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- Internet Radio Part 2
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Let’s Get Into It!
Last time we covered Satellite, real Internet radios, and smart devices. This time we’ll cover Internet radio websites and apps.
Internet Radio in Your Pocket
Those physical radios we discussed last time are just fine if you want to be able to simply switch it on and listen over breakfast or while cooking but did you know that you have a very capable Internet radio in your pocket? Yes, your smart phone! All you need is an Internet radio app and you can listen through your phone’s speaker or hook up to your favorite speaker or headphones and just listen. I’m sure we’ve all toyed with music streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube Music but there are apps that allow you to tune in to actual radio stations. Many OTA (Over-The-Air) radio stations have their own app which gets you access to their stream and maybe some additional, station-specific features like contests. But there are also many apps that give you access to multiple stations. Some are totally free with no ads, others serve ads periodically, interrupting the station’s stream, others provide an ad-free experience for free or for a monthly/yearly fee. I’m only going to discuss those few radio apps/websites that I’ve used. There are many more available. If you aren’t happy with the way one works or looks, you can easily find an alternative.
TuneIn (https://tunein.com/) is one of those station aggregator apps that serves ads or, for a fee, will let you go ad free. The app has a search function or you can browse radio stations by location, genre, podcast, etc. You can save stations to easily return to them later. TuneIn can cast to a smart speaker.
iHeart (https://www.iheart.com/) which used to be known as iHeartRadio is another aggregator that provides stations with ads or, for a fee, no ads. iHeart has many other options besides live radio but, when it comes to live radio, it only plays stations that are part of their network—their selection is a bit more limited. It doesn’t appear to allow casting to a smart speaker.
Simple Radio (https://streema.com/mobile/) is an aggregator from Streema. They maintain their own list of stations but you can add your own stream if you have one. They offer a free version with text ads (not audio ads injected into the audio stream like TuneIn) and a premium version that eliminates those text ads. The premium version also offers a sleep timer. They do not have the ability to cast to a smart speaker.
Personally, I prefer to go with free services that aggregate streams from both OTA radio stations and Internet-only radio stations.
Free Aggregators
One free service is Radio Garden (https://radio.garden). Besides being available on the web, it has apps for Apple and Android. Both the web and the app have an unusual interface in that they present a globe. You can spin the globe, zoom in and out, and find stations in or around pretty much anywhere on earth. Each radio station is represented by a dot with the size of the dot indicating how many stations are available there. You can mark the stations you like with a heart and it will be stored as a favorite but be aware that your favorites are stored in your browser. Clearing cookies will lose them as will using private browsing facilities.
Radio-browser.info is a little different. It is a community-maintained list of radio stations. It has a search function which is more than a little finicky, making it difficult to locate a station using anything other than its call sign. You can play stations right from the website as well as get more information about each station and the type of music it plays. It is generally my favorite source for stations, but the site doesn’t provide any way to mark stations as favorites. To overcome these shortcomings, I use apps with their own search and favorites facilities. The site lists quite a few apps that use its directory (see https://www.radio-browser.info/users). I prefer to use the Replaio app (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hv.replaio&hl=en-US) because I prefer its interface, but there are plenty of other apps available. In fact, more apps exist than are displayed on the radio-browser site—Replaio isn’t even mentioned there! Replaio can cast to a smart speaker.
vTuner (https://vtuner.com/setupapp/guide/asp/BrowseStations/startpage.asp) is an aggregator that provides access to radio stations for real hardware Internet radios. They do not have apps per se but they have a web interface (listed above) and you can search for and listen to stations for free there.
There are many other aggregators. The ones I have listed I have used.
That’s all for this time
I hope you’ll search out your favorite radio station and give some radio streaming apps a try. 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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If you like, you can read my most recent newsletter in the Hillsboro Times Gazette at https://go.ttot.link/TG-Column - I should have that link updated shortly after this edition of the newsletter appears in the online version of the newspaper.