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  • How Can I Listen to Overseas Radio On My Apple iPhone?

How Can I Listen to Overseas Radio On My Apple iPhone?

January 23, 2023 / Dave Taylor / Apple iPad Help, iPhone & iOS Help / 1 Comment

I just moved to Florida from Manchester and miss my British radio stations! Is there any way on an iPhone that I can listen to BBC radio or BBC World Service? I’d prefer not to install new applications, if possible.

Back in the early days, the “iTunes” app made it very clear that it was for your own music library, music you’d purchased and downloaded, audiobooks, and streaming radio stations. Then that split into multiple applications and we ended up with “Books” for audiobooks and a “Music” app that seems to endlessly promote the commercial Apple Music pay service. But Apple never did break out a separate “Radio” application or similar. Why? Because it turns out that there’s still a streaming music service within the “Music” app.

Worldwide listenership for over-the-air radio, whether AM, FM, or MW, has been slowly declining, however, so there are fewer channels than there were twenty years ago. The Internet itself has sped up too, however, so it’s easier to listen to uninterrupted audio streams from anywhere, whether hundreds or thousands of miles away. Including listening to top UK channels from Florida!

BROWSE STREAMING AM/FM/MW STATIONS IN MUSIC

For those of you who don’t know, AM = “amplitude modulation”, FM = “frequency modulation” and MW = “medium wave” and is essentially the same as FM. There’s also a new over-the-air audio tech called “DAB” which offers higher quality audio, but that’s a bit beyond the scope of this tutorial. For our purposes, streaming = streaming, so let’s have a closer look!

To start, launch the “Music” app on your iPhone (or iPad):

iphone music app fm streaming radio - main home screen

I have a large library of music on my own iPhone – and am busy listening to the House of the Dragon soundtrack (you can see it at the bottom with the track “Dragons Do Not Fear Blood”. But below that is the toolbar and the second option on that bar is “Radio“. Tap on it!

iphone music app fm streaming radio - listing of radio stations

Look! You can subscribe Apple Music. Ummm… we want to listen to streaming radio stations, not pay for another streaming service. No worries, swipe up to move a bit further down on this screen and you’ll find that there’s a listing of available channels:

iphone music app fm streaming radio - listing of available streams

Notice in the lower “International Broadcasters” area that BBC Radio 1 is the first choice! That was easy, right?

Actually, there are lots and lots of choices, both locally and from international streaming sources. Local stations are going to be those from Florida and the surrounding area:

iphone music app fm streaming radio - local station choices

Look closely and you’ll see that just about all of them are either from TuneIn or iHeartRadio; those are two of the largest radio conglomerates in the United States and own the majority of all broadcast stations. You can download either of the two apps if you really want to explore their music, but I find that there’s a lot of homogeneity across their regional stations. You don’t need to get either, however, because Music offers access to their catalogs too.

You can also explore International Broadcasters, but since you’re interested in the Beeb (the British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC), let’s check a different feature…

SEARCH FOR STREAMING CHANNELS IN MUSIC

Turns out that the “Music” app has an excellent search feature that can not just search for music in your library, but radio stations by keyword too! Tap on “Search” on the bottom, then look for “bbc radio”:

iphone music app fm streaming radio - search for 'bbc radio'

Turns out that the Beeb streams every single channel, including the “Extra” channels that you might not have even known about when you were living in ‘ol Blighty! BBC also offers a live stream of BBC World Service too, which you can enjoy with a single tap:

iphone music app fm streaming radio - bbc world service live stream

Plug the phone into your car – or pair it with Bluetooth – and you can continue to listen on the move too. Easy enough!

Pro Tip: I’ve been writing tutorials for the Apple iPhone since it was first released. Please check out my extensive iPhone help area for lots and lots of useful content.

About the Author: Dave Taylor has been involved with the online world since the early days of the Internet. Author of over 20 technical books, he runs the popular AskDaveTaylor.com tech help site. You can also find his gadget reviews on YouTube and chat with him on Twitter as @DaveTaylor.

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Starbucks coffee cup I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you, Dave, for all your helpful information by buying you a cup of coffee!
iphone fm, iphone radio, streaming radio

One comment on “How Can I Listen to Overseas Radio On My Apple iPhone?”

  1. Bill Carney says:
    January 25, 2023 at 11:56 am

    While this isn’t exclusive to the iPhone, using a browser go to http://radio.garden From there you can scroll around the globe and listen to stations all around the world. Listening to BBC Radio Manchester right now, in fact!

    Reply

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