Listen to your Favorite Online Radio Stations with RadioZilla

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Most of us like listening our favorite music during long stretches of boredom and no other methods work best than switching to an online radio station. While there is no limit to the number of online radio station we can listen to on the Internet; we can certainly keep a track of the favorite ones using an application – RadioZilla.

RadioZilla is a free application for Windows desktop that allows you to listen to different radio stations and directly download the songs played by them, without having to download any third-party applications. Let us proceed and see how the application really works.

RadioZilla review and features

Radiozilla Intercae 600x343 Listen to your Favorite Online Radio Stations with RadioZilla

Visit the homepage and click on the download link. What makes the program really useful is its ability to allow a user to listen and record radios at the same time. For Windows the program is available as .exe file of 4.2 MB size.

Once the download is complete, run the file and select the setup language. Proceed through wizards to complete the installation process.

Once done, open up RadioZilla and you will observe the main interface of the program. It is divided mainly into 3 panes. A list of music genres is displayed in top-left pane. Each can expand and become more specific.

Select your preferred genre and the program should display a list of matching stations. Click on the desired station and it should start streaming immediately. One problem I noticed using this program is that most stations were offline so, I was not able to immediately connect to a station and there was no error message displayed except, ‘Cannot Connect’. However, my second attempt bore results and I was able to listen to a song, luckily!

While listening to a track, you can record it! To do this, just hit the Auto-record button and start recording the track. It does not matter even if you have started recording in the middle.

Roadzilla auto record Listen to your Favorite Online Radio Stations with RadioZilla

The program does not require any permission about folders, file names, formats or anything else – it just automatically saves each track as an MP3 file to a suitable folder for your listening convenience.

Radiozilla options Listen to your Favorite Online Radio Stations with RadioZilla

RadioZilla is compatible with Windows 7 and earlier versions of Windows OS such as Windows Vista and Windows XP.

RadioZilla download

Download: Radiozilla.

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The author Hemant Saxena is a post-graduate in bio-technology and has an immense interest in following Windows, Office and other technology developments. Quiet by nature, he is an avid Lacrosse player.

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  • Saxenahem2507

    thanks for mentioning the alternative! I shall cover it some day.

  • Ed

    Although Radio sure MAY be better than Radiozilla, you must remember that there is a paid version verus a free version of Radiosure. The better options which you get for free with Radiozilla but you have to PAY for with Radiosure.
    Doesn’t really matter to me about the recording options, I have TB’s of music so there is very little they could paly that I already do not have …… it paid off being around during the Napster free days!

  • Ed

    *versus ……sorry ;0(

  • Ed

    Besides I can vouch for Teorex software, I have used other software’s they have out and have never run into any problems such as malware, ad’s and such. It is top notch software that is fully tested before being released.

  • http://www.greggdeselms.com/ Gregg L. DesElms

    You can edit your posts, Ed… just, you know, FYI. Or at least I can edit mine. Or at least the last time I posted here I thought I could. Hmmm. After I post this, I’ll look and see if the “edit” link is there.

    As for RadioSure free vs paid, and how either compare with RadioZilla, I’ve found that the free version of RadioSure is pretty much all that most people need. It’s quite feature-rich… especially when compared with well-known older, formerly best-of-breed players like Screamer Radio.

    I know all the things one gets from the commercial/paid version of RadioSure, and if all one wants is a best-of-breed radio player, not one single one of the paid/commercial features is needed. For a while, there, I would have argued that the 30-station favorites limitation in the free version was an impediment; but then I started paying attention to how many of the favorites I have that I actually ever routinely use, and it’s like five of them. So, in reality, 30 favorites is about six times too many; making the 100 that a person gets from the commercial/paid version just WAY overkill.

    Now, if one is recording, then I guess I could see how some of RadioSure’s commercial/paid features could be maybe worth it. No argument, here. But I just never do that. In fact, I was impressed with how much music you have on your hard drives. I don’t have TB’s of it, but I have hundreds of GB’s… and am approaching my first TB. Not too many of us out there have quite THAT much. By the way, changing the subject for just a moment (but related to what we’re talking about, here), did you know that a Google Play Music account will hold a whopping 20,000 MP3 songs… for free? I did a count on my hard drives, and that’s like 300GB, give or take, of music. I bring it up because while talking with someone in a forum about all the music I have, I counted how many songs are on one of my partitions which just happens to be 300GB in size; and it came out to around 21,000-something songs. So like a week later, when I was debating whether or not I wanted to even use my Google Play Music account with my Android device, I noticed that it would hold 20,000 songs (regardless how much space it takes; the limit is the number of songs, not the hard drive space), and I thought to myself, “Hey! I know how much disk space that is… wow… that’s like 300GB!” So the Google Play Music account is pretty cool… but I just don’t like to stream my music… costs to much in terms of bandwidth. But now I digress.

