How the Sleep Timer and Preferences Work on Old Time Radio

Updated

The Sleep Timer on oldtime.radio stops playback automatically after a duration you choose, and the Preferences panel controls three notification behaviors: episode summaries when you tune in partway through a show, information messages, and "Now Playing" messages. Both are reached from the station's main interface, and both require JavaScript to be enabled in your browser — the site displays "Please Adjust Your Receiver" and cannot play audio without it.

Setting the Sleep Timer

The Sleep Timer is listed as its own section in the interface, alongside Schedule, Visualiser, Volume, and Preferences.

  1. Open the Sleep Timer control from the main interface.
  2. Choose how long you want shows to keep playing before they stop — the site labels this as "Set the Sleep Timer to stop playing shows after:" followed by a duration.
  3. Leave the station playing. When the chosen time elapses, playback stops on its own.

The practical use case is listening in bed or while falling asleep: you pick a duration long enough to cover the part of a show you want to hear, and the station shuts off without you having to come back to the browser. Note that the timer stops playback — it does not pause and resume later, so if you want to continue a show afterward you would tune back in and rely on the episode summary preference (below) to orient yourself.

What Each Preference Does

Preferences on oldtime.radio are toggles rather than sliders or text fields. The page lists three:

Preference What it controls
Show episode summary when tuning in partway through Whether you see a summary of the current episode when you join a show already in progress
On Information messages Whether information messages are shown
On 'Now Playing' messages Whether messages about the currently playing show are shown

The first is the most useful for regular listening. Because the station broadcasts 24/7, you will often land in the middle of an episode rather than at the start. With this preference on, you get a summary to tell you what you've joined; with it off, you get a cleaner interface with no summary text.

The other two preferences let you reduce on-screen messaging. If you find the information or now-playing notices distracting while listening, turning them off keeps the display quieter without affecting the audio.

Things to Know Before You Rely on These Settings

  • JavaScript is required. The station explicitly states that if JavaScript is disabled you will need to enable it to listen. The Sleep Timer and Preferences are part of the same interface, so they are unavailable without it.
  • Audio is hosted by the Internet Archive. The station notes that all audio you hear is hosted by the non-profit Internet Archive, and asks regular listeners to consider supporting them financially. This matters if you plan to listen heavily — the station itself is a front end, not the host of the recordings.
  • The station is built for continuous listening. Because it broadcasts shows 24/7 rather than offering on-demand episode selection, the Sleep Timer and the "tune in partway through" summary preference are the two settings that most directly shape a normal listening session. The Station Builder is the separate feature for creating your own channels from a show list if you want more control over what plays.

If you only change one thing, set the Sleep Timer before a long listening session and leave the episode summary preference on — together they cover the two situations the station's always-on format creates: falling asleep mid-show, and joining a show already underway.