Streaming Radio

We’ve discussed different types of streaming in the past. Today I want to concentrate on streaming radio stations both terrestrial (traditional radio stations that you listen to through a car or home radio) and radio stations that are not on your radio dial and only broadcast over the Internet.

Why stream?

I could be flippant and say why not but that doesn’t explain anything. First, let’s deal with your favorite radio station(s) that you listen to in the car, at home, in the backyard, whatever. Things that are beyond our control, like bad weather, can interfere with the signal. If you’re driving out of the area your favorite station(s) may not be available on your car radio or they may fade in and out. And if you want that station to play throughout your home you’ll need multiple radios or just turn one radio up really loud.

If you stream all you need is an Internet connection - most radio stations nowadays have a stream you can “tune” in to by going to their website. Many have apps you can load on your phone or tablet and many also are available from streaming aggregators (we’ll get to this a little later). Play their stream on your phone or tablet or computer. If you have ear buds you can listen on your own without bothering anyone else. If you have smart speakers like the ones from Amazon or Google you can stream through them by asking them to play your station. You can connect to some smart speakers via bluetooth from your phone, tablet, or computer. You can use Apple AirPlay with some of them and, in the case of Google products, in addition to asking them to play your station you can “cast” to them (see my article from May 22, 2022 titled “So how do I watch this stuff on my TV?”).

Other benefits?

Streaming radio opens up the whole world to you! You can stream radio from England or Ireland or Italy or Germany or, well, anywhere. But you can also find other radio stations right here in the United States, Canada, or Mexico. If you’re not happy with your options for over-the-air (OTA) radio in your area you can find other stations that play the music you like or the news you have an interest in or the sports you like. And there are lots of radio stations that don’t broadcast OTA. And you can switch between multiple stations quickly and easily. I regularly listen to a radio station from Fort Bragg/Mendocino called KOZT The Coast. There’s no way I can pick that up on my radio here - I’m too far away. And I switch from that to WDST Radio Woodstock in Woodstock, New York, and WWOZ, a great jazz station in New Orleans. Then there’s Radio Paradise which does not broadcast OTA.

How do I do this?

There are apps that are aggregators of radio stations, OTA and otherwise, like TuneIn and iHeart (to name just 2). You can load their app onto your smart device and select stations by location or genre or many other criteria. There are apps that rely on their users to suggest radio stations, both OTA and Internet only, in a process known as “crowdsourcing”. My favorites rely on a database of stations at https://radio-browser.info. You can search for stations on that web site by callsign, location, and genre pretty easily, and then listen to the resulting stations right from the search results. Or you can grab one of the apps that rely on that database (see https://www.radio-browser.info/users).

Another different and interesting way to search and listen is by going to https://radio.garden on the web or via their app. It has a unique interface in that it shows you a map with radio stations marked by a green dot. You can click on a dot and start listening to that station right away. And it’s not limited to North America. You can zoom out and spin the globe to see other countries and the stations available there. If there are a lot of stations in the area you’ve chosen, you can zoom in to see individual stations. Of course there is a search and you can search by location name (Mendocino, for example) or by call sign (WWOZ, for example).

Both https://radio-browser.info and https://radio.garden have a way for you to ask for a station to be added to their respective database. Their owners try to keep their databases current.

What I’ve discussed aren’t the only ways to stream but they’re the ones I use on a daily basis. While I tend not to recommend, I can tell you what I use and am generally happy with.

That’s all for this time

I hope you’ll give streaming radio a chance and that I’ve introduced you to some ways to find stations out of your area that you might enjoy. 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.

Please feel free to email me with questions, comments, suggestions, requests for future columns, to sign up for my newsletter, or whatever at [email protected] or just drop me a quick note and say HI!

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.