3 Useful Radio Resources for Streaming Live

Even in a world of Spotify, YouTube, Podcasts, etc – I still think radio is deeply underrated as a communications medium. The wireless industry went through active lobbying to prevent Americans from using it on our phones…even though it’s common across the rest of the world.

Either way, radio is still around. It’s just a bit of a pain to listen to on your phone and/or computer. There are several companies whose entire business model consists of taking a stream that is 100% stable and free with a good radio…putting it in an app…overlaying their own intrusive audio ads on top of the station’s ad…and then pitching a “premium subscription” to disable their ads (i.e. TuneIn, iHeartRadio, etc). I recently went on a serious hunt to find actually good radio options.

RadioBrowser

RadioBrowser is like Wikipedia but for all things radio online. The owner & community hunt down actual streams (not captured or proxy streams) from actual stations and provide them in a simple directory. It’s excellent for listening, discovery, and filtering. They’ve got everything from the best college radio to the best baseball radio to obscure community stations around the world.

RadioBrowser App Directory

They also maintain an app directory of projects that put the assembled meta data to use in a app for whatever platform you’re working with. This is where I found the Android app that I actually use. But they have iOS, Linux, Windows, etc.

RadioMobi

RadioMobi is the Android app that I ended up going with. It’s straightforward, stable, and free to start. It’s monetized with simple AdSense visual ads (no in-stream audio ads) with a one-time payment to remove them.