Despite major music streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, and Soundcloud experiencing an enormous surge in popularity over the last decade, many radio stations have still found a place in contemporary culture. Whether its broadcasting news stations, popular music channels, or talk shows, you might be surprised by how integral of a role radio occupies in the listening experiences of many people. In this article, I'll teach you how to listen to radio on your iPhone!
Simple Radio
One of the first entries you'll find when you search “Radio” on the iPhone's app store is the free application Simple Radio. Simple Radio advertises that even today millions of people rely on this platform to enjoy both AM and FM radio stations broadcasting a wide array of music, sports, and news shows.
Including a strong radio tuner that prioritizes maintaining a consistent wave connection wherever you are, you can use Simple Radio to browse through music genres, live sports broadcasts, breaking news, and talk shows at your leisure. Spanning tens of thousands of wavelengths across the world, this is one of the highest rated radio services available on the iPhone.
While you can download the basic Simple Radio app for free, by opting to pay for the Premium service you can enjoy added perks like a sleep timer and an ad-free display. If you're looking for an accessible nostalgia trip or an easy way to stay up to date on breaking news, this might be the app for you!
TuneIn Radio: Live News AM FM
If you're looking for a free, one-stop shop to house all of your live and recorded listening, you might like TuneIn Radio. To begin, TuneIn radio provides users with over 100,000 AM and FM stations for their radio listening pleasure. However, unlike many of its competitors, TuneIn Radio also provides a network of an enormous catalog of podcasts, news shows, sports, and music.
If you want a reliable source of all live and breaking news, TuneIn radio displays and broadcasts live information from almost every major news network available. For podcast fans, TuneIn radio also acts as a streaming site for many of the most popular podcasts on the air right now.
SiriusXM-Music, Comedy, Sports
For more contemporary listeners, we recommend the SiriusXM app. SiriusXM has become the go-to radio service to countless people thanks to its common use in a wide array of modern vehicles. While not the most wide-ranging radio platform out there, only featuring slightly more than 300 channels, if you've ever enjoyed a SiriusXM service before I'm sure you can appreciate the quality over quantity M.O. this provider lives by.
For fans of comedy, sports, or virtually any musical genre, you're almost guaranteed to find a channel you like on SiriusXM. An added benefit to downloading access to these stations on your iPhone is that you'll be able to access over 100 channels and video series that are exclusive to the SiriusXM app.
Using this app instead of an alternative streaming source, such as a car stereo, has become such a celebrated radio resource that customers with SiriusXM already installed in their cars have purchased external accessories for their iPhones to play the app through their car instead!
Scanner Radio
On a completely different side of the iPhone radio listening spectrum, we have the Scanner Radio app for iPhones. Whether you're a good Samaritan who's seen one too many super hero shows, a protester trying to anticipate police interference, or a professional just trying to plan your morning commute, this police and fire scanner might be the resource you need.
Scanner Radio gives users live access to local and international police, fire, and traffic feeds to keep you up to date on all breaking news. Often the information provided comes directly from police and fire departments, or through volunteers on Broadcastify.com. Wherever the audio's coming from, you can be sure to receive notifications for any major developments in your area involving the maintenance and regulation of civilian life.
ClearFM For FM Transmitters
ClearFM is one of the highest rated iPhone apps for seeking out empty FM wavelengths to transmit through your car's stereo. One of the most common ways people play their iPhone's audio through their cars is with an FM transmitter plugged into their vehicle's 12V cigarette lighter outlet.
As convenient as these devices can be in theory, they're often criticized as unable to successfully find and connect to vacant FM stations over the radio. ClearFM is designed to help eliminate this issue by searching the local airwaves to provide users with a list of every station currently available for audio transmission. While you might not be listening to the radio through this app, it's an equally vital radio function that you can download onto your iPhone and start using today!
Radio's Not Dead!
Radio broadcasting deserves to go down in history as one of the most resilient forms of media consumption ever produced. Even in the exponentially growing technological age we live in, manufacturers have found ways to accommodate for radio enjoyment on virtually every device. These have been some of the best apps you can download to listen to radio on iPhones, happy streaming!
