Audio Help

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Michigan Radio
535 W. William
Suite 110
Ann Arbor, MI 48103
ph. 734.764.9210
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Audio Help

Every day, thousands of people listen to Michigan Radio's online stream at home, at work, and on-the-go, with their computers and handheld devices. It's a great way to stay in touch with Your NPR News Station in places where the signal is weak or hard to receive, like tall buildings, or outside our service area of southern Michigan, northwest Ohio and southwest Ontario.

One NPR News Station, Two Stream Choices

At present, we offer two choices for streaming. The primary options are Windows Media (WM) and an open-source MP3 stream. (As of June 1 2008, Michigan Radio is no longer be able to provide a Real Media version of our live stream. We recommend you configure your Real Media player to connect to our MP3 stream. Download the instructions on how to do this(pdf).)

What's on our stream?

The audio stream offers Michigan Radio's on-air signal 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Occasionally, we don't have internet broadcast rights to a program. In those instances, the stream is silent until the next program begins.

What do I need to hear the stream?

You need a computer with a sound card, speakers or headphones, the proper software, and a connection to the Internet. We recommend at least a good quality dialup connection. The faster your connection, the better the sound quality and reliability of your connection.

Software

To listen to our Windows Media (WM) stream, we recommend that you have the latest Windows Media Player WMP). WMP is a free download for Windows users, and there is also a version for Pocket PC. Microsoft no longer supports WMP on the Mac OS. Mac OS users can use the latest version of Quicktime, with a recommended free download of components that allow Quicktime to access WM streams and files.

To listen to our MP3 stream, we recommend you use any free software that can access MP3 streams, including:

To listen to our Real stream, we recommend you use RealPlayer. There are free and paid versions of the software available.

Which stream is better for me?

To a degree, this depends on your software preference. But we've also designed each stream with certain uses in mind. The WM stream has higher bandwidth; it sounds a little better. It's likely to work best on broadband or WiFi connections. The MP3 stream has less bandwidth, which makes it a better choice if you have a limited bandwidth connection to the Internet (dialup), or if you're accessing our stream with a mobile device (phone or handheld).

Why does the sound drop out when I listen?

The bandwidth of your Internet connection may not be enough for the stream. If you're listening to the WM stream and it cuts out frequently, you might try the MP3 stream, which has less bandwidth. It might provide a more reliable connection.
There may be a problem with your computer or your software. Sometimes, it helps to close your programs, reboot, and try to access the stream again.
General congestion on the Internet can result in unreliable reception conditions that are unrelated to our audio servers or your computer.
Occasionally, our servers go down. When this happens, we make every effort to identify the problem and restore service as soon as possible.

Any more questions?

Contact us and we'll try our best to help.