Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, John Drake, who notes that Reciva has announced that they are closing down effective January 31, 2021.
Check out the banner on their website:
This, of course, is not good news for anyone using a Reciva-based WiFi radio.
Indeed, the WiFi radio landscape has become quite unstable in the past couple of years. Only recently Frontier Silicon/vTuner experienced issues with their database (that was eventually sorted out). WiFi radio manufacturers Pure and Tivoli have been sold to investment firms and users have been displeased with both customer service and issues with their aggregators. TuneIn has also been forced to limit choices for UK users–a decision likely to affect other aggregators. And now Reciva, which was once one of the most popular aggregators on the market, is going to be “withdrawn.”
These are dark days for those who appreciate a dedicated WiFi radio.
Early this morning I heard a replay of Leo Laporte’s “The Tech Guy” radio show for Saturday, Feb. 27. Evidently someone had called in earlier in the show (before I started listening) to discuss the Reciva issue and his C. Crane internet radio. While I was listening, Leo said he received a text from Bob Crane to say, “We’re working on our best solution to Reciva, and we will let everyone know next week.” Leo said they would be using something called Sky Tune, a new service, to do this.
I know this pertains only to C. Crane radios, but it’s heartening news to me, someone who doesn’t understand all the technical solutions being discussed here. If you have a C. Crane radio, be sure to register it on their website and check their site frequently to read any resolution they might come up with for their customers.
My Grace Digital Solo GDI-IRA500 has a Media Player/UPnP Servers function that will read the (free) Serviio Media Server (www.serviio.org) on my desktop. I can load any number of live stream online audio sources into Serviio, add and delete streams, edit stream URLs as needed. Sure, the desktop has to be powered up all of the time, but I do that anyway. Serviio feeds can’t be loaded into Solo presets, but my list of stations is small enough that I can quickly scroll through and pick what I want. Internet Radio function went away on my Solo yesterday. I can still access My Streams on the Solo and on the Reciva web site. When I back out of Serviio and into My Streams, presets work as before. If the Reciva web site demise doesn’t remove the UPnP function, I’ll have the Presets option and the Serviio option to keep the Solo going.
Suddenly today, three of my radios lost access to Pandora and no longer will take instructions from their remote controls. “My Streams” continue to function as I suspected they would. But the Personal Radio option, sadly, is gone.
Actually, I think the remote control functions still operate. But Pandora has gone on the IRD-4000s.
I just filed my complaint with Qualcomm as well. My unit is a beautiful Grace Victoria and the sound is exquisite. If all they have to do is take on the function of the “station aggregator” I think Qualcomm is big-enough to support that role. When I bought the unit I expected it to function as long as the Internet was around. I was never told complete functionality was dependent on some third-party who could choose to go “belly-up” whenever they felt like it. I’d call this planned obsolescence or outright irresponsible design management. Programmable firmware is specifically created JUST SO UPDATES can be applied to assure continued functionality. When the U.S. government allowed stations to cease analog television, everyone was GIVEN a free converter or discounts on Digital TV sets. They didn’t just pull the plug!
I blocked Reciva at my router and when I tried to display “My Streams” my radio showed an error. It must check with Reciva when it’s first accessed for updates. I never could get to the “My Streams” menu once I blocked Reciva. The only menu I could access was the Presets menu and the physical presets on the remote.
I also saw a DNS query for ntp.Reciva.com so I assume that we’ll have to manually set the clocks since they won’t be able to use NTP to fix the time whenever they are turned on.
Bill
After the shutdown, you won’t need to access the My Streams menu provided you’ve created your manual presets and stored them on the radios. If you want to change stations at some point, you’ll do that in the .pls files themselves. So “preset1.pls” will always be manually set as Preset 1 on your radio. But the stream that it points at can change by editing within the ASCII file. There will be no need to access “My Streams” to do that….which is a good thing, because it seems that won’t be possible anyway!
Interesting re-the clocks.
Still seems utterly ridiculous that Qualcomm is taking this action….but that’s where we are.
Best
Simon
Ok now I fully understand the trick with the physical presets buttons ! Only them keep in memory the URL to the http://mydomain/preset%5Bn%5D.pls , whereas the My Stream will try to get the URL from reciva.
Brillant finding!
I was just going to test the blocking of reciva.com on my router just like Fusionbill 😉
Exactly!
Hello Fusion Bill,
What ports did you block?
Hi Dan,
I run a Pihole with an unbound dns server on my network. I just blacklisted reciva.com in Pihole.
Thanks to chafporte and Simon for the workaround.
Configuring “My Streams” on Reciva just requires a URL that will retrieve a file. I didn’t try setting it up but suspect that something like a dropbox share won’t work as they embed the file in another html page they serve. An inexpensive way to serve the preset files yourself is to setup a Raspberry Pi with a nginx server. Then the URL used on Reciva can be a numerical address in the local network, eg http://192.168.1.50/preset1.pls. This ensures that your radio won’t be bricked by your selected preset file location changing url. It does require some knowledge of Debian linux and Raspberry Pi.
I set this up and blocked Reciva at my edge router and the 12 presets on my Sangean WFR-20 worked great. I’m capturing a list of station stream URLs so I can change the preset files on the Pi in the future.
Hello,
I own a Sangean RCR-8WF and in the Reciva site, in “Manage My Stuff”, “My Streams” I do not see any refertence to presets. I can add radios streams under the My Streams folder, but once saved and back to the radio, they well seen under the “My Streams” menu but not associated with the 5 preset buttons available. Any idea or suggestion ?
Brgds/Jerome
Jerome
I presume you just select “My Streams”…call up the station that you want…and then manually add them to a preset button, normally by just holding the button down for two seconds while the station is playing. Is that not the way the Sangean unit operates?
Regards
Simon
Hi Simon,
My bad, I dit not read well the instructions and did not see that the added stations in reciva web site under My Streams _must_ be named preset1, preset2, etc.
Like here: http://toutee.com/reciva_presets.jpg
It works pefectly, thanks a lot!
On my radio, under My Streams, I see the stations “preset1”, “preset2”, etc. and they play well the radio that is defined in the .pls file on my web server.
The only point I do not get is why it would be mandatory to assign the 5 stations to the physical preset buttons ?
After all, now (and forever I hope) in the memory of my radio, the URL associated to “preset1” station of My Streams is http://mydomain.com/preset1.pls and I don’t see how assigning this to a physical button will change anything ?
If anyone knows, I am interested.
Thanks again Simon !
Hi Jerome,
I need some help on this topic. I did the same as you.
I see the presets but it is comnecting. It saya connecting but for ever.
Any idea? Thank you in advance!
Boubeker
Post the link to your .pls here so others may see. Try your link with VLC.
For some reason, just today I decided to add a station to my old Grace Digital internet radio.
