Tune-In Radio

[Chas F]

I've read this forum for quite a while now and noticed that most people talk about Slacker Radio with respect to the infotainment features. I have to say, because of this, Tune-In radio was a nice surprise for me. I realize the draw of no commercials and being able to select your artist/songs at will, but I also like that you can select radio stations from around the world, in many different formats! You name it, talk radio, international stations, whatever! I listen to my favorite radio stations in multiple states (including the town I grew up in as a kid) at least as much as I listen to Slacker. Even if you use it to stream your local radio stations ( the horror!), there is the added benefit if being able to pause and resume real time broadcasts. I find that Slacker can become tiresome after a time because I always have to to think "what do I want to hear now?" It a little distracting at times so I'll break it up with my favorite station 5 states away. I think they complement each other well.

Am I the only one that loves Tune-In Radio?

 

[Todd Burch]

I WOULD love Tune-In, except there's been a bug since the beginning where Tune-In will reset after listing to a stream for about 40 minutes. After several tries, I was unable to listen completely through an episode of "Car Talk". It also resets to the beginning when you get out of the car, and with no way to fast forward back to where you were, it's nearly useless.

 

[Chas F]

Interesting. I have never noticed any of those bugs. I usually just listen to music and not mre than 30 minutes at a time. I'll pay more attention to see if I encounter the same. Thanks Todd.

 

[andrewket]

Sports broadcasts are also subject to blackouts. The stations play old material during the games via streaming whereas the live content is broadcasted over RF.

A

 

[Todd Burch]

Interesting. I have never noticed any of those bugs. I usually just listen to music and not mre than 30 minutes at a time. I'll pay more attention to see if I encounter the same. Thanks Todd.

Yes, I believe the problem's only evident on a long format stream, like an hour-long show. BTW, I've emailed this bug to ownership.

 

[spaghetti]

I love Tune In. Use it all the time to listen to Bloomberg Radio and some local stations. It is very useful for local FM stations which suffer from typical multi path issues that plague FM in large hilly metro areas.

 

[Musterion]

I have this problem with Tune-In -- On stations which have an advertisement at the beginning (like my local NPR affiliate), it almost always gets into an infinite loop of repeating the advertisement over and over and never goes to the stream. Maybe 1 in 10 times I can get to the stream. For foreign stations with no advertisements, though, it works great.

 

[William13]

I put the tune in app on my iPhone. If an episode cuts out before the end or if I am worried about dropped signal with restart from the beginning, I will use Bluetooth from my phone which allows scrolling through the episode. Still free.
Car Talk is unlikely to allow me to finish the episode but Stuff to Blow Your Mind usually will finish a 40 minute episode.
The available podcasts and shows differ a bit.

 

[ken830]

I see all of the bugs reported in this thread. Plus,a few months ago, stations like the CHP or local police and fire radios stopped working altogether.

 

[kendallpb]

I've read this forum for quite a while now and noticed that most people talk about Slacker Radio with respect to the infotainment features. I have to say, because of this, Tune-In radio was a nice surprise for me. I realize the draw of no commercials and being able to select your artist/songs at will, but I also like that you can select radio stations from around the world, in many different formats! You name it, talk radio, international stations, whatever! I listen to my favorite radio stations in multiple states (including the town I grew up in as a kid) at least as much as I listen to Slacker. Even if you use it to stream your local radio stations ( the horror!), there is the added benefit if being able to pause and resume real time broadcasts.

I've never tried it. The regular radio works fine for me, but I normally listed to music or (more often) audiobooks via my iPod. So Slacker is good for the times when I have a short trip and just want a little random music, or driving with my other half.

I find that Slacker can become tiresome after a time because I always have to to think "what do I want to hear now?" It a little distracting at times

I'm confused. You can pick from a bunch of preset stations on Slacker, by type of music; you don't have to think up a song/be distracted. I realize that's one of the great things about Slacker, but you can use it like, well, radio, too. ;-)

I should check out Tune-In, though; it would be amusing (if they carry it) to hear my old college radio station, where I had a couple of shows. Do they carry college stations???

 

[Chas F]

I'm confused. You can pick from a bunch of preset stations on Slacker, by type of music; you don't have to think up a song/be distracted. I realize that's one of the great things about Slacker, but you can use it like, well, radio, too. ;-)

Well my experience has been that there are themes within themes when it comes to selecting music. For example, if I want to listen to R&B on Slacker, I can select Old School, 90's, Funk, Dance/Club, New, etc. Any one of these gets old and repetative after a short time unless I'm in a really specific mood. I have found that a good radio station has a way of keeping it interesting and varied while staying within an overall theme. I can listen to a good radio station for hours without getting bored. Over the years, I've found a few such radio stations in different states. With Tune-In, you have most of the world to choose from. Maybe it's not for everyone, but it was a nice surprise for me.
Try it. You just might find that college station... and a few more.

 

[donv]

I like TuneIn quite a bit. I didn't even know the car had it until I was poking around in the menus and found it.

If you like classical music, Slacker is worthless, but with TuneIn you can listen to KUSC, Minnesota Public Radio, and a bunch of others.

 

[jammerdjc]

I've run into an interesting problem with the TuneIn implementation. I found that a local station I sometimes listen to, but isn't real strong (i.e. it's not great over the air in the Tesla amongst other places) was not available on TuneIn. My wife and I noted that on our SONOS it shows as a "TuneIn" station (although we get the internet direct stream on the SONOS). I decided to check and see if I could get to it online. Indeed, I setup an account for TuneIn on my computer and I can get the KKSF AM 910 San Francisco.

By default there was no account configured on my car. I logged into my new account in the car and it won't play the station. It states "Restricted by a...."

Has anyone seen this? Is there some restriction on TuneIn in the Tesla that doesn't exist elsewhere? It seems odd to me.

I haven't tried to go to the TuneIn web site yet, but usually those sites require Flash so don't work.

 

[William13]

@J, get the Tunein app on your phone and tether it via Bluetooth.

 

[jammerdjc]

@J, get the Tunein app on your phone and tether it via Bluetooth.

Everyone loves to suggest bluetooth tethering for all the radio issues. That makes it very difficult to change things in a state where it's illegal to hold your smart phone and drive. While I appreciate the suggestions, Tesla need to fix the applications in the car or get new ones that work better.

 

[boberd]

Tune-in Podcasts

I have found that the Podcast replay implementation by Tune-In for the Tesla is very poor. It does not allow for moving forward or backwards in the Podcast. If the podcast is interrupted by a bad signal, or leaving the car, then it starts at the beginning. The implementation on the iPad does allow for skipping forward and backward when listening to Podcasts.

Bob

 

[Schlermie]

I listen to a daily podcast on TuneIn every morning; however, there's a bug in TuneIn that makes this difficult. After I listen to the podcast, the TuneIn app stops updating the list for subsequent broadcasts. Fortunately, the podcast I listen to is listed about 9 times in the TuneIn menus, so I just need to browse to the same podcast listed in a different menu location, but after 9 days of listening, I need to reboot the center console to refresh the TuneIn menus with the latest broadcasts. I've reported this problem to TuneIn and they've reported it to Tesla several months ago.