What's a good NPR station streaming app for Android?
April 12, 2018 1:39 PM Subscribe
Do you love your local NPR station's app? I need to find a better one for my Android phone for streaming All Things Considered when it broadcasts.
I like listening to All Things Considered but am not always near a radio. My two local NPR stations' apps are really bad--one streams for a minute or five and then the stream cuts out (though the app still thinks it's playing); the other will not properly exit and persists on my phone, including sometimes randomly starting the audio feed after I've quit listening.
I'm on the east coast, so it'd be nice to have something in the same time-zone, but it's not necessary. I don't need anything else other than a reliable way to get the station's livestream and it does need to include All Things Considered (but I don't care if it's an hour or two off from the actual live broadcast of the show due to time zones).
I like listening to All Things Considered but am not always near a radio. My two local NPR stations' apps are really bad--one streams for a minute or five and then the stream cuts out (though the app still thinks it's playing); the other will not properly exit and persists on my phone, including sometimes randomly starting the audio feed after I've quit listening.
I'm on the east coast, so it'd be nice to have something in the same time-zone, but it's not necessary. I don't need anything else other than a reliable way to get the station's livestream and it does need to include All Things Considered (but I don't care if it's an hour or two off from the actual live broadcast of the show due to time zones).
Have you checked whether TuneIn Radio carries your local station? They carry mine (as a free channel, no subscription needed) and that's how I stream NPR through my phone.
posted by egregious theorem at 2:01 PM on April 12, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by egregious theorem at 2:01 PM on April 12, 2018 [1 favorite]
All Things Considered is likely streaming on multiple stations simultaneously, you can poke around for the best quality if your local station is not satisfactory.
I like Simple Radio for online streaming. There are a gazillion apps that stream online radio (TuneIn and iHeart are the big names, but they are truly bloated platforms for something so simple IMHO).
posted by quarterframer at 2:14 PM on April 12, 2018 [2 favorites]
I like Simple Radio for online streaming. There are a gazillion apps that stream online radio (TuneIn and iHeart are the big names, but they are truly bloated platforms for something so simple IMHO).
posted by quarterframer at 2:14 PM on April 12, 2018 [2 favorites]
Best answer: NPR One is the network's killer app. Every station app should connect to NPR, but NPR One comes exclusively from NPR. You'll be less likely hear local stuff, though you can choose it (Lots of network/station angst around that). Also, you can ask your voice assistant to play any NPR station by callsign and it will deliver that station's stream. You can also just ask it to "Play NPR."
posted by CollectiveMind at 2:34 PM on April 12, 2018 [6 favorites]
posted by CollectiveMind at 2:34 PM on April 12, 2018 [6 favorites]
the WNYC app works pretty well for me.
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 2:36 PM on April 12, 2018
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 2:36 PM on April 12, 2018
Minnesota Public Radio has a couple apps - one (MPR Radio) is just streams of the live radio from the various MPR stations; the other (MPR News) also has that but also news, podcasts, and blogs. I usually stream their news in the mornings when I'm traveling and have never had a problem with the feed (but it is the live radio stream, so there's local MN news content and programming is on Central time)
posted by nickmark at 3:18 PM on April 12, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by nickmark at 3:18 PM on April 12, 2018 [1 favorite]
Seconding the TuneIn app. All of my area NPR stations are on it.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:43 PM on April 12, 2018
posted by Thorzdad at 4:43 PM on April 12, 2018
- NPR One
- Tunein for NPR streams
- any podcast player which will sync ATC pretty much as soon as it airs live on WBUR
- WGBH is available on iHeartRadio
posted by GuyZero at 5:01 PM on April 12, 2018
- Tunein for NPR streams
- any podcast player which will sync ATC pretty much as soon as it airs live on WBUR
- WGBH is available on iHeartRadio
posted by GuyZero at 5:01 PM on April 12, 2018
Best answer: PublicRadioFan is a website that collates the schedules and stream links of I don't know how many public radio stations. So if you pull up (and bookmark) the page for All Things Considered, you get a complete list of all stations that stream ATC, and a highlight of the current hour to indicate which ones are streaming it right now.
In practice, you do come across stations with streams that aren't compatible with whatever, or aren't reliable, but if you have a habitual listening time, then you'll eventually find stations that are reliable and work with your routine.
posted by Sunburnt at 5:08 PM on April 12, 2018 [1 favorite]
In practice, you do come across stations with streams that aren't compatible with whatever, or aren't reliable, but if you have a habitual listening time, then you'll eventually find stations that are reliable and work with your routine.
posted by Sunburnt at 5:08 PM on April 12, 2018 [1 favorite]
Some stations still have old-school mp3 streams available, and I use ServeStream on my phone which is the most basic mp3-stream (aka shoutcast) app I could find. It's pretty basic but it works. There's no directory in the app, you have to find the URL for the stream on the web and add it (by sending or sharing the URL to the app from the browser, or copy-paste.) [But that means it doesn't depend on some web service that might go away in the future. Also no ads, promoted stations, or anything like that.] There may be better apps out there, I found this several years ago and haven't had reason to switch. I have bookmarks for the Boston stations (WBUR, WGBH), NH public radio, and some others (WZBC and WCRB in Boston) bookmarked so can give those URLs to anyone if they're now hard to find or add these days.
posted by thefool at 5:17 PM on April 12, 2018
posted by thefool at 5:17 PM on April 12, 2018
Response by poster: Thanks for the helpful suggestions, everyone. I think NPR News is perfect for what I want and gives me the opportunity to check out lots of other stations as I want.
I checked out NPR One again after everyone here recommended it. I first used it when the app was first announced and deleted it pretty quickly because it specifically seemed to omit All Things Considered and did not have any individual station streaming. It was simply a curated list of individual stories and programs and that wasn't what I was after. Looks like it does have individual station streaming now.
I used to just subscribe to an ATC podcast feed, but it disappeared from NPR's podcast page years ago and no podcast apps that I've tried, including my current favorite Pocket Casts, does not have it in the podcast directory.
posted by msbrauer at 6:49 AM on April 13, 2018 [1 favorite]
I checked out NPR One again after everyone here recommended it. I first used it when the app was first announced and deleted it pretty quickly because it specifically seemed to omit All Things Considered and did not have any individual station streaming. It was simply a curated list of individual stories and programs and that wasn't what I was after. Looks like it does have individual station streaming now.
I used to just subscribe to an ATC podcast feed, but it disappeared from NPR's podcast page years ago and no podcast apps that I've tried, including my current favorite Pocket Casts, does not have it in the podcast directory.
posted by msbrauer at 6:49 AM on April 13, 2018 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by emdeesee at 1:56 PM on April 12, 2018 [2 favorites]