No workee.
End up here.
I vastly prefer a gadget like this for a countertop radio in the kitchen, but I’ve noticed through the years that the only that *always* works is a laptop (and probably an iPhone/Android phone at this point). Bummer that you end up with something of a dog’s breakfast on the counter.
Folks
As the very splendid ‘chafporte’ has previously explained, there is a way of making sure that your Reciva-powered internet radios are not immediately doomed to become paperweights. I have done extensive testing with colleagues and confirmed that any station that is stored on your radio’s presets BEFORE the Reciva shutdown WILL continue to work, but ONLY if you store those individual station URLs on an internet server that does NOT belong to Reciva or rely on Reciva for streaming.
In other words, anyone who wants to make sure their Reciva-powered wifi radios will continue to work beyond the Reciva shutdown needs to take action now by:
— creating a list of stations you want to be able to continue accessing.
— creating .pls files (one for each station) that can be uploaded to a 3rd party FTP server.
— pointing your presets at that third party server (using the “Manage My Stuff” button at Reciva.com) BEFORE the shutdown so that your radios will continue to function once the website and the database are no longer accessible.
If anyone is interested in assistance….I have FTP servers where I am already storing the data files for my own presets. I would be happy to help create and store files for existing owners of the legacy radios that are about to become impacted by Reciva’s shutdown and provide people with step-by-step instructions for manually changing their presets to ensure that the stations continue to function (or do it myself using your Reciva credentials, but you would have to give me access to your account).
If you’re interested in assistance, you can e-mail me at: RecivaShutdown@gmail.com. I will need to charge a small annual fee to offset the cost of the servers that I’m using to store each individual user’s data and the creation of each user’s streaming .pls files At the moment, I’m envisaging that to be in the region of USD 25 per year for up to 10 presets, with slightly higher figures if you want more presets than that.
I am offering no guarantees that this will work over the long-term, but it certainly seems to be working now and even after the Reciva shutdown there will be a mechanism for editing the presets and making changes when a) radio stations change their streaming URLs, or b) you decide you never want to listen to Z100 again and instead would prefer a preset with Radio Caroline on it.
There are some things that none of us will be able to do after the Reciva shutdown:
i) Register a newly acquired radio. Any radio you think you want to use needs to be registered at Reciva.com in advance of the shutdown.
ii) Upgrade the radios’ firmaware in any fashion whatsoever.
iii) Perform a factory reset of any radio. You will NOT be able to problem-solve by resetting the radio’s on-board software…any attempt to factory reset the unit is likely to render the presets inoperable after the Reciva shutdown, and therefore the radio will become a paperweight.
It is unclear to me whether the Personal Radio services (Pandora, for instance) will continue functioning. Some experts believe they will be unaffected by the database switch off. Others are less sure. I also have no knowledge of the radios’ alarm clock functions and whether they will continue to work.
To be clear: I have no affiliation with Reciva, Qualcomm, nor with any of the hardware manufacturers. I’m an enthused owner of several Grace Digital units, and I also run a business that provides a large number of radio stations around with their news content, Many of those stations are obviously concerned about the impact of Reciva’s disappearance on their audiences.
Given the pace with which Reciva’s shutdown is approaching, please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have questions and I’ll try to get back to as many people as possible.
Regards
Simon Marks
Thank you very much, Simon. I agree with your procedure of add stations. This is only way how to rescue our physical radios. I can recommend.
Hi Simon,
Thank you for your very informative post. I own two internet radios and, as you can imagine, am not at all happy at the prospect of the Reciva shutdown.
I would definitely be interested in taking up your offer of assistance, I have approx. 20 preset radios stations and although I can manage to access the URL’s via settings, I have no idea how to go about creating .pls files. I would very much appreciate step-by-step instructions on how to manually change my presets and whatever else needs to be done so that I can send you the files for storing in your servers.
I am happy to pay a reasonable annual fee towards the cost of the servers, how much do you calculate it would be for 20 presets?
I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Best regards,
Roberto Bellino
If this whole fiasco goes south i will never buy another sangean or ccrane item ever again.
I am new to internet radio, and was looking to buy one. I did like the CCrane but looks like Reciva will expire in April 2021, so I guess you could use the radio, but you have to go through the menus to pick out stations. Just makes it more inconvenient, right?
I wish -my understanding is the whole thing will be “bricked and will no longer work. That is why it is important to report the issue to BBB. Here is a link that can explain.
I spoke with Grace when the Recvia shutdown was announced and they told me that they are managing their own streamer lists now but for newish radios only. So unless Grace goes out of business the radios should be good for a long time.
As I understand it, different internet radio makes use different aggregators. e.g Auna radios uses Frontier Smart Technologies portal. While these work, there’s no guarantee for how long in the future.
I am trying to leave a complaint with the BBB. When I google Qualcomm, it shows that their headquarters are in San Diego, but the options offered by the BBB website are either Qualcomm Inc. in Carlsbad, CA, or Qualcomm Atheros in San Jose. Is either of those the correct one to use for filing a complaint with the BBB?
Please file with BBB San Jose. They are the ones closest to Qualcomm.
Use the San Jose office. They are currently sending me paper work and other stuff to update me on the case.
Not sure if C Crane wants to get into this business, but I’d pay $25 USD a year to have access to a Reciva server. I just hate the notion that a perfectly fine CC WiFi radio is about to get bricked. Sigh….
Trace
Drop me an e-mail and I’ll se what I can do to assist. simon_marks@yahoo.com
Regards
Simon
Didn’t someone post a “workaround” of putting some jumper links in the “my links” directory that point to a file on a server you control or a computer on your own network.
That file would contain a “forwarding” code…so you could send the link to any source of your choosing.
Yes, see the postings below from “chafporte”. It works like a charm, and I’ve found my radios are working more smoothly than ever before. Am hoping this is the long-term solution.
Hello Simon- I showed the coding to a friend who is a linux GOD, and he said such a patch isn’t for the layperson. He thought it would take him at least a day of hacking, more days if things didn’t work right, the coding would be very specific to the hardware (Wifi radio, computer, etc.), and if anything changed, the process would start over.
If my friend is wrong and the work-around is something that is do-able by someone with modest computer skills, could you share more detailed information exactly how to proceed? Also, it seems that this requires each user to have their own domain name, is that correct? Any ideas how a ‘normal’ user would make this work?
Thank you very much in advance!
Rob
Rob
It’s actually super-easy. It took me (with help from chafporte) a little while to get my head around it but I’ve set it up now and the radios have never worked better. You need to pick your ten most important stations. You CAN change them later, but you can never have more than the number of presets your model of radio offers (in most Grace Digital that’s 10, although in some you can 23 I believe). And even what radio stations change their live stream address, it is possible to edit the presets and update them.
