Listening to Faraway Radio Stations Is Easier Than Ever

Here’s how to do it, step by step

1. Download a streaming radio app to your phone or visit a service’s website on your mobile device. The best known may be iHeartRadio (free, Plus starting at $4.99 a month or All Access starting at $9.99 a month), the former Clear Channel that is the largest radio station owner in the United States. It streams more than 860 of its stations from 153 U.S. markets organized by genre. TuneIn (free or Premium at $9.99 a month) streams 120,000 radio stations around the world, including all iHeartRadio stations.

Other options are the free Radio.net, which streams 30,000 stations from around the world; FMRadioFree, which has no app but streams 15,000 stations from across the U.S. and has the option to go to radio websites for 65 other countries; and NPR, called NPR News on Google Play, which allows you to livestream any of the more than 1,050 NPR stations or listen on demand to NPR podcasts.

2. Browse stations and save your favorites within the app or the web browser on your smartphone. Instructions for creating favorites on each app vary, but the information on browsers also will work for any website.

On Chrome Android, the default browser for Android smartphones that has a version available for iPhones, tap the three vertical dots More icon to the right of your web address. At the top of the menu that flies out, tap the Star ★ icon at the very top, not the one called ★ Bookmarks lower down, to save it to your favorites on your mobile browser.

On an Apple iPhone’s default Safari browser, tap the Share icon, the middle one at the bottom of the screen that looks like a square with an up arrow coming out of it, then use your finger to drag up the menu that you’ll see below. Making the menu a little bigger will bring up Add Bookmark and Add to Favorites ☆ options just below Copy. Add to Favorites ☆ will make it a little easier to find, but don’t overdo it or you’ll find it tough to sort through your favorites.

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3. Connect your phone to your car, either through a plug-in connection — recommended so you don’t drain your phone’s battery — or wireless Bluetooth. You can use a phone mount on your dash for relatively easy access.

But if your car is equipped with Android Auto or Apple CarPlay, that’s even better. After you open either CarPlay or Auto apps, the radio apps will appear on your dashboard touch screen.

That way, you won’t have to worry about your favorite station fading out as you get farther from its towers. Wherever you have cell service, you can listen to livestreaming stations in your car.