as you can see from the title, there are a few complications...

I’m currently in the process of building an Internet Radio Stream, I want my website, goodcat.co.uk to be hosting a 24/7 web stream of new local music as tracks on a playlist with some of the tracks being interviews/sessions/features and talk segments that are shuffled with all the other tracks and played continuously. I want to build it so updating the track list is easy and hassle free, and putting in a new interview or a new track is as easy as dragging and dropping into an iTunes playlist.

My first point of call was somewhere between Shoutcast and Icecast However, I will be controlling the stream from my MacBook running OS X, and since I can’t have my laptop running 24/7 I’m either going need to buy some server hardware (expensive!) or find an alternative remote host.

A second issue I keep hitting is the lack of compatibility a lot of the programs I am finding have with OS X. One program I have found, nicecast, will run on Steve Jobs branded machines, but at a cost. I could torrent it, but that somehow feels like cheating, and besides, it doesn’t get me past my 24/7 streaming issue as my laptop will have to be switched on whenever I want to be streaming

goodcat.co.uk is hosted by one.com and with this in mind, I considered running the stream off of the server, this sounds simple enough but after a foray into the ins and outs of server application operating systems, it seems to be easier said than done. But powering on through the morning, I have decided to venture forth with Linux Server. I want to install it over an FTP server, cyberduck being my weapon of choice.

Once Linux is installed on my one.com hosted server, I will attempt to install all the necessary programs needed to operate the internet radio stream which will then be hosted on the one.com server… hopefully.

I have absolutley no idea if I'm going about this the right way, and the number of snags I keep hitting mean I'm probably doing something wrong or missing a vital point. Please help a complete programming (but quick learning) newbie.