I currently feel very confident that this will permit the radios to continue functioning even after Reciva is switched off. There are no guarantees, but it seems like a very solid possibility.
Happy to give you more detail if you e-mail me: simon_marks@yahoo.com
Thank you so much Simon, I’ve sent you an email!
Yes, I’m sure I saw a post years ago about changing severs from reciva to something else. Wish I’d kept the post.
Pingback: Reciva pushes out closing date to April 30, 2021 | The SWLing Post
I have a couple of Internet Radios that depend on the Reciva database as well. Hrmphhh….
Cannot fully see what Andreas Bahr is proposing, but I was wandering it it would be possible to set up a local/private mirror of the Reciva database and then tweak the DNS contents in one’s private computer network to direct any contact to the official Reciva (that will be closed down) to the local (mirror) of Reciva instead.
The SW of my Radios has a function to ‘Get key’ from Reciva. I am not sure if this is needed only if I wanted to use any of the more advanced features of the Reciva site, or even for accessing the database. The problem I see here is that if/when I do a factory reset, the key is lost…
Any comments would be welcome!
Notice has now changed… to 30th April.
Notice: With effect from 30th April 2021 this website will be withdrawn.
Please refer to your radio manufacturer or supplier.
Hello, my dad have an OXX Digital Tube radio and he listens it for every day. The radio has served him perfectly for several years. So we dont understand how the Reciva can easily stops their service for millions of similar people. If at least they offered an alternative… but nothing. Now we can demolish the device, although it works perfectly… Shame on you Reciva!
Qualcomm business practices must be stopped! I spent way too much on an internet radio for the thing to terminate.
Hello, my dad have an OXX Digital Tube radio and he listens it for every day. The radio has served him perfectly for several years. So we dont understand how the Reciva can easily stops their service for millions of similar people. If at least they offered an alternative… but nothing. Now we can demolish the device, although it works perfectly… Shame on you Reciva!
I don’t want to give up my WiFi radios of which I use daily. In my world they are brand new even though I purchased them back in 2018. I don’t care if manufactures claim that I need a model from 2020 to work. I spent good money on the one I have, I love it and expect it to work or else Sangean better send me a check for 220 dollars because that is how much I spent on it.
Just have the company send me a working radio model. If tat can’t be achieved we need to get on board with a class action law suit.
I have two CCRANE WiFi radios in my home, have purchased 7 others as gifts of others. How could CCRANE sell us these knowing, and don’t say they didn’t know, that RECEIVA was going to pull the plug. CCRANE states that it is the software…..I say BOLOGNA!!! These companies KNOW and KNEW but continued to sell the goods to us. I am disabled and cannot afford to buy another radio. Class Action Lawsuit…..YES. I cannot sleep at night and having this radio with my headphones on, helps me to sleep. I will not and cannot believe that CCRANE did not know about all of this. Now I have to tell the people I purchased this radio for, that they are up Shittscreek without a paddle as to a radio now. I am on board for a class action lawsuit for sure. Now CCRANE says to buy the III model in hopes we will be able to use it. There is no way it is a software expiration…….because all they would have to do is UPDATE it!!! We update all the time, our cell phones, our computer, our laptops and you cannot tell us you cannot update your software so we can continue to use the radios we spent our hard earned money on in good FAITH in the companies. SHAME ON YOU, CCRANE AND RECEIVA……..you now stand to lose so much because no one will ever support your companies again after this fiasco.
From what I understand, the radio manufacturers cannot just provide a software update bc Reciva is not allowing them to do so, so the issue is a legal one. I don’t think a class action lawsuit would do much good. By the time the case is settled out of court, customers would just receive the “crumbs” as far as a monetary settlement. My wife and I bought some furniture from Rooms To Go several years ago and we agreed to be part of a class action lawsuit against tbe company. After the lawyers were paid and the remainder of the $ was divied up for those particpating in the lawsuit, all we received was a measley $7. I imagine that even if there was a class action lawsuit against Reciva and the radio manufacturers, we would receive similar nominal amounts of $ and nowhere near what we paid for the radios, anyway. I feel it would be more advantageous to put the heat on the radio manufactirers and Reciva by threatening them with lawsuits. Even though we wouldn’t stand to receive much of a monetary settlement from such a lawsuit, the companies themselves would have to fork out a lot of $. That might convince them to act and get some type of resolution between Reciva and radio manufacturers accomplished so the/a database of stations could be kept ongoing for customers to use.
It may be cheaper for the manufactures to cover the cost of the radios 100%. This way customers are happy any will return in the future. If I get screwed over, I will never ever purchase from Sangean, CCrane ever again. They might as well file bankruptcy because I will tell everyone, I MEAN EVERYONE I come into contact with. I will never buy from them ever again!!
Has anyone stopped to consider the environmental damage that will be done when tens of millions of obsolete internet radios are discarded allowing electronic parts to enter the environment? Perhaps some pressure should be put on the manufacturers of obsolete internet radios to allow owners to mail them, at the companies, expense, back to the manufacturers so that they can be disposed of in an environmentally sound way, if there even is such a thing. Can you imagine the amount of waste materials that is going to be generated by the disposal of tens of millions of defunct electronic devices?
I too just submitted a fraud report through the FTC website. The more people who do so, the better the chances of getting some possible action. I own two Tangent Quattro radios, a Grace tuner, and a Grace radio. I use them virtually every day in different areas of my home. I’m not ready to give them up and accept this. Hardware manufacturers and service providers have responsibilities toward the consumers they take money from.
I just initiated a complaint with the FTC also.
I found this a short while ago doing an online search about Reciva going offline. It appears Grace Digital has their own station database of stations that works in conjunction with their newer radios which aren’t affected by the Reciva shutdown. Seems like to me they could integrate this database to work with their earlier radios manufactured between 2010 and 2017, and if it indeed possible, why this wasn’t already done, especially if Grace Radio had been aware the earlier radios they manufactured might be possibly be bricked due to a Reciva shutdown at some point. I signed up for the service just to see what it had contained within it, even though I don’t have a radio to use with what appears to be, Grace’s in-house station database. Once into the account, it is similar to a Reciva acct where you can add stations, add links from either Grace Digital, Shoutcast, or Live365. There is a section to add a radio, but of course, the only ones listed in the drop-down menu are the newer models to select from. Sign up for it if you want to check it out for yourself. I had assumed that the newer models didn’t use any station database at all, other than what was built into the unit itself. Just wondering if there is any technical and/or legal reasons why Grace couldn’t offer this service as a download to work with the older models.
https://myradiosplus.gracedigital.com/admin/searches#station
> Just wondering if there is any technical and/or legal reasons why Grace couldn’t offer this service as a download to work with the older models.
Grace never owned the firmware for those older Reciva-based models; it was written by Nexus/Reciva, later bought by CSR, later bought by Qualcomm. None of them released anything to enable vendors to write/modify their own firmware.
