Public Radio Tuner version 1.1 now live!

Posted: January 6th, 2009 | Author: Josh from Public Radio Player | Filed under: Version 1.1 | 34 Comments »

We are happy to announce that a major update to the Public Radio Tuner is now available in the iTunes store! Thousands of people have already downloaded the update this morning, and are enjoying mobile streaming from hundreds of public radio stations across the country.

The collaboration of organizations behind the Public Radio Tuner worked their fingers to the bone over these last months to improve the Tuner based on feedback from users.

If you’re at a station, check to make sure you’re already on the tuner. If you’re not listed, submit your stream information today.

Here’s what’s new in the new Public Radio Tuner:

  • All new interface
  • Search for your favorite stream by call letters, frequency, city, region, or format
  • Continuously adding new station streams
  • Bookmark your favorite stations
  • Quickly find stations in your current area
  • Faster startup for the app and faster loading times for all streams
  • Now-playing indicator for currently playing stream in lists
  • Improved volume control

Download the Public Radio Tuner v. 1.1 now!

iPhone and iPod Touch owners currently using the original application will get an automatic notice about the update. These new features, along with a healthy marketing push, will significantly grow the Public Radio Tuner’s reach and expand public radio’s audience (As you may have read yesterday, technology is changing audience expectations).

As always, your feedback is critical to this project. Give us your reviews – love letters and hate mail alike. We’ll be working on this app throughout the spring and plan to roll out more great improvements to the Public Radio Tuner.

Leave a Reply

34 Comments on “Public Radio Tuner version 1.1 now live!”

1 2
  1. Christopher Wright said at 5:53 pm on February 18th, 2009:

    Not able to receive any signal from Minnesota Public Radio longer than about a minute. The tuner says it’s playing but there’s no sound. I can get KFAI more or less forever. Could be an MPR problem or a tuner problem, possibly a buffering problem . I’d really like to get it fixed .

  2. Dale said at 10:59 am on February 12th, 2009:

    The app does not notify when an incoming call is received.
    I have original iPhone 8G Edge phone.

  3. Lewis Donofrio said at 6:53 pm on February 9th, 2009:

    I have to agree that the 1.1 version is a very buggy in that when I attempt to listen to a stream over wifi (that is all I use) on my iphone 2.1 fw gen 1 device. when it was a 1.0 app it was rock solid. once I accepted the update to 1.1 its not very nice at all. Its advertised to be great but like take marketplace, its on at 1830 est and it took me 15 min before it started streaming (do we have a debug mode) because i would love to use this app but its almost better just for me to go back to capturing the .pls file from my local npr provider and listen to it with the built in player….gosh please listen that its not all roses here with 1.1

  4. Ralph Szwarc said at 2:07 pm on January 30th, 2009:

    We’re experiencing signal interruptions within 20 or 30 minutes. This problem is common to all stations we listned to so it is not due to problems in any specific station.
    Can you please suggest a fix?

  5. Josh from Public Radio Tuner said at 4:19 pm on January 27th, 2009:

    Melissa, It should be possible. Make sure you have a accessible wifi signal, and also to see that your iTouch operating system is up to date. To check that, connect to iTunes and on the summary page it will tell you whether or not you need to update that free software. We are aware of some continuing issues for a small number of users and are planning to push a fix in the very near future.

  6. Melissa Smith said at 12:28 pm on January 27th, 2009:

    I am unable to stream public radio on my first generation Itouch. Is it possible
    to do this I tried downloading the public radio app and syncing, but it doesn’t work.
    Any suggestions

  7. Terry Miesle said at 11:17 am on January 22nd, 2009:

    I’m deciding whether to purchase a 3G phone and the PRT is a big feature. Is this available for use on other platforms like the new Blackberry, which can run more than one program at a time? If so, will the Tuner continue if a phone call comes in etc?

    I’m currently deciding between the iPhone and the more powerful platforms from its competition.

  8. Bill said at 8:22 pm on January 14th, 2009:

    Great update, thanks for the new features!

    But, one problem I still see…the app will not load on my 3G Iphone without a wfi connection. Once it is loaded, it can run, play, select new stations etc., using the 3G network, fortunately I haven’t yet gotten any phone calls while listening so I don’t know what happens then. Is this a bug, a feature or do I need to do something?