    Anyway, what I like about RadioSure is that it has the largest and most well-maintained database of radio stations of pretty much anything else out there. It’s up to over 17,000 now. And what’s very cool is that anyone can create and account, and then either add stations, or correct the ones they have. For example, a religious radio stream recently changed streaming providers, and so the URL of its stream changed. Upon realizing this, I contacted the station and verified the change, and made sure it was permanent (and that the old stream was permanently dead), and then I just logged-in to my RadioSure account, went to the database area, found the station’s two listings (one for music, one for talk), and updated the stream URL information; and, of course, explained the change in the comments. Then saved it. Within like a day… two at the outside… Moderators review the changes and verify them (making sure there’s no vandalism, or manipulation or anything), and then they release it to the live database. When RadioSure users’ databases are next updated (paid users daily, and free users weekly), the changes are there. Very cool.

    Between that sort of thing, and the free player’s just general collection of features (which far out-pace, for example, Screamer), honestly, I can’t imagine what more a person could need.

    I’m not saying that RadioSure has no issues. One, in particular is vexing as hell, to wit: Most apps which sit in the System Tray (or the “Notification Area” as Microsoft has, for some reason, wanted us to start calling it since Vista) are configured either by default, or can be re-configured in the “Settings” area, so that if you click on the “x” in the upper-rightmost corner of the app’s window, it will simply minimize it back to the System Tray rather than closing the app, altogether.

    But RadioSure’s not that way, nor can it be configured to be that way. With RadioSure, if you want to just minimize its window back down to the System Tray, you have to click on the “-” minimization button in the upper-rightmost corner. If you click on the “x” up there, RadioSure completely closes. Very irritating. I’ve written to them about it, but they seem not to agree with me.

    They’re Russians, you know, and there is both a slight language barrier as well as a whole cultural thing. I wouldn’t make mention of it in what might appear to be an almost racist manner (believe me, I don’t mean it that way) except that as it turns out, I’ve had, over the years, several Russian-made apps on both my Windows machine, and especially my Android device. And I noticed one day that one thing is common about a lot of Russian-made software, and that’s that Russian programmers seem to have no respect for interface standards.

    For example, there’s a very, very, very cool background/ambient-sound app for Windows out there called “Aura” that has been masterfully written by an obviously skilled Russian programmer. I’ve had a lot of email communication with him because there was a huge bug once, and I helped him find it. He’s very nice. But I just cannot get him to embrace the notion of the Windows API, and control surface look-and-feel and functionality standards. If you download and start using the app, you’ll love it (if you like that sort of thing), but you’ll likely agree that the interface is both ugly and a bit awkward. And his update methodology… yikes! But it’s one helluva’ nice piece of software, though, all things considered.

    And there’s an Android app which makes your phone as if it’s an electronic magnifying glass called “ABC Lens” that’s now, at least (finally; after I helped him with some stuff), the best one of its type out there. But getting him to embrace the Android OS standards for how to use the buttons across the bottom, and the difference between just backing out of a place in the program versus backing out of the whole program, etc…. it was like wrestling a bear to the ground to get him to care about standards. As good as his app is, you’ll notice, if you try it, that it’s still not quite right… deviates from standards in a couple of places.

    Same with the RadioSure guys. I made several suggestions to them, and to the last of them, any of them which were changes based solely on that the way they did it deviated from the Window API standards, they ignored. Only things which actually improved the product were implemented.

    And those aren’t the only ones. In total, I’ve argued with about seven Russian programmers over the years about interface standards, and to the last of them, they don’t appreciate the need. It’s weird.

    So, RadioSure suffers from at least that problem. But beyond that, it’s very difficult to imagine anything that even the freeware version of RadioSure needs for most people. But, again, if they’re recording, then I guess, yeah, maybe the paid/commercial version could be better. But the freeware version records, too… just not quite, I admit, as elegantly. Plus the freeware version doesn’t block commercials; and it records fewer simultaneous streams… stuff like that.

    So, bottom line, I dunno. I hear ya’, loud and clear, about RadioZilla. But I still… I dunno… I still love RadioSure. It’s just so nice. Such a huge database. Such easy searching. Good tonal/equalizer presets. A great interface… even only the default one. It’s not fancy, but if you just bother to look, every single thing you could possibly need is right there. It’s just really nice.

    I guess if I had to caution someone about not getting too impressed with RadioZilla, I’d make a sizzle vs steak argument. RadioZilla’s more flashy, in a sense; but it’s not inherently better. Not really.

    And the size of RadioSure’s database… as well as the ease of end-user maintenance of same… well… I just have to say that that, alone, trumps pretty much all others out there. And, trust me, that was a heartbreaking realization back when I was a loyal Screamer Radio user. That Screamer is HOT. But its database is small, by comparison with RadioSure’s; and Screamer’s general interface and ways of doing things are just not as straightforward and obvious as RadioSure’s.

