SomaFM n5MD (32k AAC)

SomaFM n5MD (32k AAC) is one of two entries in the United States whose names are the same but for a number, and this one's number is thirty-two. A broadcaster numbering its streams like that is separating feeds, not stations, so read the number as the part that matters.

Rank 1083 of 1,481 in the United States. What that mostly measures is how many people have already found the station through this directory, which is a poor proxy for anything else and an honest one to publish.

SomaFM n5MD (32k AAC) streams at 32 kbps against the United States' median of 128, which is less than half the local norm. On a dial where 49% of stations reach 128 kbps, a rate this low stands out, and it usually means either a speech station that never needed more or an encoder that has not been touched in years.

The audio comes from ice6.somafm.com, and 36 other stations in the United States are served from the same address. That is a streaming platform carrying many broadcasters rather than a station running its own server, which is worth knowing for a practical reason: when a platform has a bad night, a whole block of the United States' listing stops answering at once and nothing is wrong with any of the stations in it.