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Can You Transmit Radio Over WiFi?

Old Radio

Robin in Jacksonville, FL asked: “I am looking for a way to transmit the audio from an analog radio to my Wi-Fi so that I can receive it on my computer and my smartphone.”

 

That’s not a trivial problem. You will need a computer to act as a server for you.

The radio itself can’t do anything but play a station, you need to pipe that into a machine that can encode it and stream it.

We know first hand that encoding and streaming software can be a pain to manage

We know first hand that encoding and streaming software can be a pain to manage, but the bigger issue here is less the inconvenience of managing the software and more the fact that we just told you to move the radio next to the computer, which you probably didn’t want to do to begin with if you’re looking for a way to stream the signal to the computer.

WiFi and broadcast radio signals are nothing alike so, without specialized hardware or a computer to do the work for you, you won’t be able to just transmit one over the other. The thing is, by far most radio stations are streaming their content already.

Since you have a computer and a smartphone, check their website, odds are they have a player there that will stream their signal to your devices. If they don’t have a player odds are there’s another source that plays their content such as TuneIn Radio or iHeartRadio.

If you want to do this as a DIY project, look into streaming servers. For your purposes you may be able to get away with just using VLC as a server, but if that won’t work there are others, and move the radio close enough that you can connect its headphone jack to your computer’s line in input (failing that, the mic input), but if you just want to listen to content, someone is probably already serving it to you for free.

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Written by Dave Graveline

Dave Graveline is the founder, Host & Executive Producer of "Into Tomorrow" in addition to being President of the Advanced Media Network".

Dave is also a trusted and familiar voice on many national commercials & narrations in addition to being an authority in consumer tech since 1994. He is also a former Police Officer and an FBI Certified Instructor.

Dave thrives on audience participation!

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