Grace explained back in 2017 that they hadn’t been getting updates for “some time” (probably since late 2015, when Qualcomm bought CSR), and at that point they were about release devices using a different platform. But they still continued selling those unsupportable Reciva-based models…
http://iradioforum.net/forum/index.php?topic=2386.msg21245#msg21245
(The fundamental problem is that people keep buying devices that depend on a third-party being generous enough to keep their old services working despite them generating little/no revenue, then act all surprised and outraged when that third party shuts them down because they’re not profitable…)
So do you think it’s possible that Reciva might grant legal permission for Grace to allow users of the older Grace models to download an update to the database I mentioned above (or another in-house Grace database) so the older models would continue to function afrer 1/31? Or would that not be technically possible to do so?
Grace Digital, Shoutcast, Live 365, Itunes charge a fee for access. What is the point of having a radio you paid through the nose for, then have to pay a separate fee to listen to FREE radio stations? Wasn’t that the purpose of buying the WiFi radio? Absolutely disgusting and unfair to us. We were given no warning as to RECEIVA having their SOFTWARE expire. Come on now, they knew it was going to yet continued to sell us the goods.
Internet radio is HARDLY free. Someone else is always paying for it. I can attest to that truth, as I operate two internet-based radio stations and I pay all the music licensing and other operating costs out of my own pocket. And trust me…music licensing is not cheap. You cannot expect stations to be there to provide you free programming, especially if you want a commercial-free experience as many internet radio stations provide. If you want such, listeners should have to pay for it. Otherwise, they have no right to complain when stations they listen to go offline or when equipment they use is no longer functional.
It is however super-easy to develop your “own little webradio aggregator” using HTML5 and a storage backend, for example MySQL. I have done so and you can also use it as it is free software, if you’re the DIY-kind of person 🙂
http://pentode.supersaft.ch/
Thank you. I don’t fully understand your program but I will see if I can figure it out.
Andreas, can you come to my house and do this?
In all seriousness, for the average person who doesn’t the technical know-how, this won’t help us and we’re still left holding the bag (with a door stop radio inside it).
Andreas. Thank you for this. I do a little PHP/MySQL development and so I might dabble with this. I looked at the demo and it appears very simple and clean. The big advantage, of course, is that it is all under our control and not somebody else (apart from the stations themselves providing a feed). To make it really useful, the next development of this would be make it compatible with Google Chromecast so it can feed speakers directly rather than use a mobile phone and Bluetooth with it’s associated compression.
I would need to research this but time isn’t on my side. In the meantime, I will use TuneIn Radio with the Chromecast Audio device to replace my Revo Mondo Reciva-based radio.
I just wanted to say ‘thank you’ for sharing this code.
But how might it be possible for my 10 year old Robert’s internet radio to ‘see’ this?
I did not realize there was a time limit associated with the Reciva based tuner.
Make your Presets modifiable (do it quickly before Reciva closes).
You need a web address you control (your own domain).
There add a file “preset1.pls” containing:
[playlist]
numberofentries=1
File1=http://bbcmedia.ic.llnwd.net/stream/bbcmedia_radio4fm_mf_p
Title1=BBC Radio 4
Length1=-1
version=2
Go to reciva.com and add it to your streams as preset1.
On your reciva internet radio go to “my stuff” – “my streams”.
Select your new stream “preset1”, the radio starts to play.
Now assign it to your radio as preset 1 (by long pressing button 1 on the remote control).
If you modify the file preset1.pls your radio will play the modified preset !!!!
Do this 10 times as you need 10 preset files for your 10 buttons.
How do you point the internet radio to your own domain if it is registered with Reciva?
I’m not sure that I understand how you do this at Reciva.com I’m pretty familiar with the site and understand how to create a new stream using the stream’s URL. But how and where do you enter the code that you’ve written? Seems like a fantastic idea but I’m just not sure how you do that on the Reciva site.
Thanks in advance!
on reciva.com after login go to “manage mu stuff”, then “my streams”.
there you can add a stream:,
enter its name: preset1
enter its web address: http://mydomain.com/…/preset1.pls
Hello chafporte,
On my Sangean RCR-8WF there are 5 preset buttons. On Reciva website, under “Manage my stuf” and “My streams”, I can add some new streams, yes, but then on the radio they appear in the My Streams menu but do not seem to be linked to the 5 presets buttons at all, sadly. The presets button seem to work like a radio in a car, if you press a button for liong, it will store the currently selected station. But they do not reflect what I have defined with Reviva web site.
Any idea ?
Thanks in advance/Jerome
You need a web address you control (your own domain or on your NAS, somewhere reachable via http). There create a file “preset1.pls”.
Understood, and I have a domain so that’s no problem. When you create the .pls file, how do you save it? As a plain text file? Can you literally write it in MS Word or in TextEdit on a Mac and save it as plain text? Or do you require a specific program in which to write the .pls?
Thanks so much…your advice looks like a lifeline.
Hello!
I’ve been exploring the NAS option. If I purchase a NAS drive and attach it to my home network, will it be obvious what the URL is that accesses the drive? Will that be connected to my ISP? If I move and have a different ISP, then would the URL change? In that case, I’d expect that the internet radio would cease to function.
Thanks!!!
Rob
Hello-
I’ve been trying to explore the NAS option more (difficult to find the specific info I’m looking for). I’ve been finding that the URL with NAS seems to be httpS:// <— the secure option only. Do you know of some NAS options that can be used with non-secure https://?
Thanks!
Rob
Think I have no figured it out. But my radio endlessly tells me it’s “Connecting” to “preset1” but never seems to play the station.
preset1.pls is just a plain text file. Use a text editor (notepad, not microsoft word) Have you pasted the 6 lines exactly as they are here ? (because this is exactly what I am successfully using). Make sure your file is reachable via http (not https). If you can: give your link here (I will test it).
Thanks so much. The file is located here, and it’s definitely not https:
http://www.fsnradionews.com/FSNNews/SimonFiles/preset1.pls
Hugely grateful to you.
this is not an asci file ! it is a word document.
you must create the file in notepad.
Hello chafporte, thanks for this!
Here’s the file I put on my server:
http://copiesandink.com/preset1.pls
When I type it in my web browser, I don’t see the text. Instead it downloads the file and opens the stream in iTunes on my Mac.
Is that the way it should work?
I understand most of what you’re mentioning, as I am involved in internet-based radio and I regularly create static listen URLs for my stations (with notepad), so I can modify the files when it becomes necessary to change servers. I can see how, too, that by using files could in effect bypass the Reciva menu on the radio and save them to your presets on the radio itself. But wouldn’t even those presets eventually stop working, even if they’re not being accessed from one’s Reciva acct? Wouldn’t those presets have to be stored within the hardware of the radio for them to continue to work?
grace digital says that the presets will still work after reciva closes except for pandora and sirius.
