Streaming FM/AM Radio With iheartradio By Clear Channel
| by Rob Jackson on December 29th, 2009 |
There are plenty of applications on Android Market for music nuts. Lots of them allow you to stream music and plenty allow you to download podcasts – like Google Listen – so you can tune in even without a data connection. But one thing missing from many Android phones is an FM transmitte, something that seems more prevalent abroad. But the folks at Clear Channel, who own more radio stations than you probably knew existed, want to make sure you get your radio on the go and they’re way of getting it to you is iheartradio.
While iheartradio has been available on the iPhone and BlackBerry for awhile, it was just recently made available for Android. All you need is a compatible device and a data or Wi-Fi connection. It’ll even stream over 3G which is pretty cool and an advantage over other apps.
And don’t forget about how many radio stations Clear Channel owns and operates. Wikipedia, which isn’t “official” by any means, says they currently run 900+ stations. They do a whole lot more than radio… but we’ll leave that discussion for another day.
[iheartradio via Lifehacker]
1. CJ wrote on December 29, 2009
I downloaded it a few days ago but found that the station list wasn’t that great and it interferes with Mobile Defense so I deleted it after a day of use. Pandora is still the Android gold standard for streaming music.
2. RollercoasterRJ wrote on December 29, 2009
Might want to fix the headline so it reads i*heart*radio.
This is a SOLID app, and one that I’m happy I didn’t have to leave behind with my BlackBerry. Many stations, loads pretty quickly, and streams effortlessly over 3G. Absolutely beautiful. Now I just have to wait for Nobex Radio Companion to droid it out so I can have my favorite station on my Droid too.
3. G8D wrote on December 29, 2009
Needs UK support.
Plus alot of comments on the Market say it has lots of issues.
4. dilbert wrote on December 29, 2009
I tried it on a myTouch 3G and found it didn’t work all that well. It loaded up a list of stations but was not able to connect to any of them.
5. Lekky wrote on December 29, 2009
Never connected for me either, sorry once over wifi but it lagged every 2 seconds. Pretty worthless
6. Matt W wrote on December 29, 2009
Did you play with the app before you posted this Rob?
7. Jonathan wrote on December 29, 2009
I live in San Francisco and a lot of our local stations do work out here….searching around the country I found that a lot have connection problems….GREAT app…but will take a little work to make perfect. Works well for me now though…
8. Scott wrote on December 29, 2009
I installed it a couple days ago on my Sprint Hero, and I’ve had no problems except a couple force quits. I was able to bookmark my favorite sports talk station from Minneapolis and listen to it on the bus here in Seattle.
9. Ralph wrote on December 29, 2009
Sorry application sucks. gets only one station. no options.
10. Aaron wrote on December 29, 2009
Couldn’t open it on the droid eris. Force close.
11. rigamrts wrote on December 29, 2009
Anybody looking for UK support with this turd is going to be dissapointed clear channel does not own one UK radio station. clear channel is a US radio corp. iloveradio is thier big gimic to try to make up for lossing radio listeners due to thier crappy cookie cutter radio formulas.
12. Shinzakura wrote on December 29, 2009
rigamrts:
You have no idea how much you’re right. I love me some Android apps, but this is one app I could easily live without. Clear Channel, CBS Radio and ABC/Citadel are strongly responsible for radio becoming the crapfest it has become now and this is just their way to try to continue their stranglehold. It’s up to the Pandoras, Slackers and independent companies to steer a path to the future.
13. Sean wrote on December 29, 2009
im in new jersey….instant force close when trying to open this with my G1. Guess i’ll have to wait to get my hands on the nexus1
14. Troubled1 wrote on December 29, 2009
I installed it on my Sprint HTC Hero, and it works GREAT!
KFOX out of San Jose streamed great!
KTLK out of Minneapolis worked great!
15. JamesJones wrote on December 29, 2009
Works with my G1 on over a “G” (GPRS) wireless network. it does take a while for the stations to load however.
16. Sean wrote on December 29, 2009
Finally Lex and Terry!
