Category Archives: WiFi Radio

The Worldwide Listening Guide: A deep dive into online and over-the-air listening

I recently received a review copy of the 9th Edition of the Worldwide Listening Guide by John Figliozzi:

While WRTH is my favorite guide for radio frequencies and schedules, Figliozzi’s Worldwide Listening Guide (WWLG) is my go-to for programming and content, not only helpful on the shortwaves, but especially handy when tracking online content.

The WWLG is a unique guide–there’s nothing quite like it on the market. I look forward to each edition because it truly takes a deep dive into the world of broadcasting, technology, and programming.

“Deep dive” almost feels like an understatement. I received the latest edition only a few days before Christmas travels, so packed it in my luggage and read it over the course of a week. Being the editor of the SWLing Post, I’m in the middle of a constant stream of news items and tips about the world of broadcasting and communications technology. When I read the WWLG, however, I discover so much information about the broadcasting industry as a whole, the health of various platforms, particular media companies, and even the history and technology behind content delivery systems.

Case in point: I always assumed SiriusXM satellite radio was delivered by a network of geostationary satellites. Turns out, they use a hybrid system of both “roving” satellites that orbit in a figure 8 pattern and geostationary satellites in the Clarke Belt. The WWLG is chock-full of details like this.

Each media delivery platform–AM, Shortwave, FM, Satellite Radio, Internet (WiFi Radio), and Podcasting–has a dedicated section in the book where Figliozzi explores each in detail. He also includes a “State of the Radio Platforms” chapter where he examines the health and potential direction of each.

SWLing Post contributor, Mark Fahey, recently summed up his love of the WWLG in the following comment:

[I]t’s the best guide to digital streaming media I have ever found. An indispensable guide to the world’s public broadcasters and others broadcasters who appeal to us raised on decades of shortwave.

As shortwave transmitters close, don’t make the mistake of thinking your favourite broadcasters disappear – they in most cases continue and the Worldwide Listening Guide will guide you to them as live and on-demand programs.

I use the guide as a directory for online listening, but of course RF transmission broadcasts are comprehensively covered as well.

I agree 100%.

Like Mark and many SWLs, I’m something of a “Content DXer:” I love chasing obscure programming––news, documentaries, music, and variety shows, anything the broadcasting world has to offer. For this, I often turn to Wi-Fi radio. Wi-Fi radio offers the discerning listener the ability to track down fascinating regional content from every corner of the globe––content never actually intended for an international audience.

Digging into local content via a WiFi radio isn’t nearly as challenging or fun (for me, at least) as scanning the shortwave bands in search of elusive weak signal DX or a pop-up pirate radio station. Though my WiFi radio offers an easy and reliable way to “tune” to online content–both station streams and podcasts–the actual content discovery part is quite difficult.

Truth is, there’s so much content out there–tens of thousands of stations and shows–it’s hard to know where to start!

This is where the WWLG comes in: Figliozzi exhaustively curates thousands of programs, indexing their airing times, stations, days of broadcast, program types, frequencies, and web addresses. Additionally, he sorts the programs by genre: arts, culture, history, music, sports, and more. And Figliozzi also includes a well-thought-out directory of at least forty genres. In my shack and office, the WWLG has been an invaluable tool for content discovery.

There’s a surprising amount of information packed into this slim, spiral-bound edition of the Worldwide Listening Guide…enough to keep even a seasoned content DXer happy for years.

The 9th edition of Worldwide Listening Guide can be purchased here:

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Petition calls for BBC to allow streaming on 3rd party sites/apps

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(Source: Southgate ARC)

A petition calling on the BBC to reinstate its internet radio stations to third-party apps has attracted nearly 2,000 signatures.

The petition is asking the broadcaster to reverse its decision to remove BBC stations from TuneIn, a popular app for listening to live internet radio.

The BBC removed its streams from the service at the end of September.

In a blogpost at the time, the BBC said that it was making the move because services like TuneIn do not allow it to collect data on its streams.

