Cracker FM through the Internet

the schematic

As Webmaster, I write the XHTML and CSS code which creates the Cracker site on my computer

I upload it to our server, which then lets anyone download it to their computer

The studio output goes over the airways on 87.9FM

It also goes to someone elses computer, which uploads it to a streaming server

When you click the link to "listen live", the cracker server sends your computer a code telling it which stream to access

Your computer then sends this code to the streaming server, which replies by sending the cracker stream back to your computer

Your player (Windows Media, or whatever you use) decodes this MP3 file into a sound output

All this computer linking explains why the stream output lags slightly behind the radio output!

Hopefully, it also explains why I (as Webmaster) have NO control over the stream!

So if it goes wrong, you ought to get a quicker fix if you ring Katie directly, rather than emailing me!