17. jim wrote on December 29, 2009
The application eats up battery life like no other. Besides ClearChannel is an evil company.
18. TheDarkKnight wrote on December 30, 2009
I found “Cherry RPlayer” to be a good one as well. I was streaming over my EVDO signal for two hours straight, with absolutely no interruption nor buffer freezes.
19. vtmtnbiker01 wrote on December 30, 2009
Love this app. I have it on my iPod Touch and had been waiting for it to appear on android. Let’s me listen to my local favorites no matter where I travel to.
20. ari-free wrote on December 30, 2009
yeah yeah, they are ‘evil.’ Whatever.
21. pdragon wrote on December 30, 2009
Glad they finally got this app to Android, but it still needs some serious work. Searching for local stations does not work. Manually found the one I want and after that it works ok.
Requires GPS turned onto be even start the app even though no location services even seem to work properly. (force closes on startup otherwise). And then after closing it, it bugs the GPS so it won’t turn off. Starting up another app that uses GPS seems to fix it, otherwise you have to reboot.
Looks to be a good app to give a wider audience to a major US radio carrier. They just need to get some better people working on it.
22. Dan wrote on December 30, 2009
I downloaded it on my droid and have had no issues whatsoever with this app. It finds the local stations and streams them without any problems so far.
23. Grendel wrote on December 30, 2009
@Shinzakura Amen brotha
24. jim wrote on December 30, 2009
Clear Channel? No thanks.
25. Ryan G wrote on December 30, 2009
Works flawlessly on my DROID. An app I’ve been waiting for after switching over from BlackBerry.
26. Kevin wrote on December 30, 2009
I keep my apps on my hero to a minimum to avoid conflicting apps. I have no issues with the Iheartradio app on my sprint hero except if you close it down (minimize lag) it doesn’t save favorites.
I’m sorry clearchannel exists but as long as a few of it’s stations allow programming that the corporate media doesn’t in general it works for me. KTLK1150 is a good example.
27. AnonCow wrote on December 30, 2009
Clear Channel is one of the most evil corporations in existence. I would rather live in a silent world than be responsible for giving these Neo-con morons a dime of revenue. Yes, the app is free, but they make money on the advertising.
IF YOU APPRECIATE MUSIC, FREE SPEECH, OR CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY, DO NOT DOWNLOAD THIS APP.
28. DonnyIrish wrote on December 30, 2009
I’ll add to the anarchy.
Works great on my Eris. A couple force stops and some rare buffering, but now I can listen to Bob&Tom at work while out smoking!
29. Carmex wrote on December 30, 2009
Why, Rob, why? Why is it so hard to include a QR code with your articles about apps? You take the time to do a really nice write up, why not take the extra minute to generate a QR code for us and make it easy for everyone to try out that app? Please!
30. larryccf wrote on December 30, 2009
being an unabashed “neo con” and proud of it, i tried it but all i got was “forced close” – could never get it to open
but now that i know clearchannel is a neo con company, guess i’ll have to try it again
31. troy wrote on December 30, 2009
Works great on the Sprint Hero!
32. Adam wrote on December 30, 2009
I really wanted this app to work as I listen to a lot of country stations that Clear Channel produces, however, on the Droid this app drains the battery excessively and worse than that it ruins the MultiMedia station dock for the droid. Instead of going into dock mode the droids screen will turn black and do nothing. Uninstall the app and all works fine.
33. Veratu wrote on December 31, 2009
Of the 3 stations I listen to in my area, it listed one. Thankfully it was the one I listen to the most of the three. Also, it worked flawlessly with my stereo bluetooth headset. Hrm, I have yet to try Pandora with bluetooth…
34. prowse wrote on December 31, 2009
What is with all these goddam apps that really NEED to be working in Landscape Orientation or arean’t orientation aware when THEY NEED TO BE – useless as a help-me-sleep app in the dock. Talk about yer crap fests.
