I dislike stations with region-locked streams.

[boombox4]

What I dislike most about geo-fencing is when you pull up a station on Tune-In and have to listen to their minute-long commercial before you get the BS "sorry, the station isn't available in your region" blurb.

 

[msugrad2000]

What I mean by region-locked streams is that the radio station's stream can only be listened in that city's area like Reno and only the Reno area, including Carson City, Lake Tahoe, etc. Unfortunately, there is no way to work around these types of stations, as they only lock their streams to their metropolitan or micropolitan area, and there are no extensions that take care of these types of streams. For example, KLCA-FM, Alice 96.5, the local pop station in Reno. Everytime I try to listen to them live, I can't and it gives me this message, "This station is not streaming to your geographic area at the moment. You can interact with most of the player features, but will not be able to hear the audio stream." Not even TuneIn helps as it opens a new window to that same live stream. I mean local stations are being hypocritical and ironic that you can listen to their streams everywhere, even though you can't.

If you have WinAmp installed on your computer, you can go to radio-locator.com and click on the audio feed and listen to it that way. I'm in Mississippi and I was able to pull it up that way.

 

[ChocoMingo]

Curtis Media in Raleigh does this too. However, at times, they do allow their streams from Raleigh, like Top 40 Pulse-FM (96.9/102.5) for the whole world to listen, only to close it to only the Raleigh area a few hours later. That is unfair, Curtis. Make up your mind. Also, Pulse FM knows about it and makes access from WinAmp denied.

 

[JeeperOne]

Spoken word and sports are often separate matters. Many syndicated shows can't be streamed at all or outside the local market. Sports fits the same criteria as well, and carries many restrictions.

However many sports network afilliates (Mainly ESPN Radio affiliates) often either put the national feed online during live sporting events which cannot be streamed online or (In the case of ESPN Radio affiliates) one of the many other ESPN Radio alternate stream offerings

Short of that, if the station with the live sporting event is paired or co-owned with another sports station that's normally NOT streamed & is affiliated with another network airing sports talk (Either local or national), the station with the live sporting event will often put the talker on (KKFN 104.3 here in Denver often did this with sister KDSP AM 1600 when a live sporting event was on 104.3 & NBC Sports Radio was on AM 1600. Not sure if they still do this though I suspect they do)

Cheers & 73

 

[PirateJohnny]

...I don't like that idea that much, as I realized myself that I have to remember lots of passwords for sites that Chrome doesn't save, which is bad, as I can remember so many passwords....

You can edit your bookmarks to include usernames and passwords in the title as a reminder.

 

[landtuna]

You can edit your bookmarks to include usernames and passwords in the title as a reminder.

Bookmarks file is not secure. Very bad idea.

 

[ChocoMingo]

If you have WinAmp installed on your computer, you can go to radio-locator.com and click on the audio feed and listen to it that way. I'm in Mississippi and I was able to pull it up that way.

Curtis Media probably notices about WinAmp and they have a workaround to block their streams, even on WinAmp. I tried with Pulse FM (Top 40) and on WinAmp, the stream didn't work. However, I tried Alice 96.5 and it did work. So, Curtis Media has that workaround against WinAmp, because they are in a bigger market (Raleigh/Durham) than Alice 96.5 (Reno).

 

[ChocoMingo]

Also, when I tried to listen to any Canadian stations like Energy 106.1 in Winnipeg, it's also geo-fenced, but with no workaround since Radio-Locator doesn't have their live stream. So for this one, along with the Pulse stations in the Triangle (NC), I can't listen to them at all, and their is no way around their "geo-fences"

I don't know about the Bell stations though, as I can't listen to Virgin Radio from Toronto on Chrome? Is it just Chrome, or could I listen to it on Firefox instead? Maybe for Bell Canada, it varies from station to station.