Dear chafporte,
What you wrote works. I hope it also will work after 31/01/2021
Thanks,
Thank you very much, it works well for my old Avox Indio !
I installed lighttpd on the RPi I have and stored the pls files on it.
What is a good place to host the script for free?
Thanks to chafporte for this workaround.
For those comfortable with Debian linux you might setup a Raspberry Pi with a nginx server. You can just use a numerical web address on your local network then. I did this and then blocked reciva at my router as a test and using the presets as chafporte suggested works great.
Hi!i
First of all, thank you for providing this incredible solution and for doing the work to figure it out. I’m having trouble with something, just can’t figure out what.
I’ve created .pls files from scratch with the streaming info using a text editor. If I test the file by clicking on it, it will open in a player and play the stream.
I’ve renamed the file PRESET1.plv and placed it in a folder on my website’s public_html directory using my host’s cPanel.
I go on the Reciva site and point to the file in My Streams, making sure the URL begins with http (with no s). I’m also using streams that have http as their URL.
When I save, refresh and then click on the Stream (using the play button) on the Reciva website, it doesn’t do anything. However, if I use https (with the s), it will download the PRESET1.pls file to my computer.
In both cases, when I try connecting on my Receiver (after refreshing the streams), it just cycles between “CONNECTING” and “RETRYING”
Am I missing something? And Is there a fix?
Thank you immensely for your help.
LH
Forgot to tag #chapforte and #simonmarks in my reply. Any help you or anyone can provide on the above would be greatly appreciated.
Please file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau https://www.bbb.org/
Most definitely –
Filing with BBB today.
The newer internet radios, at least the ones Grace is selling since 2017, do not depend on the Reciva database. They have several music apps already “built in” the radio (Iheart Radio, Amazon Music, Live365, among others). For everything else, you would have to cast/bluetooth the music via a smartphone, tablet, or other mobile device to the radio. So essentially, the newer versions of internet radios are more along the lines of a glorified bluetooth speaker. Internet radio is moving towards a mobile platform, and many people are now just using a smartphone/tablet/mobile device + bluetooth speaker setup to listen to music since it’s a portable experience, unlike most internet radios which work in a fixed location (the only way for older internet radios to be “mobile” is if you unplug them, lug them to another room, and plug the radio back in). Even the newer internet radios which operate in a fixed location are moving towards a voice activated (Alexa/Google) platform and/or music being bluetooth from a mobile device to the unit. People are increasingly using smart speakers as well for listening.
I want to have an internet radio independent from my phone and computer. Regardless though the Reciva database must remain active or the manufactures of radios must offer a full refund.
A refund is not going to happen, unfortunately. I have two internet radios here at home I purchased in 2009 and 2010. I hardly ever use them anymore, although it would be nice if the reciva database could be assumed by someone else, so I could continue to listen in that manner. Doubtful that would happen, however. At least I got my $ worth out of using the radios. The market is going to dictate what products are produced, and most people today want a wireless, mobile experience when it comes to listening to internet radio. Grace is offering a 35% discount for a radio upgrade, which I applied for, but I have yet to receive. I will probably just opt for a smart speaker instead, bc it will be less expensive. There are other internet radios which work with other station databases (such as vtuner). so you might want to check those out.
First, completely as a lark, I ran the term “Receiva” a couple of days ago, and was shocked to learn that their aggregator is shutting down. I’ve owned 2 C Crane Wi-Fi Internet radios over the years, and both have worked splendidly, so I have no beef with C Crane in all of this. What I have seen with the Receiva aggregator over time is the reduction in stations: IMG college sports was removed, as were other formats/stations worldwide. I’m no expert in the legal and technical issues surrounding Web-based radio; I just love having a desktop device on my nightstand to listen to at 2AM.
So, on to my question: Is there another such device out there that doesn’t rely on Receiva? I’ve combed through this thread for possible information, and I’m still unclear whether that is the case or not, but I would really miss having this type of radio, especially after a decade.
I have my internet radio on my nightstand so I can listen to stuff at 2:00 AM also. I am holding the manufactures responsible because they could do more to keep their customers happy. These radios were expensive. The manufactures need to offer a full refund, patch the radio to a different data base or replace the radio with an equivalent model that will work as advertised.
I never heard of Reciva until I purchased a Sangen Radio. In that this radio is so dependent on them to work. ( SMH )
Jim, Like you I have C. Crane internet radios. Here’s what I got back from C. Crane when I alerted them…
“Thank you for contacting our company. In response to your inquiry, we were not aware that Reciva.com was closing their website beginning January 31st, 2021 until we saw the notice. We know this will affect our CC WiFi Internet Radios that you have purchased and are working on some options to offer you. We will let you know more after we find out more information. Thank you for your patience and understanding.”
Qualcomm is a nasty company, here is an article that is worth a read.
https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/16/18410985/apple-qualcomm-settle-royalty-dispute-patent-licensing-terms-high-fees
Hello,
What if I buy a new Internet radio, say Roberts 94i, will it be revival-dependant or it has another platform? What Internet radio should I consider buying now.? Also, Internet radio is great. Some people say that wi-fi radio has no future, but I beg to differ. I live in a country that doesn’t have DAB and has a very poor radio offer. The only option for me is to have an Internet radio. It enables me to listen to stations and podcasts without having to boot up my tablet or computer and the sound quality, at least on my Roberts radio is superb. Internet radio has future, the problem here is whether big companies would allow connected radios to exist in the future or not. Hopefully, things will get better and people will be able to continue using their radios in the years to come.
When IHeart and Tune-in started to monetize things, and many stations I loved were streamed in URL clumps making it impossible to stream them on a single URL, I knew we were in trouble. The wifi radios need to have a feature where you could enter the exact URL and not be dependent upon Reciva or Nuvola-Frontier. I have a REVO superconnect that was pretty expensive, and I suspect that it’s a matter of time until it becomes a paperweight. My Sangean stereo wifi radio will now be a paperweight. I guess it was a mistake to buy these radios. Get a cheap laptop or use a small tablet or phone to listen. Seems IHeart and Tune-In have won the war.
Please don’t take this injustice. You paid for a radio that will not operate as advertised. Contact the FTC. antitrust@ftc.gov
I’ve bought a WR-336N from Ocean Digital to replace my CCrane CCWIFI and unlike my former radio you have direct access to the device via the IP address from any web browser connected to your local network…So even if Skytune goes down one day, you’ll still be able to update your list and your radio will have up to 100 channels that you can still use from your favorites.
I’ve been wondering about this. Are there internet radios that can access the internet directly or do they all go through an aggregate like Reciva or something similar?