Good app OTHERWISE, but not where it counts in a device that can be held upside down in GoogleSky and work flawlessly – it’s not like the hardware can’t handle it people!
Let’s code this bitch.
35. prowse wrote on December 31, 2009
And iHeartRadio would be actually REALLY awesome IF it also dragged up Digital Radio Broadcasts of the local stations – fails in that.
36. prowse wrote on December 31, 2009
BTW, had Wifi off the whole time, and streaming is NOT an issue IF you have also EVDO – WILL be an issue if you have EDGE. With EDGE, you NEED Wifi on for streaming iHeartRadio
37. prowse wrote on December 31, 2009
And BTW, thanks to the iHeartRadio for interrupting me to watch AustinCityLimits – Arcade Fire – wow, good band. And those vilon/harp player chicks are HOT. Yes, want some. Arcade Fire (actually reminds me of a thickly produced Zep from the 1st 4 with a little Bruce thrown in).
38. prowse wrote on December 31, 2009
Ya know, I could have waited a while to put all this in, but no edit facility, ya gotta expect that. Ok, now Arcade Fire sounds like Talking Heads + B-52s + Edith Piaff + Bjork – I love that.
39. prowse wrote on December 31, 2009
And of course there’s the stage combat and bondage. Oh, wait , we were talking about techy things like Droids and stuff. Sorry.
40. prowse wrote on December 31, 2009
Any rock band that travels with and uses a PIPE ORGAN is my kind of band. Now, technically, I wonder if its keyboard is midi-fitted? I’ll ask.
41. Beau wrote on December 31, 2009
Where is the QR code?
42. Scentsy wrote on December 31, 2009
I am so amazed at the many many options we have on Droid. No complaints there, but I am wondering if anyone is having trouble with the time out. Mine keeps reverting back to 15 seconds, which is becoming quite aggravating. Any advice?
43. joejack wrote on December 31, 2009
FM radio is my LAST resort, though there’s much fewer independent alternatives since the RIAA jacked up the royalty rates for internet radio to well above what terrestrial stations have to pay. Our democracy in action. IMHO somafm.com has the best shoutcast stations – I find most of my new music via Indie Pop Rocks, and Cherry RPlayer is a great streaming app.
44. MrHacks wrote on January 1, 2010
#17Jim is right about clear channel.
Not to mention the DRM (http://xkcd.com/488/ and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0FAaah8jgY ) that is included with this app that provides MAINSTREAM radio that is still censored by the FCC.
You are better off installing PANDORA. (I would suggest Last.fm and imeem, but Last.fm is owned by CBS and imeem was recently snatched up by News Corp. You can’t really be an internet corporation if you are owned by a Mainstream Media corporation. (see http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x90psr_mediaopoly_news ))
45. MrHacks wrote on January 1, 2010
You are better off installing A Online Radio ( http://aor.leadapps.com/ ): Streaming audio, none of the coporate evil.
46. John wrote on January 2, 2010
F%#k clear channel!! I’d rather use streamfurious or one of the others to find my favorite talk shows.
47. Fun FREE Giveaways wrote on January 28, 2010
I love my Droid!! Only one concern is how quickly it times out. Even when I reset it to 10 minutes it resorts back to 15 seconds. Is this a normal or an isolated problem with my phone?
48. Glen Tomas wrote on February 6, 2010
Why are all of the conservative talk stations filtered out in Los Angeles? The only one I find is KFI. However, other stations that are huge in this market are not there (e.g.: KABC). Is ClearChannel a “liberal” corp that not really liberal but restrictive?
49. Brandon wrote on July 28, 2010
I live in San Francisco and like to tune in to the extreme right-wing stations every now and then…just to keep up with things on the Glenn Beck fringes. This is GREAT
50. chazz wrote on August 3, 2010
Works great on the droid….but…..really drains battery even when not listing to the radio.
Before iheartradio I could go for 3 days without charging.
After installing iheartradio only 3/4 day before I had to recharge.
Uninstalled iheartradio now I’m back to 3 days.
Would be curious to know what else the app is actually doing in the background.