  9. Josh from Public Radio Tuner said at 4:54 pm on January 14th, 2009:

    Melissa, iTouch streaming is possible when you have a wifi connection available.

  10. Melissa Smith said at 1:51 pm on January 14th, 2009:

    Can I stream public radio on my first generation I Touch?

  11. josh said at 9:58 am on January 12th, 2009:

    Jim, we rely on local stations submitting their streams to the tuner. We have been working hard to spread the word about the tuner, and we recommend that you contact your station if they are not listed and suggest they join the Public Radio Tuner.

  12. Jim Hanlon said at 10:04 am on January 10th, 2009:

    No Rhode Island station?

    How about WRNI streaming @
    http://174.133.218.39:8000/listen.pls

  13. wjcstp said at 10:00 am on January 10th, 2009:

    Well-done update to the app, much more reliable to connect now and the local station search is really handy.

  14. Kammy said at 8:33 pm on January 9th, 2009:

    Since I upgraded I have not been able to load any stations. Ones I used to be able to play are KQED and WFUV. Says it’s loading and then stalls out to where I need to shut down my Touch and reboot. What can I do? Or better yet what can you do to fix this?

  15. Andrew Kuklewicz said at 8:25 pm on January 9th, 2009:

    I’ve seen a couple of comments about wanting to be able to leave the audio playing and do other things on your iphone – e.g. leave the tuner app, and go check mail or a website or something. This is, unfortunately, not possible for any app other than those written by Apple.

    When they opened up the iPhone so that apps like the Public Radio Tuner could be created, they specific made it so these apps could not do this.

    Any app you buy through the App Store has this limitation; when you leave the app, it quits.

  16. michael said at 8:18 pm on January 9th, 2009:

    One problem I found with old and new version. While I’m listening to a station I want to be able to hit the home button and do something else on my iPhone without the music turning off like the iPod function. Is this possible????

  17. Forrest said at 3:18 pm on January 9th, 2009:

    First, thank you for the app and the update! This release adds several features allowing users to actually find the station they are looking for which was a very daunting task in the previous version.

    I want to second the suggestion by Chris K also. Often I find myself (especially on the weekends) wanting to listen to a specific program like Car Talk, Weekend America, Wait Wait…, etc which seem to play at all sorts of different times for depending on the station. It would be awesome to be able to bring up a list of programs and find what stations they are currently playing on. I imagine it will be a lot more work to add that functionality since you would have to pull that data together (I wonder if it is even easily available?) but I think it is a very useful goal. It would be good also to show the schedule of each individual station.

  18. Public Radio Tuner » Blog Archive » Public Radio Tuner climbing the charts said at 11:35 am on January 9th, 2009:

    [...] to everyone who has sent in their comments about the version 1.1. Keep those suggestions coming because the team is already working on new features for version 2.0. [...]

  19. tim said at 10:37 am on January 9th, 2009:

    since the upgrade, I am not able to listen to kuow kplu and any of the Washington stations. I wish I could go back to old one so that I can listen to something. This upgrade is total failure. Why did you do this to me? Do you not check for bugs beforecrelease? I want my NPR back

  20. Brandon Brock said at 12:11 am on January 9th, 2009:

    I love the idea of having my beloved NPR inside my iPhone. I’m experiencing some trouble however. I’m on the slow/1st generation iPhone non-3G. During the early morning/late night hours, I have no problems with connecting and hearing the NPR feeds. During working hours, I find that the audio will stop usually within 20 seconds of beginning. Is this due to bandwidth? Is it possible to increase the load time (to a possibly large degree) to allow for continuous playback once the audio starts? Once the audio stops, I have to click “stop” and “play” again, reconnect, reload and try again. Thanks!

  21. Steve said at 11:08 am on January 8th, 2009:

    Can this application be used as suggested to pick up I’m local radio stations? If not, that would be the suggestion I would make. I’m music and u.s music is still different and this addition would be I’m sue a Market leader on the uk! Great programme anyway!

  22. josh said at 5:56 pm on January 7th, 2009:

    Thanks for all the comments, gang.

    Re: Andy’s comment. The Apple SDK prevents developers from building apps that run in the “background” while other apps, emails, or browsers are open. So this issue is not unique to our app. The Public Radio Tuner will, however, remain running while your phone is in sleep mode, so you can launch a stream and pop it in you pocket.