I read in a website that geo-fences doesn't exceed more than 150 miles, so maybe Pulse in Raleigh-Durham, NC uses them ironically to extend their streaming coverage, even though they have geo-fences on, because they have 2 transmitters. Or maybe one of their transmitters is geo-locked, while the other isn't, so if both transmitters have geo-fencing on, then it covers NC from Hickory to the Outer Banks online, leaving Asheville from listening to WPLW-FM and it's other station on 96.9 FM near Goldsboro.

 

[mike847]

Re: user names/passwords

While it may not be secure I have a spreadsheet of user names and passwords and answers to security questions on the computer. That's what works for me.

Someday I gotta go through and delete sites, user names, passwords, answers to sites I no longer visit.

 

[landtuna]

Re: user names/passwords

While it may not be secure I have a spreadsheet of user names and passwords and answers to security questions on the computer. That's what works for me.

Someday I gotta go through and delete sites, user names, passwords, answers to sites I no longer visit.

You can make things a bit more secure by assigning your password file its own complex password. Oh, and do not put 'password' in the file name and bury it several levels deep in an obscure folder(s).

Or you can download a password manager like LastPass. Although it takes a bit of time to learn how to use it I have found it to be pretty reliable and easy to use once properly set up. They have a free version.

 

[ChocoMingo]

iHeart has geo-fenced some smaller stations, and is running replays of morning shows at night on some of their other terrestrial streams (as opposed to the OTA programming).

Actually, iHeart (actually it's Bell from Canada) has disappointed us here in the states, by geo-fencing most of their Canadian stations! They even geo-fenced their major stations from major cities, even Toronto! 99.9 Virgin Radio was geo-fenced by Bell before iHeart.

Today, no change they are still geolocked, even with iHeart! I can't listen to those stations on iHeart at all.

I have been using surfmusic.de to go around the geo-fence, but now, they made a new stream for iHeart, so only Canadians can listen. Same to the Canadians before when they tried listening to our stations here in the US. Canada can't listen to 93.3 FLZ from their country, just like I can't hear 99.9 Virgin Radio from their country!

 

[davideduardo]

Actually, iHeart (actually it's Bell from Canada) has disappointed us here in the states, by geo-fencing most of their Canadian stations! They even geo-fenced their major stations from major cities, even Toronto! 99.9 Virgin Radio was geo-fenced by Bell before iHeart.

Why would a Canadian operator of stations want to pay the expensive US digital royalties to reach listeners who are of absolutely no monetary value to them?

And why would a Tampa/St Petersburg station which derives 100% of its revenue from listenership inside the Tampa / St Pete metro survey area want to reach folks in Canada? Or, even, in Ft Myers or Gainesville?

 

[boombox4]

Why would a Canadian operator of stations want to pay the expensive US digital royalties to reach listeners who are of absolutely no monetary value to them?

And why would a Tampa/St Petersburg station which derives 100% of its revenue from listenership inside the Tampa / St Pete metro survey area want to reach folks in Canada? Or, even, in Ft Myers or Gainesville?

Point well taken. But geo-blocking, while great for business (and with the present state of royalties and the overall economy, it is very understandable), it isn't perhaps so great for society in general.

Anything that reduces communication over borders isn't necessarily a good thing. When I hear the CBC from the station 200 miles north of me, I gain a bit more cultural understanding of my Canadian neighbors. Thankfully, the CBC can't geo-block AM radio. While my listening to them may not make them any money, I think that a world where everything is locals-only isn't necessarily a good thing.

I'm speaking not so much against the motives of the geo-blocking stations -- they have to pay money for streaming, and have their budgets, and I understand that. I'm talking more about the benefit of being able to listen to a station from another part of the world and the cultural perspective it can give you. How can we understand our neighbors if we don't listen to them or if we have reduced access to their media?

When the internet was promoted in the late 1990's as part of the "global economy" (and all of the other cultural trappings that went with it), one of the benefits mentioned was that the free flow of information passing across national (and state) borders would be a good thing. To me, that includes radio. Unfortunately, economic realities have reduced that promise.