Macworld Forums: Mac 911 Weblog: Adding radio streams to iTunes - Macworld Forums

ibeetle's right. WBUR streams just fine over my AirPort Expresses.

You can directly open (and add) suitable Radio streams to iTunes using the "Open Stream" option in the Advanced menu of iTunes.
Unfortunately what this article completely fails to tell you is that MANY such streams are in Windows Media or Real Media formats AND WILL NOT WORK in iTunes. This includes almost all the BBC stations (they use Real Media).
There is some hope that the Flip4Mac codec for QuickTime will enable access to Windows media streams (even within iTunes) but currently the vast majority of such streams do not work with it (they work in the real WMP).
I have an idea that could encourage more radio stations to support iTunes friendly streams and also generate revenue for the Radio stations AND Apple. If Steve Jobs would like to contact me for details feel free to do so! /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Glad I mentioned that... I've been using a stream feed that's been in existence quite some time (and doesn't work over Airport Express).
But... these stations have added new streams that DO work over Airport Express. Apparently WBUR made changes September 27th... and thanks, guys, for clueing me in on the new streams!
Chris... just so I know I'm not wacko, could you try playing this stream for WGBH and see if it works on AirTunes?
http://stream.qtv.apple.com/channels/wgbh/refs/radio1_ref.mov
That's what I was using, it still works on my PowerBook, but doesn't stream to Airport Express.

No, you're not a wacko, but you are playing a stream other than an MPEG Audio Stream, which is what iTunes streams by default. What you're streaming is a QuickTime stream (notice what it's called in the Kind column), which iTunes will play but AirPort Express won't.

Thanks!
I just wasn't aware that those stations had added Airport Express compatible streams... now I'm set!

Hmm = although this article is over 3 years old is seems that nothing has changed in iTunes to allow others than mpeg streams to be played.
Please correct me if I am wrong; f.e. .asx, .wax or mms:// stream addresses can't be used in iTunes, whereas in QuickTime (using Flip4mac) they are all working...

I saw this article is a good 5 years old, but it helped me setup my internet radio streaming!

I have an Apple TV2 and two AirPort Extreme devices. I wanted to stream music throughout the house and this works great. I love listening to NPR, but couldn't find the local stream in the "Radios" section of iTunes. I found this article and it mentioned how to (1) open streams within iTunes and (2) add those streams to a playlist. Doing this was the perfect solution!

(1) Find the stream you'd like. For NPR, I went to the Station Finder (http://www.npr.org/t...tions/stations/), clicked on my station, found their "Listen Live" link and managed to find the stream (in my case: http://witf.ic.llnwd...am/witf_mp3.pls)
(2) In iTunes, click "Advanced" then "Open Stream" and paste the link into the box that comes up and hit Ok.
(3) Your stream will start playing. You now need to find the stream within your iTunes library. Click "Music" in your iTunes left menu. (It'll be in there).
NOTE: If you're having trouble finding it, right click on the sortable columns at the top (Name, Kind, Artist, etc) and make sure 'Date Added' is checked. Then sort by 'Date Added' by clicking it. Your station will be at the top (or bottom) of the sorted list.
(4) Create a new Playlist (File/New Playlist). Name it whatever is good for you. I named mine "NPR".
(5) Drag the stream from the "Music" folder into the Playlist.

Now, when you use your Remote app, you can see the playlist and simply start it playing.

Note: This will cause your stream to be a "Song" in your library, so if you like to just put your library on random and let it go, you may have problems (i.e. your NPR stream will start playing while you're trying to listen to music). I tried removing the "Song" from the music list, but it then removed it from the playlist.

You may say I'm snobbish, but I don't feel like having genres as "hip-hop" or "metal" in my list of radio stations. Apple should provide a mean to remove or at least to hide genres an user will never be interested in.