streams? It seems too good not to use.

Opus Rocks!

Dave has reacted to this post.

Dave@dave

Topic Author

#7 · May 19, 2023, 2:16 am

Quote from Old Timer on May 19, 2023, 12:27 am

Any chance it could be available as a choice of streams? It seems too good not to use.

Yup, I’ve been working on it anyway!
Right now it’s only available on Classic Vinyl as a test. The web page’s player is actually serving Opus right now.
You can pick up the stream in your own player at:
https://icecast.walmradio.com:8443/classic_opus

There is no, nor will there be, any metadata transmitted on that stream. And this could all change at any time as I’m still figuring things out.
Sadly, we won’t be playing Billy and the Boingers. 🤣

broehr (admin) and Old Timer have reacted to this post.

Hi, I'm Dave. I'm Broehr's helper around here.

Dave@dave

Topic Author

#8 · May 22, 2023, 3:27 am

All the stations now have their new opus streams live!
All the web players on this site currently play the Opus streams.
You can get the link addresses here.

Also, if you click on the button on any of the stations, you can auto-generate an .m3u playlist for that station.

Old Timer has reacted to this post.

Hi, I'm Dave. I'm Broehr's helper around here.

Old Timer@old-timer

#9 · June 2, 2023, 2:35 pm

I am wondering about the schedule that showed upcoming programs on the previous version of the web site. It was nice to see what old-time-radio programs were coming up later in the day. Now I only see the history of what has already played (other than the “coming up” section, but that only shows like one or two things as opposed to everything later in the rest of the day.)

Dave@dave

Topic Author

#10 · June 2, 2023, 6:18 pm

Working on it… I won’t lie, it will be some time as it has to be coded from scratch.
It’s on my to-do, but I need to get the time to do it.
The old WordPress plugin was not really built for our purpose (It was really for scheduling live speaking engagements) and was very bloated and was slowing our site to a crawl.

Hi, I'm Dave. I'm Broehr's helper around here.