  23. tim said at 5:03 pm on January 7th, 2009:

    This is a great app, and the updates have taken it from a promise to a useable app. But… What about a bandwidth indication for those of us on 1st generation iPhones? Some other streaming apps (nullsoft’s Tuner, for one) have this nice feature to prevent my trying to listen to 128kbps streams over Edge. Several stations I’ve tried on Edge play for a few seconds up to a couple of minutes and then stop. The still says “playing” too, but nada. Some sort of rebuffering indication at least could help.

    Very grateful for the idea, the effort, and 90% of the execution. Keep up the good work.

  24. Andy Cohen said at 11:31 am on January 7th, 2009:

    Great, great app! However, the one really bad thing is that when this is running (sounds and works great with wifi) if one hits the home button to do something else this app closes. Essentially, then, one can’t do anything else when using this. Is there a way that the tuner can be left running so one can listen to a stream while doing something else (like playing a game or reading email)?

    Thanks!

  25. Paul Kamp said at 10:19 am on January 7th, 2009:

    Great job integrating in the GPS features. Time to work on the contribute buttons and enabling AAC streams.

  26. Bill said at 10:14 am on January 7th, 2009:

    Turns out, the volume control works fine on my itouch. Iagree with others’ comments about the need for the volume to come on at last used level, tho. Iguess one will get in the habit of leaving earphones off at first to avoid hearing damage.

  27. Bill said at 10:02 am on January 7th, 2009:

    The bug with volume setting makes it unusable for me on my itouch. It comes on full blast and the slider to reduce it doesn’t work. Also, why not let me enter streams not on the list?

  28. barry said at 8:36 am on January 7th, 2009:

    Superb app.

    Comments:

    1. Make it run in the background. I know Apple is an obstacle here; let’s all keep pressure on them to relent. This app would be perfect if I could keep it running while doing other things on my iPhone.

    2. Fix bug which defaults volume to max each time app restarts.

    Thanks for the great work.

    Barry
    Brooklyn, NY

  29. Chris K said at 7:02 am on January 7th, 2009:

    Great tool, but an interface with sortable searchable program listings would be extremely useful. E.G. Where is fresh air playing right now?

  30. Neal said at 9:10 pm on January 6th, 2009:

    Is it possible to include name of artist, song, and album that is playing? It seems to be the general rule of thumb with streaming sites and would love to it with the selection of music that some of your stations play.

  31. josh said at 7:55 pm on January 6th, 2009:

    Zhelle and David, thanks for leaving your comments.

    Zhelle, right now the Public Radio Tuner is aimed at offering streams for public radio stations in the U.S. We’ll take the international stream suggestion under consideration for the next version.

    David, thanks for pointing out the default volume setting upon opening a stream. We’ll discuss the suggestion as we continue to make tweaks to the tuner.

    Keep your suggestions coming!

  32. Eric Sagalyn, User Advocate. » Public Radio Tuner 1.1 Released said at 5:28 pm on January 6th, 2009:

    [...] proud to announce that the new version of the “official NPR” player is now out. Check out the official announcement. [...]

  33. David Loehr said at 1:24 pm on January 6th, 2009:

    I must say, you’ve taken a very good app and, for the most part, made it much, much better. Good job. This update implements a lot of the features I’d hoped for, such as the organization by state, the ability to create a favorites list, etc.

    The only real issue I have is one that was a problem before. Every time it starts, it resets the volume to the loudest possible setting. It’s annoying with earphones, it’s annoying without them, especially when everyone else in my house is asleep. Is there a way to either keep the volume setting at the same level as the last time I used it, or perhaps setting the default volume to 50% or less?

    The other issue I have is merely cosmetic. I know the icon is supposed to reflect the collaboration between all the different groups, but I have to say, the original icon for the app–based off of the American Public Media logo, if I’m not mistaken–was much cleaner, clearer, sharper, attractive, hip and modern. Why you would replace that with something that looks like a 1970’s idea of the 21st century is beyond me. (Yes, I see the P and the R for public radio in it. Doesn’t make it any more attractive.) It is also a very cluttered logo/icon, especially on the iPhone screen. The “pr” thing is almost clever if not really attractive or obvious, but overall, you’ve gone from an A+ icon to a D at best.

  34. zhelle said at 12:29 pm on January 6th, 2009:

    I hope they could add radio staions from Asia like philippines and small islands like GUAM n SAIPAN