Kieran Clifton, the BBC’s director of distribution and business development, said: “We want our programmes, products and services to be the best they can be. And a major way we ensure that is by using meaningful data. Data is more and more important – as it helps us to make more types of programmes we know people like, and equally importantly, identify gaps in our commissioning to ensure we’re making something for all audiences. We also use the data collected about what you watch, listen to or read online to offer personalised programme recommendations – and make our services even more tailored to you.

“When we make our programmes available via third parties, we ask that those platforms either allow you to sign into your BBC account – or provide us with meaningful data directly. Unfortunately, TuneIn doesn’t do either of these, so we couldn’t reach a data sharing agreement with them.”

According to the petition, however, the move means that many listeners with digital radio devices can no longer listen to BBC stations.

The petition’s creator, Julian Prokaza, said: “The changes mean that a great many new internet devices are now effectively obsolete for people who used them mainly to listen to BBC radio.

“The changes also do not abide by the BBC remit of ‘making sure you can watch and listen to our programmes in ways that are both easy and convenient for you.’

“The BBC should restore its TuneIn streams immediately and maintain them at least until fully functional replacement services for affected devices are available.”

Source:
https://www.prolificlondon
.co.uk/marketing-tech-news/other-media-news/2019/10/bbc-internet-radio-petition-gathers-pace

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Security vulnerability affects Imperial Dabman web radios

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Ed, who writes:

I’m wondering if SWLing Post readers who use Imperial Dabman web
radios might want to read about this serious security vulnerability.

(Source: Threat Post)

Attackers can drop malware, add the device to a botnet or send their own audio streams to compromised devices.

Imperial Dabman IoT radios have a weak password vulnerability that could allow a remote attacker to achieve root access to the gadgets’ embedded Linux BusyBox operating system, gaining control over the device. Adversaries can deliver malware, add a compromised radio to a botnet, send custom audio streams to the device, listen to all station messages as well as uncover the Wi-Fi password for any network the radio is connected to.

The issue (CVE-2019-13473) exists in an always-on, undocumented Telnet service (Telnetd) that connects to Port 23 of the radio. The Telnetd service uses weak passwords with hardcoded credentials, which can be cracked using simple brute-forcing tactics. From there, an attacker can gain unauthorized access to the radio and its OS.

In testing, researchers said that the password compromise took only about 10 minutes using an automated “ncrack” script – perhaps because the hardcoded password was simply, “password.”

Click here to read the full article at Threat Post.

Thank you for the tip, Ed!

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Frontier Silicon’s favorites feature is back

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, John Figliozzi, who discovered that the favorites feature is back on his Frontier Silicon-based WiFi radio and notes:

Check out the screen on your Como Solo and follow the instructions. Full features appear to be back! Wrote to Peter Skiera at Como and he said it wasn’t planned to go live until [today], but it showed up on my screen [Saturday]. Seems to work smoothly and flawlessly.

Brilliant news! Thank you for sharing, John. I’m happy to see that Frontier Silicon is getting back on its feet after dropping the vTuner backbone that powered its aggregator for so many years. Several others have commenting with this good news. This is certainly a positive sign.

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The Degen DE1108: a new multimedia device with shortwave radio

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Magdiel Cruz, who shares a link to the new Degen DE1108.

Perhaps “radio” doesn’t really describe this multimedia device, but it does feature shortwave, MW, LW, and FM reception along with the following features:

Dual touch screens
WiFi radio (at least, I believe it does based on the description)
Video playback via WiFi
SD Card and USB playback (supports WAV, APE, FLAC, MP3)
WIFI+ Bluetooth
AUX input
Custom audio

Here are some of the receiver specs (click to enlarge):

In truth, the translated product description on eBay is a bit humorous, but I suspect most of it is a machine translation from Chinese and has yet to be properly edited.

Obviously, this is not a standard portable or tabletop radio–I feel like it’s more of a multimedia device that also happens to receive shortwave. I doubt this will be a benchmark receiver, although I could be proven wrong.

The price is a hefty $449 US shipped on eBay. It’s also available on AliExpress for the same amount.

Thanks for the tip, Magdiel! Of course we’ll post updates as we learn more about the DE1108.

Click here to view on eBay.

