I never do. Usually I will turn it off or mute the audio, do something else, then come back, and unmuted after a few minutes. Sometimes I've come back after several minutes and it's still ads then I completely turn it off.
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Audacy sells Radio.com domain
- Thread starter Theater of My Mind
- Start date
I never do. Usually I will turn it off or mute the audio, do something else, then come back, and unmuted after a few minutes. Sometimes I've come back after several minutes and it's still ads then I completely turn it off.
I never tried that. I can just start it up and then add another window in my browser. Thanks for the idea.
I absolutely HATE that! A pre-roll is one thing (still obnoxious, but I get it), but slapping ads randomly over a station's programming is just sloppy. There's a few stations I like that I can access on Tune-In, such as independent broadcasters and online-only 'stations'. But I found I can get those on the Radio Garden app, without all the garbage. In fact, TuneIn even ripped off the scrolling map interface from RG, albeit very half-assed last I checked.
TuneIn can be useful, but they are still trash.
I will listen to a reasonable amount of pre-roll ads, but, if I join a station during a commercial break, I will tune out.
It was definitely doing that a year and a half to two years ago when listening from a browser. From what I understood, it was only doing that with non-partner stations and was not doing it on its mobile apps. I haven't observed it doing that recently, however. At work, I've only had two tabs open for listening (iHeart and TuneIn) since Audacy rejoined TuneIn in the summer of '23, and I haven't heard those extra ads in the middle of streams in close to two years.
My understanding is that Radio Garden uses TuneIn's directory. I do, however, agree with you that the scrolling map interface on TuneIn is awful. That was the major reason I disliked Radio Garden as well. On the website, TuneIn has the option to browse by location again.
My biggest gripe about TuneIn lately has been the redesign that removed folders from CarPlay listening. I have over 140 presets, and I loved being able to click my library and choose the folder for the station(s) I wanted. Now, I have to scroll through a list or two depending on whether the station I want to hear is one I listened to recently. That has made the app more cumbersome to use in the car.
It still does. I wanted to hear KMZT after reading all the discussion about it here in the L.A. forum. Although you can stream it directly from the station's website, TuneIn is the only provider I had set up on my Sonos system that streams it, so I went with that at first.
I got the expected pre-roll ads but then, sure enough, more TuneIn ads routinely interrupted the peaceful classical music stream, a jarring experience to say the least. Apart from that, I think KMZT is a great sounding classical music station, but that's a discussion for the other thread.
I'm wondering if they named the ship on the show after a real cruise line.
The fun part of Radio Garden is the map interface. Granted, it's not user-friendly in the car (even with the Favorites tab), but I kinda like dialing around the map at home and finding quirky stations. Tropical music from the Caribbean? Zydeco music from Louisiana? Russian techno in Siberia? Native music from the Navajo Nation? Yeah, it kinda brings back the excitement of scanning the radio dial in the old days, but in a modern Hi-Tech way.
As for using the TuneIn directory, I don't think they do. They have stations TuneIn does not, and vice-versa. I even sent them links to a few stations I like, just so I could listen to them there. And they have a few errors, such as Key 93 in Key West being located in Buffalo, NY with its sister station.
And again, I haven't used TuneIn for awhile, so I don't know if their map interface still sucks. For a few stations I used to use TuneIn for, I just downloaded the stations' own apps. As for the random ads, I notice they're not present when TuneIn is streamed via an Alexa device.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
I've always found those maps cumbersome to use, but I can see how non-radio people might find them beneficial. If you're just wanting to hear local stations, looking on the map might be easier than trying to find a list, especially since TuneIn's mobile app breaks out its local stations by format and popularity (and is usually wrong on a few). Plus, you can select the genre you want to hear on the map. Even if it's wrong here-and-there, if you want something similar to your local station and are just a casual listener, the map is probably more helpful than call letters or location. I will also say, from my standpoint, being 50 that my eyes aren't what they used to be. I was lucky enough to have 39 year old eyes for nine or ten years, but I've had a hard time seeing those maps on my iPhone the last couple years. I have a distance eye and a reading eye now, but it's not perfect technology, and I'm not going to carry reading glasses around when I'm walking the dog just to see the map when I want to change stations.
I was told Radio Garden did a few years ago, though I haven't used it in several years. You probably know more about it than I do since you seem to use it a lot more. If it has its own directory now, good for it.
I don't notice them on Roku or my mobile devices either. Like I said, I haven't observed them anywhere in the last almost two years, but, if someone has used it more recently and says otherwise, I can't tell them it's not happening. The situation wouldn't seem to be as common as it used to be, but that's all I can really say.
I really hate single station apps, though I have a couple for local stations mostly because I regularly listen to them in the car but not on my phone. So, if I drive out of range, I can pull them up and play them on CarPlay without having to fumble through another app.
I was playing around with RG last night. And I did notice that some stations' streams were from Streema, which is a TuneIn competitor.
In most cases, I opt out and find something else to listen to unless it's something I REALLY want to hear. For me, I feel its downright arrogant for a Radio Streamer that you know is going to throw 4-6 minute commercial blocks your way once the live-stream starts to hit you up with ads before you even get into the stream. I recall one of my early '80s Broadcasting textbooks called that a "Tune-Out" factor.
That textbook was really ahead of its time!
It's now been two months since this story emerged that Audacy had sold Radio.com. It's been two weeks since I noticed the domain no longer forwards to Audacy.com, and there is a "Coming Soon" notice on the site. Yet, after all this time, the domain is still registered to Audacy.
Last week, I suggested the possibility that Audacy has simply made an outside deal for someone else to use the domain, while retaining ownership. Or their deal says Audacy retains registration until the new owner is ready to launch. That would preserve the identity of the new owner. As of now, there is no better explanation.
Last week, I suggested the possibility that Audacy has simply made an outside deal for someone else to use the domain, while retaining ownership. Or their deal says Audacy retains registration until the new owner is ready to launch. That would preserve the identity of the new owner. As of now, there is no better explanation.
I've noticed that some Live365 streams do something like this too. They're mercifully short (maybe one or two 60 second spots or three to four 30 second ones), but the placement is annoying. They'll come in just as a song begins, and the original program doesn't just pick up where it left off; the stream will have played through the interrupted song and part of another by the time the ad block ends.
I thought KMZT flipped to classic country recently? Or is there an online-only stream that still caries the previous classical format?
c
Saul flips formats faster than you can keep up with. 1260 did flip to Classic Country last October, but just recently it flipped back to Classical.
Ah, really! So I'm both right and wrong at the same time!
Fascinating....
Is it still airing on 1260?
c
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Done.
I envy Saul Levine's ability to have such a station free and clear and completely paid for so he can do whatever he wants with it with no legal or financial consequences.
I wonder if he will ever try beautiful music/easy listening? It seems he's tried almost everything else worth doing....
c
I doubt it. From what I understand, most of the beautiful music libraries are gone.
That's too bad. Some of the libraries must still exist somewhere, though? Perhaps the master tapes are in some forgotten vault somewhere, waiting to be rediscovered by someone?
c