FreeRadio Internet Radio Guide

Here is a short guide to help installing and customizing FreePlay's FreeRadio internet radio player.

Download FreeRadio from here. After you unzip the file you will see a "readme" and a folder. Read the readme.txt file. FreePlay wrote it for a reason.

Installation:

Open the folder named "Copy the stuff in this folder into the top folder of your memory stick!". Double click to open it. Then copy the "radio" folder over to your PSP's root directory (ms0:\, ms_root, G:\, etc.). Mine has the green circle around it here:


Copy the "PSP" folder from the download over to the "PSP" folder on your memory stick (circled in red above). It will add the needed files to your memory stick.

That's it. You can close your USB connection and navigate to the network icon on your PSP. You should have a new option: Internet Radio. The included Shoutcast stations FreePlay has included are quite good but if you would like to customize these stations keep reading.

Customizing your Shoutcast Stations:

Here are the instructions FreePlay has provided in the readme file:

"To customize the list of Shoutcast stations, podcasts, or raw streams, look in the 'radio\personalize' folder. 'MyShoutcast.js', 'MyPodcasts.js', and 'MyStreams.js' contain the lists of Shoutcast stations, podcasts, and raw streams displayed in the portal, as well as instructions for adding your own stuff. You can edit them in Notepad or any other text editor."

That's pretty straight forward but here is a screen capture in case you need help.


Double click "radio", then double click "personalize", and finally you'll see "MyShoutcast.js". I used notepad to open the file and here are the station names and i.d. numbers that Freeplay provided for our listening pleasure:

var shoutcast_stations = new Array(
'2680', '1.FM - Blues',
'6951', '1.FM - The Chillout Lounge',
'2541', '1.FM - Otto\'s Baroque Musick',
'7526', '181.FM - Christmas Mix Channel',
'5835', '181.fm - Kickin\' Country (Today\'s Best Country!)',
'2266', '181.fm - POWER 181',
'1553', '.977 The 80s Channel',
'1025', '.977 The Hitz Channel',
'8751', 'ChroniX Aggression',
'3201', 'DIGITALLY-IMPORTED - Chillout',
'1276', 'DIGITALLY-IMPORTED - Trance, Techno, Hi-NRG',
'1790', 'DIGITALLY-IMPORTED - Vocal Trance',
'3674', 'Drone Zone: Atmospheric ambient space music',
'841', 'Groove Salad: beats and grooves.',
'5067', 'idobi Radio: Music that doesn\'t suck!',
'6445', 'Japan-A-Radio',
'8771', 'Radio Paradise-modern, rock, world, electronica, more',
'333', 'S K Y . F M - 80s, 80s, 80s!',
'1568', 'S K Y . F M - All Hit 70s',
'1403', 'S K Y . F M - Absolutely Smooth Jazz',
'1914', 'S K Y . F M - Classical & Flamenco Guitar',
'2429', 'S K Y . F M - Mostly Classical',
'4977', 'S K Y . F M - New Age',
'8613', 'S K Y . F M - Roots Reggae',
'1677', 'S K Y . F M - The Christmas Channel',
'2207', 'Slow Radio',
'5890', 'SmoothJazz.com',
'9581', 'SmoothLounge.com',
'9036', '[XRM] - Alternative'
);

Notice that there isn't a comma after '[XRM] - Alternative'. That's important, make sure you leave out the last comma if you add or remove stations from your list. Also, if you add a station that has an apostrophe like "181.fm - Kickin' Country (Today's Best Country!)" above; make sure that you include the backslash before it \'.

Here is a list of the top 50 stations, with their i.d. numbers, on Shoutcast from Jan. 22, 2008. The additional five stations, at the end of the list, play a lot of game soundtracks. Thought you might like them.

'3394', 'French Kiss FM',
'4757', 'HOT 108 JAMZ',
'942319', 'HOT FM',
'5635', 'The Alex Jones Show',
'526', 'S K Y . F M - Top Hits Music',
'4253', '181.FM - Classic Country Hits',
'8591', '181.fm - The Buzz-Your Alternative Station',
'8848', 'PulsRadio',
'4870', 'POWERHITZ.COM',
'5427', 'Musik.Main',
'9956', 'FREQUENCE3',
'8303', 'HitzRadio.com',
'5327', 'KQED Public Radio',
'6422', 'Musik.Goldies',
'757', 'Blue FM',
'524', 'TechnoBase.FM',
'4866', 'Discollection-Radio.De',
'2897', 'DIGITALLY-IMPORTED - EuroDance & HiNRG',
'4869', 'SomaFM presents: Indie Pop Rocks',
'320792', 'PJ BeeVBoY For Sodazaa',
'6409', '1.FM - Top 40',
'3654', '1.FM - Bay Smooth Jazz',
'9462', 'Radio ENJOYSTATION.NET',
'1057', 'frisky R a d i o',
'6967', 'DIGITALLY-IMPORTED - Lounge',
'7790', '1.FM - Otto's Classical Musick',
'6201', '1.FM - Dance Hits',
'1187', '1.FM - Channel X',
'6617', 'Angel Fire Radio's Classic Rock&Roll.FM',
'1568', 'S K Y . F M - All Hit 70s',
'2502', 'AM 1710 Antioch Old-time radio',
'706105', 'GCN Network 3 Live Stream',
'3103', '181.fm - Energy 98 - Dance Hits',
'3911', '181.FM - The Beat * #1 For HipHop',
'2916', 'Bassdrive - Music Beyond',
'2762', 'Fusion Radio. The Future of Dance',
'185033', 'Beatles Radio.com',
'4267', 'Musik.JaM',
'2399', 'Secret Agent',
'7963', 'Radio Caraibes FM - Haiti',
'706105', 'GCN Network 3 Live Stream',
'1952', 'Play Classical UK',
'1968', 'FG DJ RADIO',
'8589', 'H A P P Y D A Y - New Age EZ1 Channel',
'2464', 'Musik.eXTreMe',
'5295', 'k a w a i i - r a d i o',
'819988', 'yaxiradio 9275 FMz',
'2086', 'KCRW Music',
'5438', 'Radioseven',
'3392', 'Radio VHR',
'209054', 'Power of the Games',
'369667', 'Final Fantasy XI - RGoNots Linkshell',
'463697', 'All Games Radio',
'4177', 'Radio GOSU: 24/7 Video Game Music',
'3292', 'WoW Radio',

Just add these to the list of Shoutcast stations and save the file. Replace your "MyShoutcast.js" file on your PSP's memory stick with this new file and you'll have a bunch more great stations.

If neither FreePlay's selection of stations, nor mine, has what you want then feel free to head over to Shoutcast.com. Find a station that you want to add and right click on the "Tune In" button. Select the "Copy Link Location" option and inside of your preferred text editor program hit ctrl+V and paste the link into a new document. You will find a number toward the end of the link, that is the station i.d. number. Using the format above ('i.d.number', 'station name',) add this info into the list of Shoutcast stations in the "MyShoutcast.js" file.

Two problems I found:

• When adding stations, keep only the stations you can't live without because the FreeRadio player starts to lag when you have more than 40 or 50 stations. I believe it is caused by the E.Q. plugin. One thing that helps is to open the "Plugins" folder and rename the "equalizer.plugin" to "equalizer.disabled". FreeRadio will ignore the plugin and the lag is greatly reduced. To re-enable the plugin just rename it back to "equalizer.plugin".
  
• AAC and MMS streams are not supported.
  

These issues are minor and do not detract from the experience.

I hope this guide was helpful. Please enjoy FreePlay's great homebrew internet radio player: FreeRadio.