Please read some of the comments included in this link.
https://forums.digitalspy.com/discussion/2392847/reciva-internet-radio-portal-closing
CCrane is a nasty little company that sold me a radio with Reciva chips in it that spy on listening habbits. now they will crash the radio after I spent a few hundred dollers on it. The radio will set in the shed for now on.
You need to be aware of Reciva.com. They manufacture computer chips that have been placed in Sangean products. Soon Reciva plans on pulling the “kill switch” on several wifi radios that Sangean and others companies have manufactured. These radios were expensive to purchase, usually in the $300.00 dollar price range. They will become deactivated January 31st 2021. This is all designed for a company to sell a newer model and make more money off of the masses. Beware of Sangean USA and Reciva.com
This issue is absolutely disgusting me. I have not been able to get any sleep because of all the due stress this has caused.
Pandora has stopped working for me as well it is part of the shutdown. As mentioned by others, I also urge you to report the manufacture of radio you have and Reciva.com to the FTC. It is highly frowned upon and illegal for a company to artificially pull the “kill switch” on electronics that have been purchased.
My Pandora feed stopped working on my legacy Grace Digital device, although I am still able to access presumably Reciva based internet stations. Is the Pandora feed dependent on the Reciva network, or is it generally expected that Pandora would continue to function beyond Reciva’s full shutdown?
As an end user, It doesn’t really matter. In regards to “tokens” or other internet stuff. All that matters is that I follow the user directions that came with the radio. AS long as it is correct on my end. The unit will work. Anything wrong with a distant server or other provider is not my problem. It is your problem and I expect satisfaction. This denial of service is unacceptable, I am filing with the FTC.
This denial of service is unacceptable, I am filing against Reciva, Sangean, C Crane and Grace Digital as well.
I am on the FTC web site now, I am filing against Reciva, Sangean, C Crane and Grace Digital . I will the the Consumer report magazine know as well.
The solution would be for all the manufacturers of Reciva-based radios (possibly upwards of half a billion worldwide considering many people like me have more than one) to get together (as a consortium) and simply buy the server/database from Qualcomm so the service can continue. I replied to C. Crane with that suggestion after they sent me this just TONIGHT (Sunday, November 29th 2020)…also I’m waiting for a reply from Grace Digital and will make the same suggestion to them.
Dear Steve,
Thank you for contacting our company.
In response to your inquiry, we were not aware that Reciva.com was closing their website beginning January 31st, 2021 until we saw the notice. We know this will affect our CC WiFi Internet Radios that you have purchased and are working on some options to offer you. We have added you to our contact list and will let you know more after we find out more information.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
If we can be of further assistance please email or call our toll free number.
Cordially,
Jennifer B.
Customer Support Specialist
Please see the thread here… now over 90 messages on this topic. I suggested some alternatives to saving the database, etc.:
http://iradioforum.net/forum/index.php?topic=2918.0
(Note: registration at the Iradioforum is currently by recommendation only due to spammers. You would need to contact me directly. Commhorizons at the email place run by Google…)
I doubt the FCC or FTC will do anything. If you want to save your radio it will require action by end users in a coordinated way and it won’t be easy.
Thank you Susan, we need more people like you willing to file a complaint. I spent good hard earned money on this Sangean radio and by damn it’s going to work. 3 year old equipment in my book is not “legacy” equipment. I have a Pioneer stereo system, it is 50 years old and still sounds incredible.
I suggest that everyone report the reciva data base shutdown to the FTC. Also you should make Consumer Reports magazine aware of it too.
https://reportfraud.ftc.gov
Email: tips@cro.consumer.org
Postal mail: You can send an anonymous letter or package to CR by mailing it to:
ATTN: CR News Tips
Consumer Reports
101 Truman Avenue, Yonkers, NY 10703
I fear this is the beginning of the end of decentralized wifi radio. This is a big blow to freedom.
From now on, we’re not going to be allowed to listen to anything large corporations don’t want us to hear.
I’m dead set against this huge loss to the world community of wifi listeners.
Someone has to take over Reciva and save it for the sake of freedom.
The internet is going in this same direction too, I fear. Censorship is growing and excuses for it are being invented all the time.
We are living in a world where censorship will become the rule if we allow it. We must all fight this.
> “I fear this is the beginning of the end of decentralized wifi radio.”
You mean *centralized* – Reciva was never ‘decentralized’; Reciva-based devices already had to phone home to the Reciva central mothership to receive the master list of approved ‘internet radio’ souces. That’s why they’ll stop working when it shuts down.
“Decentralised” would be devices that supported multiple aggregation/indexing services, or allowed you to enter your own links. Like streaming devices used to, back in the days when they first started becoming available…
> “Someone has to take over Reciva and save it for the sake of freedom.”
Lol. Reciva was never ‘free as in freedom” – it was developed by (IIRC) Nexus, who designed hardware streaming modules; Reciva was their in-house aggregator service. It was later spun out as a separate company, then pivoted to a software-only service in a mostly-failed attempt to get other hardware manufacturers onboard. It was then taken over by Cambridge Silicon Radio to be *their* in-house aggregator; and eventually CSR was taken over and Reciva ended up at Qualcomm’s as part of *their* in-house streaming aggregator service (alongside all the other similar services they’d collected e.g. Pandora).
If you want “freedom”, you’re looking in the wrong place. Lean on the *hardware* manufacturers to open up their modules/devices to multiple aggregation providers and user-defined streaming sources.
Whatever…I value Reciva far more than any other aggregator and I view them as having had the most flexibility in adding new streams. They have the most independent stations and small company stations of any other aggregator.
Have you tried adding streams with another aggregator? Reciva was the best at adding streams upon request and they have the most streams as a consequence.
Other aggregators like iHeart only added stations owned by their corporation and shut the rest out.
When I say it’s more ‘free’, that is what I meant. Besides that RECIVA NEVER INCLUDED THEIR OWN ADS as TuneIn does. Of course being able to add your own streaming sources would be better, but I see aggregators as still being needed for most people.
Steve. Yes, we are more controlled now than ever by the Government, big business and the mainstream media. They control people by limiting access to anything but their propaganda.
I suggest that everyone report the reciva data base shutdown to the FTC. https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/#/
Please watch this video.
Thank you for providing the link to the FTC, Roger. I filed a report and related that I have two radios (Grace Audio and C. Crane) which will become expensive doorstops once Reciva shuts down. I’m not computer savvy enough to know if they will have any use to me after that; I’ll just have to wait and see. But there should be some protection for the American consumer who can’t afford to buy the latest device just because a company wants to abandon an older technology. When American TV broadcasting went digital, the federal government provided subsidies to consumers who needed adapters for their older TVs. But in this case, guess radios are just too old school and of little significant during our national quarantine. Thanks to everyone who has posted on this site and helps me stay informed.
