HomePod Can't get Homepod to play radio station

[za9ra22]

Firstly, in case it matters, I'm in the US.

Secondly, I want to play Radio X UK. (I know, why?, but I do). The thing is that I know the Homepod can do this because very occasionally, it does. I have tried 'Play Radio X Manchester', 'Play Radio X UK' and a bunch of other things. Sometimes it plays Radio XS Manchester, but almost always I get 'Radio X not found in Apple Music', or 'Playing Podcast XS'.

It will play BBC stations, it also plays other more local radio stations, and when it occasionally will play Radio X, it says 'Playing Radio X Manchester from Global Player', but not once, when I give it that instruction, will it actually play it - usually I get '...not found in Apple Music'.

It's a small frustration, but I the only fix I have so far is to use an Amazon Echo.... which works flawlessly, except by comparison it sounds awful.

Are there any tricks anyone can suggest?

 

[za9ra22]

It seems indicative to me that interfacing with the Homepod is solely by voice with no alternatives, and that unlike Amazon devices (I have no experience of Google's offerings) there isn't an app or web interface to see what the HomePod thinks it has heard, or to provide feedback - or even voice learning.

I did solve my radio station issue, though not the way I would have wanted. I got an Echo Studio, which works pretty flawlessly, and sounds almost as good as the HomePod.

Shame that Apple don't seem to support streaming radio via the HomePod all that well, when radio is still a fairly consistent favourite for audio-based home entertainment. Maybe it'll get better, in which case my HomePods likely will get dusted off again.

Thanks to those who at least looked!

 

[dotme]

I find with HomePod it helps to specify the source ("Play Radio X on TuneIn Radio")

But, TuneIn has restricted USA IP addresses from playing many UK-based stations (Royalty/Licensing dispute) so that may also be a factor here.

 

[za9ra22]

It does seem to make a difference in specifying the source, and if Radio X was still available on TuneIn, that might give me something to work with, but as said, TuneIn has blocked a considerable number of stations. And it won't play my local NPR station either, and that is in TuneIn. Whenever I ask for 'radio station....' Siri says it can't find it in Apple Music, which is not where it is anyway. When I ask for **** from TuneIn, I get variously nothing at all, or a podcast.

It isn't the HomePod, obviously. It's the restricted nature of Siri's interactions, very restricted sources, and voice-only interface.

When I'm streaming from my iPhone to a stereo pair of HomePods at home, they work very well, and sound, really good. At work when I want the radio on all day for background and distraction.... ah well, not so much.

 

[jigzaw]

I can't get HomePod to play ANYTHING using Siri at the moment. Everything I ask for, it says "I can't find ___ on Apple Music". Are the Siri servers down or something?

 

[JHV2]

If the station is an actual broad cast station on tunein or I heart radio, it always works for me to state the frequency first “hey Siri play 90.1 WABE”. Unfortunately it will not work on internet radio. For those I have to search i apple music app on iOS device and air play them to the home pod. One nice thing that does work is if you start on an iOS device and then go to the home pod in the home app. You can then unload Apple Music and continue play the station from the home app.

 

[RockTheGlobe]

Firstly, in case it matters, I'm in the US.

Secondly, I want to play Radio X UK. (I know, why?, but I do). The thing is that I know the Homepod can do this because very occasionally, it does. I have tried 'Play Radio X Manchester', 'Play Radio X UK' and a bunch of other things. Sometimes it plays Radio XS Manchester, but almost always I get 'Radio X not found in Apple Music', or 'Playing Podcast XS'.

It will play BBC stations, it also plays other more local radio stations, and when it occasionally will play Radio X, it says 'Playing Radio X Manchester from Global Player', but not once, when I give it that instruction, will it actually play it - usually I get '...not found in Apple Music'.

It's a small frustration, but I the only fix I have so far is to use an Amazon Echo.... which works flawlessly, except by comparison it sounds awful.

Are there any tricks anyone can suggest?

Apologies I’m responding so late… I just ran across this thread while trying to figure out a similar issue.

I, too, am in the U.S., and I, too, want to listen to Radio X (and also XS Manchester). I found similar problems with trying to get things to work the way I wanted them to using voice-control for hands-free in-car listening, since my car doesn’t have CarPlay.

While XS Manchester’s app offers an option to tie directly to Siri, Radio X’s does not. (If you haven’t downloaded the native Globalplayer Radio X app, I highly recommend it over listening via TuneIn. The UI is much better, and there’s also an option for higher-bandwidth high-quality audio.) What I ended up doing was creating a Siri Shortcut that used slightly different language — “hey Siri, *launch* Radio X” instead of “play Radio X” — and then set the Radio X app for auto-play. That seems to work for me. Hope it helps you.

 

[za9ra22]

Apologies I’m responding so late… I just ran across this thread while trying to figure out a similar issue.

I, too, am in the U.S., and I, too, want to listen to Radio X (and also XS Manchester). I found similar problems with trying to get things to work the way I wanted them to using voice-control for hands-free in-car listening, since my car doesn’t have CarPlay.

While XS Manchester’s app offers an option to tie directly to Siri, Radio X’s does not. (If you haven’t downloaded the native Globalplayer Radio X app, I highly recommend it over listening via TuneIn. The UI is much better, and there’s also an option for higher-bandwidth high-quality audio.) What I ended up doing was creating a Siri Shortcut that used slightly different language — “hey Siri, *launch* Radio X” instead of “play Radio X” — and then set the Radio X app for auto-play. That seems to work for me. Hope it helps you.

Thank you for taking the time to reply - this is greatly appreciated!! I shall give this a try when I'm in the office on Monday!!!