Normal FM Radio to play over iTunes

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Normal FM Radio to play over iTunes

(10 posts) (3 voices)

Started 1 year ago by John Tracy
Latest reply from Alan Hoyle

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John Tracy
Member

I listen to streaming IP radio through iTunes and broadcast it throughout the house with Apples AirPlay. I'd lie to switch to a Verizon internet modem, but they limit total GB per month by plan. Using a 96kb stream, 16 hours a day for a month tops out at over 31 GB. The in-house AirPlay via iTunes usually plays a local station, but switches to a distant station evenings, and weekends.

I could significantly lower my total net use if I could play a normal radio through iTunes, but this doesn't seem possible. Alternatively, any Mac app that can take audio in and send it out over AirPlay to other speakers would work.

Any Ideas or suggestions?

Posted 1 year ago #
Allen
good news everyone

http://rogueamoeba.com/airfoil/mac/

Airfoil might be a starting point, though you still may have hurdles.

Posted 1 year ago #
Alan Hoyle
Member

For the price of a $25 airfoil licence, you could buy 1-2 clock radios. Maybe that would be an easier, more reliable solution than fiddling with streaming across your home network?

Posted 1 year ago #
John Tracy
Member

Allen,
I plan to give airfoil a try. It may be a few days before I can spend some time with it.

Alan,
I don't expect to find a clock radio solution. All the clock radios I've had shut off after an hour. Do you know of any clock radios where the turn-on and shut-off times can be separately programed?

Posted 1 year ago #
John Tracy
Member

Recap: I'm presently using iTunes to stream internet radio throughout the house using Apples AirPlay. I would like to use over-the-air radio when the station is local.

Airfoil will enable me to connect a radio to the line-in audio of a Mac and broadcast throughout the house. However, it is not scriptable and cannot be coordinated with iTunes when I want it to switch to music from iTunes.

IF I can create a URL for the line-in audio port, AND IF iTunes treated it as streaming audio in, my problem will be solved. Can anyone give me some guidance on how to create a URL for the line-in audio port?

Posted 1 year ago #
Allen
good news everyone

I *think* I understand what you are trying to do, but, I think an easier way to do this would be to write a script that kills airfoil process at whatever time and starts iTunes or iTunes script (which is scriptable )

Or write yourself an iTunes script that kills the airfoil process and starts iTunes. Run that at will.

You could probably tell launchd http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Launchd to handle this without a script at all, really. (if you are wiling to tackle a URL for the audio input - this should be a cake walk)

good luck - keep us posted.

Posted 1 year ago #
Allen
good news everyone

Or maybe not even that complicated

Will apple QT Broadcaster help? (didn't even know it was around)

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL764

edit: looks like QT broadcaster will give you an URL for the stream and will stream from the audio input. Now, is it stable and will it work. (gosh if it does, it will be free...)

I haven't tried any of this.

Posted 1 year ago #
John Tracy
Member

From Allen,
"I *think* I understand what you are trying to do, but, I think an easier way to do this would be to write a script that kills airfoil process at whatever time and starts iTunes or iTunes script (which is scriptable )"

I tried that with Automator. I could get Airfoil to start with the line-in audio as the source selected. But I could not get it to quit with automator. Since then, I have discovered that Airfoil may indeed be scriptable according to their support site. It will be several weeks before I can delve into that but that may be my best bet. According to their site, the source can be set by script.

Posted 1 year ago #
Allen
good news everyone

Take a look at Quicktime broadcaster. That might work better

Posted 12 months ago #
Alan Hoyle
Member

I admit my proposed solution only addresses the "local stations" solution.

All of the clock radios I've ever used can either be turned on via an alarm (typically for an hour or so), have a "sleep" timer with an auto-shut off in the 60-90 range or shorter, or can just be turned "on" until they turn off. If you're listening to local stations, I genuinely think you're making the problem way more complex than it needs to be. You're scripting in the morning for your music to turn on and turn off in the afternoon? That's interesting.

I have a small clock radio in the kitchen, the bedroom, and bathroom. It wouldn't be hard to put one in the office. I think it would be more reliable and cheaper than streaming everything. However, if I change stations, I have to do it everywhere individually. I just listen to NPR mostly. I don't need to have the background noise in rooms that I'm not in.

Posted 11 months ago #

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