I sent my complaint to the FTC, hopefully if they see multiple complaints that will mean something more to them than a single complaint. I would say the best solution is for the group of companies who manufactured Reciva radios (and were probably still manufacturing this year) to get together and buy the server and database from Qualcomm. The Reciva database was the most superior of them all and adding stations was extremely easy and there were no commercials (like with TuneIn). Nobody was better than Reciva. I interpret that ease of adding stations and lack of added commercials as being more ‘free’ (meaning ‘freedom’) than any other aggregator.
I have a C Crane Wi Fi Radio. Besides having reciva stations, I also see iheartRadio and Radio.com shortcuts in their too. I wonder if those stations will still be there after the cutoff date? I wonder. I also have a feeling that if you save a station in the presets, it still may work after the website turnoff time. That is until the station makes a change on their server config.
I assume iHeart radio would continue working. Possibly the shortcuts, too, for a while. Not sure how/when the radio queries the network.
Receiva should post a press release explaining why they have hung their patrons and associated hardware providers out to dry. They should make a good-faith effort to have another party take over. To have failed to do so suggests that they fell under pressure from iHeart or others not to carry their feeds (iHeart, TuneIn and others may prefer that consumers be tied to the apps where they can be subjected to ads, repeated requests to login etc. — something that didn’t happen on a configured Receiva device.) The other thing that comes to mind is that there are many feeds available through this platform that are considered unacceptable on social media platforms. So I wouldn’t be surprised if Receiva has been under pressure to drop their service because, unlike social media companies, they did not do enough to go along with the de-platforming efforts to knock certain people offline entirely (i.e. Alex Jones). It wouldn’t occur to me to question any of this if Receiva would post a proper press release, but absent that one can only imagine that there was no good way to “explain” themselves — so they’re not.
Years ago I became a fan of two network TV shows, only for those TV series to be cancelled by the end of the first season. That was the LAST TIME I ever “bought in” to any TV series (similarly, I almost never watch any “series” on Netflix — twice burned was enough). This news — that my WiFi radios are about to become paperweights — may very well make me equally skeptical of any new consumer products and gadgets that may come to market. (No more “early adopter” for me!) And as others have noted, the other major problem with Receiva’s lack of communication is that it turns WiFi radios into e-waste overnight!
My guess is that people in the “industry” assume that there is no real demand for WiFi radios — but to my mind, that is a failure of their imagination. One can program a WiFi radio to come on like a conventional radio at the press of a button. Unlike a tablet, smartphone or streaming TV, there is no scrolling, no tapping and no connecting of a charging cable or stand-alone bluetooth speaker required.
Sleep experts advise people to keep their digital devices, such as phones, tablets and LCD TV screens out of their bedrooms because of the blue light they emit, which disrupts normal sleep/wake cycles. For anyone who has been trying to avoid streaming via a smartphone, ROKU or or similar device in order to gain access to Pandora, iHeart or similar apps, losing the option to have a table top WiFi radio is a blow.
To those “investors” and executives who think they know what consumers want — a one-size-fits-all “app for that”: Must everything involve staring at a bright screen, accepting a TOS, scrolling, tapping, clicking, swiping and entering logins for every single individual app? Turning to our smart devices may seem like less “work” but that’s only because we’ve been conditioned to think that having a device wielded to our hands is “normal”. The beauty of radio as it was originally delivered — over the air to a physical unit in our homes — is that it was just there. You didn’t have to program anything, login to anything, subscribe to anything. Press power and whatever frequency you last used was just there. The more we try to improve our lives with “smart technology” the more we pile on unnecessary complexity. True, WIFI radios take some doing to set up — but it’s a one-time effort after which these devices function like a traditional radio. A tablet, AppleTV or smartphone will never duplicate “one touch” simplicity.
I don’t know who pulled the plug on this platform without finding anyone to take over the service, but whomever that bonehead is needs to appreciate the axiom: “the consumer is always right”. If consumers want choices that aren’t dependent on “apps” and the blue-light emitting devices they rely upon, they should HAVE that choice!
Reciva was sold many years ago so it’s not a company anymore. CSR the biggest manufacturers of Bluetooth chips bought them then qualcomm bought csr a couple years ago.
I’m a happy long time owner of Tangent Quattro WiFi radio and I’m very unhappy with this decicion… naturally I have been kinda waiting for this to happen eventually but I don’t like the end result (my radio becomes a useless brick on my desk).
More internet generated e-waste
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Yes, this was very distressing. I have just got my Reciva based radios working the way I like them, replacing the WiFi with USB ethernet adapters and bringing out the audio to RCA plug cables. Fortunately, I was trying to figure out what to do with my Raspberry Pi and found something called MusicBox that takes manual station input or finds stations on several sources which are not Reciva or Squeezebox, so I am ready for the end. What the earlier post said about QRM is so right – I have given up DX’ing entirely because I am tired of the racket.
Unfortunately conventional analog broadcasting is winding up in Europe, the latest nation to be turning off teristial on air broadcasting is Sweden next month and many more are heading the same direction, especially now with 5G speeds and car manufactures here in Europe are installing streaming live radios and without any breakages in transmission due to super speeds 5G. Also commercial radio transmitter manufacture over at this side of the globe believe many of this type of conventional systems will be coming to a close in the next 4-5 years at best. Nothing really stays forever, just like compact discs have been replaced with download albums and files .
I live in the most highly populated county in the entire United States — and there are large portions and entire communities without adequate cell service, let alone 5G coverage. One-size-fits-all only works for uninformed technocrats who assume that what is available locally is accessible elsewhere. There are always places where neither old nor new technology/services can be obtained, be it radio, cell phone or even wireless access. The more we whittle away on the types of communications available, the more we promise to leave people in the dark. Technology should be an additive process. Instead it has become a self-cannibalizing process. Our Digital Overlords are committing the “all eggs in one basket” mistake.
Wow, my Grace Mondo never saw enough use and now it’s a $150 doorstop. At least I can still watch VHS tapes on my old crt TV’s. Next to go will be analog AM radio I suppose. Technology has a way of making me feel old.
I wrote to Grace Digital https://gracedigital.com/ today, 11/2/2020 asking about the Reciva shutdown and here is their reply;
“Your presets will work until the URLS for the streams become outdated. Not all radios will be turned off at the same time. The Mondo will be in the last group to be terminated. The software is Reciva dependent, you can get all the details we have here:
Grace Digital Internet Radios manufactured between 2007 and 2017 will stop working. The internet radio station finding service used by our legacy internet radios is being discontinued by the 3rd party service provider. This will affect Grace Digital internet radios manufactured between the years of 2007 and 2017 including the original Mondo.
(Please note; the Mondo Plus, Mondo Classic, and Mondo Elite are not affected).