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Google Nest Hub and other devices on sale

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Chris’ Google Nest Hub tuned to AWR Wavescan’s Internet stream

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Chris Freitas, who writes:

I wanted to let you know that Google has been doing a sale on some of their devices.

The Google Home Mini is on sale for $25 right now. Also the Google Nest Hub, basically a tablet slab on a speaker, is also on sale too for $79. It has much of the same functionality as the Mini but you can also cast video to it.

The link to the Nest Hub is https://store.google.com/product/google_nest_hub. The link to the Home Mini https://store.google.com/product/google_home_mini. You can also find this sale thru many retailers like Target, Best Buy, Walmart, and Home Depot.

I impulse bought the Nest Hub and it is a pretty awesome tool in the kitchen/living room of my apartment. I am going to put it thru some tests but it works well with streaming media.

Thanks for the tip, Chris!

So I’ll confess that I, too, just grabbed one of the Nest Hub devices. Your photo sold it, with the image of AWR Wavescan! (Enabler!)

I like the idea of a touch screen device that can also accept voice commands. That might make for a very usable and adaptable WiFi radio.

Of course, there’s the creepiness factor of any voice command personal assistant devices, but then again any smart phone has all of the same functionality.

I’ll certainly post a short review noting how well the Nest Hub might perform as an Internet/WiFi radio device.

Anyone else using the Nest Hub as a WiFi radio? Please comment!

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Aggregation aggravation update: Frontier Silicon working on Favorites and Personal Streams

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The Sangean WFR-28 WiFi Radio is one of many popular models affected

One of the hottest topics here on the SWLing Post this month is regarding Frontier Silicon and vTuner “aggregation aggravation.”

Let me explain. Earlier this month, Frontier Silicon abruptly dropped vTuner as its radio stream aggregator after vTuner CEO Peter Johnson shut off the service. Johnson stated here on the SWLing Post that he:

“[T]urned off the frontier service just for a couple hours after they backstabbed me.”

One of vTuner’s business clients (a client of Frontier) informed me that Johnson wanted to change the terms of their financial agreement thus used a service blackout to force Frontier’s hand. That seems to be supported by Johnson’s comment. In the end, we know Frontier dropped vTuner a few days later and has now partnered with Airable.

Regardless of what might have really happened, end-users of the Frontier Silicon service have had to cope with frustrating changes (I own a Sangean WFR-28 and Como Audio Solo which have both been affected).

Without warning, we lost our curated collection of station favorites/bookmarks. Personally, this was a collection of stations I had refined over the better part of three years. To lose them without warning was a bit of a blow to say the least.

To Frontier’s credit, they did implement the new aggregator quickly, but in the process lost some important functionality that was apparently a part of the vTuner service including the ability to save/organize favorites and personal streams. Fortunately, it appears Frontier will address this in the future.

An update from Frontier Silicon

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributors Dogmatix and Bob Faucett who note the following announcements on Frontier Silicon’s website:

“We are currently experiencing a large volume of support queries. We are prioritising adding missing stations and podcasts, and will be responding to all other queries as quickly as possible. Please accept our apologies for the delay in response.”

“Based on customer feedback we are working to add Favourites and Personal Streams into the new service. Please bear with us for a few weeks while we develop and test this functionality.”

This is good news, although it sounds like it might be some time before functionality is in place.

Feeling vulnerable

I’ve received numerous comments and emails from readers regarding this “aggregation aggravation”–the common thread being a sense of vulnerability.

After the service changes, we realized the degree to which our WiFi radio devices are dependent on Frontier Silicon. When service was cut earlier this month, most of our radios couldn’t even connect to streams that were programmed into front panel memory presets. For a while, our WiFi radios became expensive internet appliances that were unable to function as advertised. Those without a traditional FM/AM receiver were essentially useless.

I imagine this could be the case for Internet radios that rely on other aggregators—in other words, the radio is only as good as its online service.

UNDOK App

A number of readers have been sharing positive comments about the Frontier Silicon UNDOK app as a work-around for storing favorites, etc.

I’ve been on the road the past few weeks and have not had time to explore this app myself, so I would certainly appreciate UNDOK experience/advice from readers.

Please comment!

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