Last Friday was World Radio Day, and even though there’s still a small bastion of defenders of transistors and hi-fis, it’s just a matter of time before digital streaming buries traditional broadcasts. TuneIn Radio is one of the best options out there in this field, as a multiplatform online radio service with more than 100,000 global live broadcast channels, as well as millions of à la carte programming options to listen to at any time.
Although Spotify has really gotten on the ball with this lately and has recently added loads of options to listen to themed radio stations that generate automatically, the human factor involved in a live broadcast is unmatchable: how well you ‘connect’ with a station inevitably requires a good DJ to sift through and provide quality content instead of just turning to an automated playlist. And secondary transmissions just aren’t the same as a good live broadcast: think of podcasts, for example. In that sense, TuneIn Radio takes its competition to the cleaners, as it’s specifically designed for lovers of the medium.
Whether via the webpage itself or its iOS/Android apps, once you register you can browse through the different categories in its catalogue. You can do searches based on your location to find local and national broadcasts, or filter by type of broadcaster and content, be it music, sports, informational, or any other theme you can think of. The number of broadcasters is astounding.
To handle that amount of content, the management and administration system lets you do everything: from saving certain stations as favorites to creating your own selection of stations to post on your profile or share via your social networks. And not just stations but also specific programs: the most important broadcasters offer their recent content broken down into programs to listen to after their original broadcast dates.
This programming breakdown makes the service more interesting, as the mobile apps let you create custom alarms to let you know when the program or broadcast you want to hear is about to start. In other words, if you’re listening to a sports station, you’ll see a calendar of the sporting events that are going to be broadcast, so you can create a reminder for when the ones that interest you are about to start.