The managed shut down will begin on November 4th, 2020 and will be completed by May 21st, 2021. Anticipating the eventual shut down, Grace Digital has already developed a faster and more feature rich internet radio platform. Radios developed after 2017 are on the new platform and will not be affected. The models that are not affected start with model number ‘GDI-WH’ otherwise known as:
• Mondo plus / Mondo plus classic /Mondo elite / Mondo elite Classic
• Encore plus
• Grace Link / Grace Link Amp
The new Grace Digital platform features quad core microprocessors, over double the available radio stations, NPR, FOX news, BBC, CBS radio, Chromecast audio built in, and music services such as Amazon Music, SiriusXM and Bluetooth streaming. These new internet radios do not use a 3rd party server network to operate).
If you have a legacy internet radio, to help with the transition, Grace Digital will offer special one time discounts to effected customers. If you are interested in taking advantage of this offer, please press the following button and provide key information to our customer service team.”
I did fill out the upgrade form but have not received a price yet.
Graces newer radios don’t use a third party to capture stations, but what if Grace itself goes out of business? Wouldn’t you lose the functionality of your radio in that case?
As we all know, there has been a huge increase in the amount of RF interference in the last few years. This interference can come from many sources, including:
– Wi-Fi signals
– AC power adapters
– CFL (compact fluorescent) light bulbs
– Light switch dimmers
I have a couple of elderly relatives who depend on AM radio for news and entertainment. There is now so much RF interference in their homes that they can barely hear the announcers over the static.
A compact, easy-to-use Internet radio is ideal for this situation. I saved their favorite AM radio streams to the large buttons on the front panel of the radio. They now enjoy listening to static-free AM radio news and entertainment on their Grace Digital Internet radios.
Bummer. I will miss them, but mostly use Pandora now anyway.
Pingback: The Reciva Internet radio station aggregator is closing down – dxradio.de
We have a Grace Radio Mondo in our kitchen and use it a lot everyday. I wrote to them today and asked if Reciva will be replaced with something else like Vtuner. Will let you know what they say.
It cannot be replaced. The old Grace radios use the reciva platform designed 15 years ago. The reciva platform controls the old Grace radios, so changing the database would be irrelevant. With the exception of the presets other functions Require the sever to be up.
The new Grace radio platform does no require a server platform to operate so no 3rd party provider is required .
Expressing what’s probably a minority view here, but here goes (and speaking as a long time owner of a Logitech Squeezebox).
In recent years I’ve increasingly questioned the market need for an internet radio _device_ in the form factor of a traditional radio.
True these radio-like boxes offer convenience, portability and ease of use, but having that type of usefulness dependent on an aggregator service. Their very existence is tenuous because they make almost no income for providing the service and are constantly the targets of fights, lawsuits, and restrictions posed by local, national, and international laws.
Numerous other “connected” devices (PCs, phones, tablets, “smart” TV devices, even newer car sound systems) can stream radio content from the Internet, and are far friendlier when it comes to contingencies when the existing arrangement fails for one of the reasons listed above.
I think it was good when it lasted, but more and more we’re beating a dead horse on a nich market within a nich market which is now in its death throes.
I don’t disagree with you, Mike.
In fact, in the past two years, my opinion has changed quite a bit. I still like having an Internet “Device” like a WiFi radio. In my world, it makes something I enjoy doing (tuning internet stations) easy, simple and portable. With that said, I’m no longer willing to invest much money in an Internet radio because I know that any day it could become a cool looking door stop or paper weight if the aggregator disappears.
Many radios allow for manual entry of stations and that’s great. But honestly, that takes away from the convenience factor of a WiFi radio.
I’m not sure where things are going, but I would guess WiFi radio is becoming more the domain of smart speakers.
-Thomas
On a conventional radio, the use is straightforward: Hit “Power”, “preset” (or last-used frequency) and volume: 2-3 steps.
Oftentimes, even though a smart device is handy, there are many more steps actually involved — not to mention that the app developer has access to everything we do both inside (and often outside) the app thanks to the TOS that most users do not read. Is Of course there will be a preference for replacing technologies that collect less data about their users with those that do. No matter how much privacy we consumers lose in the process, we’re all too happy to go along. Maybe we should begin to differentiate between what is simpler to use (fewer steps) vs. what is more lucrative for those who are selling our data if not also overseeing, increasingly, who has a “right” to voice their opinions on their platforms (or risk being de-platformed). App-based solutions offer a certain level of convenience but not necessarily because they are better — as anyone who must keep track of dozens of logins, if not also re-occuring subscription costs, can attest to. Smart technologies became attractive to “cord cutters” but, increasingly, they aren’t even “free” — even as they take more interest in policing our speech/use and even as they continue to profit from selling our data. Is that “progress”? Perhaps not.
Mike: I think you’ll still be good with your Squeezbox. I have several. You can edit the URLs directly on the MySqueezebox website or via the Logitech Media Server app.
It may be a good idea to have a public open aggregator that can easily be incorporated into a radio. My Sangean still works well, sometime I browse the collection of english speaking stations I put together and sideloaded into it. It also seems to have an over the air update feature which i hope would allow Sangean to switch the provider remotely.
I had the C Crane and Sangean WiFi radios when they first came out and enjoyed Internet radio, it was a way of listening to stations across the globe and the service was free. This was very exciting back then using new technology. I surmise that the popularity of the Smartphone and the use of streaming has been the one of the reasons for Reciva closing its doors. It was fun while it lasted but time and technology march on.
I can see the same effect of new technology on satellite radio; my XYL used to pay $260/yr for the service back in 2012, but dropped the service a year ago and now uses her Smartphone to listen to music in the car. Back then (2012) many new cars were equipped with a complimentary three months of satellite radio service. Wonder if that still continues?
Thanks for posting Thomas and long live analog AM broadcast radio!
Not surprised…a sad thing.
Asked C.Crane about this a few weeks ago and they said Receiva would continue “as far
as they know”.
Plan B:
You can still stream a station directly without a “middleman”.
Anything will work,an old smartphone ,computer,tablet (have a Kindle ready to roll).
The Greed of these people will come back to bite them.
Faulty by design, this kind of hardware… If the manufacteror would open his hardware, radios could be made to work on other platform(s). So, op hardware/software or the trashbin? And how fast you wanna trash? Trash the dividend!
There is still a place for satellite radio — and I would think, likewise, that satellite phones will eventually overtake cellular-tower based distribution (prices will eventually fall for satellite phones, too). 5G will not roll out everywhere and there are geographic areas (i.e. mountains) where conventional radio signals, let alone cell service of any kind, are unreliable — over large areas of the country. If one never leaves a metro area, one will not appreciate how uneven the cellular rollout was even for 4G service in the U.S. was. If 4G was spotty, 5G — which has less reach — will be even worse even at its best.