Internet Radio, Part 1

You Can Listen

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Let’s Get Into It!

I live in an area surrounded by hills so it’s nearly impossible for me to receive local radio stations. Fortunately, technology has come to my rescue! Many broadcast radio stations — I would hazard to say most — also stream their content over the internet. And there are just as many ways to receive and play that stream. We’ll discuss a number of the ways to receive and play internet radio, from satellite radio to internet radio hardware to smart devices like the Amazon Echo and Google Nest to web sites and apps for all of your devices.

Satellite Radio

First up, just briefly, is satellite radio. SiriusXM is a subscription service that gives you access to the whole gamut of SiriusXM radio stations — music, talk, news, traffic and so on. Yes, you can use an actual satellite radio device to pick up their signal and many new cars come with a satellite radio installed and a subscription for some period of time. The company runs frequent sales on their radio hardware but, from what I hear, they have a limited ability to pick up the satellite signal in your home. But, never fear, you can also use their app, which is available on both Apple and Android, to listen to all those SiriusXM stations that you have access to. It is a subscription service and, if you work at it a little, you can get it for much less than their advertised price. They have decades-based stations like 60s Gold, 70s on 7 and 80s on 8, genre-based stations like Classic Vinyl and Deep Tracks, and artist-based stations like Fleetwood Mac Station, The Beatles Channel, and Petty’s Buried Treasure (a Tom Petty station). They even have holiday channels that play music appropriate for a given holiday.

Actual Internet Radios

There are actual Internet radios — radios like the radios of old with tuners and speakers, but, instead of just picking up over-the-air radio transmissions, they connect to WiFi and provide access to many radio stations, all over the world. Amazon has lots of them — see https://www.amazon.com/s?k=internet+radio for some. Many of them have Bluetooth capability so you can stream from your phone, some have clocks and alarms, and some have an antenna so they can pick up over-the-air (OTA) local radio stations.

How do you select the stations you want to listen to? You can’t really spin the dial and pick up a station in England or Spain, let alone a station a few hundred miles from you. Most of them (all Internet radios that I’m aware of) have a website or an app that you install on your phone or tablet and connect it to your radio. You use that website or app to select the stations you want to listen to and assign them to presets like on the old time car radios with the push buttons.

Smart Devices

If you have Amazon Echo or a Google speaker like a Nest Audio you can set it up to stream radio on demand. You might have to do a little set up to associate a streaming service with your device but generally, I would say to just give it a try with your favorite radio station. Try saying “Alexa, play KOZT The Coast” or “Hey Google, play KOZT The Coast” and see if it works. Also, check the documentation for your favorite smart device for help.

Next time

Physical radios and smart devices are two ways to listen to your favorite radio stations. But that only covers a part of what’s available. Next time we’ll discuss ways to stream Internet radio via the web and discuss some apps that stream Internet radio on your phone or tablet.

That’s all for this time

We’ve covered a subset of the ways you can listen to your favorite radio stations. Don't hesitate to write to me if you have questions!

As always, my intent is to help you understand the basics and equip you to search for more detailed information.

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