Glossary · The record itself
Lossless audio
Lossless audio is a file that preserves every bit of the master recording: WAV, AIFF and FLAC are the common formats. An MP3 permanently discards audio data to make the file smaller, and nothing can restore it, which is why broadcasters that care about sound quality ask for lossless.
Radio adds processing. A broadcast chain compresses, limits and equalises everything that goes out, and that processing exaggerates whatever damage is already in the file. Artefacts you cannot hear in headphones become audible on air. A 320 kbps MP3 survives it acceptably. A 128 kbps MP3 does not.
Headroom matters as much as format. A master pushed to the ceiling gives the station's processor nothing to work with and often comes out quieter and flatter than a record with a decibel of room left in it. Loud in the file does not mean loud on air.
At least 42 of the 273 confirmed accepting stations ask for lossless audio in their published rules: KCRW, WKNC, WMNF, WNAA, WVUA, WYXR. At least 3 state they will not accept a streaming link at all, which means a file, not a URL.
Pick your sound and region on Rotation and each of these stations shows its real submission contact and the exact rules it posts: clean edit, WAV, form or mail. Checked by hand and kept current. No station here paid to be listed.
Open my sheet →Radio is the free half, and it stays that way. Every station here is free to reach and no station ever pays to be listed. The Doors is the other half: 100 verified places that are not radio, sync libraries, music supervisors, festivals, contests, live sessions and the music press, 43 of which can actually pay an artist. It also lists the 162 we opened and refused, with the reason each one failed, because most lists of this kind are stale and the rejections are the part nobody else will show you. $9.99, the 2026 Q3 edition →
More
Every term in the glossary → · The Playbook → · The data behind the numbers →