I’ve wanted to build an internet radio with some small PC or maybe a Pi for a while that could be left without needing constant tweaking and maintenance. I’ve seen Icecast before. Is liquidsoap a good option for this idea?

I’d make a PCB with some buttons and a dial on it, but unsure what the software side of that would look like and how it would send commands to whatever radio software is running.

A common way to use liquidsoap with icecast is to send a stream from liquidsoap to a remote server running icecast for distribution. Your pi running liquidsoap can then accept local telnet commands for control: https://www.liquidsoap.info/doc-2.2.5/server.html