    All things considered, RadioSure, in my opinion, has no rival. It’s truly best-of-breed. That said, I concede there are others that come close… and I’d have to say that RadioZilla’s one of them. But it’s “close, but no cigar,” as they say. RadioSure, in my opinion, still edges-out RadioZilla. Just my opinion, you understand. [grin]

    ____________________________
    Gregg L. DesElms
    Napa, California USA
    gregg at greggdeselms dot com

  • http://www.greggdeselms.com/ Gregg L. DesElms

    Saxenahem2507 wrote: “thanks for mentioning the alternative! I shall cover it some day.”

    MY RESPONSE: If/when you do, keep in mind the differences between what I consider to be three separate types of “radio” players.

    The first type streams the LastFM sort of content.

    The second type plays the 1.FM sort of content.

    And then you have the third type, which plays the streams from real radio stations… preferably around the world.

    RadioSure is capable, at minimum, of playing pretty much all of the 2nd and 3rd types. Actually, it’s capable of playing the first type, too, but doesn’t… because of LastFM limitations.

    The ideal radio player is going to actually play real brick-and-mortar radio station streams. That’s RadioSure’s strengh.

    However, any stream URL that may be copied and pasted into the Windows Media Player’s (WMP’s)…

    File > Open URL

    …field, and WMP will then start playing it without a problem, can be played in RadioSure. That’s, in fact, how I test a URL before I go entering it into RadioSure’s database: I first make sure it’ll play in WMP using the “OpenURL” field.

    And I have to be careful, because I use Shark007′s codecs, and so my copy of WMP will play WAY more stuff than Microsoft ever intended for it to be able to play. So I have to make sure that whatever is the URL of the stream actually leads to a format that WMP, with just the codecs that come with Windows, can play.

    Actually, RadioSure can play more formats than that, but I’ve not bothered to figure it all out, and so I just play it safe by testing in WMP.

    My point, though, is that because of this, RadioSure can play not only the brick-and-mortar radio station streams, but also all the Internet-only so-called “radio stations” such as 1.FM, or .977, or 181.fm, or… well… you get my point.

    It can technically play the LastFM stream, too, but LastFM apparently won’t let it. Same with Live365 (though at least a tiny few of those streams are allowed… the Smithsonian’s stream, and a couple others). Those kinds of streams are intentionally tightly controlled, and so are not typically allowed in the likes of RadioSure… or even Screamer… or most any of the others. Truth is, I know how to make ‘em work if I manually enter ‘em into RadioSure in a certain way, but my IP address then ends-up being blocked by them because I’m not pulling the stream through the right software.

    So, then, RadioSure is really intensely good, and the most versatile. And while I wouldn’t mind a bit if that’s what your review ended-up saying, that’s not why I’m making this post. I simply want to encourage you to make sure the reader’s not confused about what a true “radio” player really is. Some of them just regurgitate streams from the likes of 1.FM and the others similar that I’ve herein listed, but not really any (or at least very few) true brick-and-mortar radio stations. RadioSure can even play the streams of the radio stations which try to limit online listening to advertising-laden players on the station’s web pages. All one has to do is use a packet sniffer of sorts to figure out the stream’s true URL, and then just manually add it as a station in RadioSure (after testing it in WMP, of course). So RadioSure, then, is a truly potent player, is not to be underestimated (and be sure to read my reply to Ed about it, further down on this page). RadioSure, again, even surpassed the beloved Screamer, finally, about three or four years ago. I’m unaware of anything, including any of these…

    http://alternativeto.net/software/radio-sure/

    …that even comes close, now! People underestimate RadioSure, maybe, because… well… I dunno… maybe it’s ’cause they’ve not really heard that much about it; maybe it’s ’cause it’s written by Russians and they’re still holding-on to some kind of weird, misguided cold-war mentality… I dunno. Maybe they like the graphical sizzle of some other players more than they like the steak of RadioSure. Whatever. But RadioSure is the hands-down best player, period… even in its freeware version. And its paid/commercial version tips it in, for sure!

    You might also review the online equivalent services…

    …the hands-down best of which, in my opinion, is TuneIn Radio.

    http://www.tunein.com

    So good is TuneIn, in fact, that I routinely use it as a substitute for RadioSure whenever I’m on a machine on which RadioSure’s not installed (a client’s machine, for example, on which I’d never install something just for my use).

    So good is TuneIn, in fact, that I no longer pester the RadioSure guys to develop a RadioSure app for Android. TuneIn’s Android app is everything, and more, that any RadioSure app could ever possibly be. If the Russians at RadioSure had developed an Android app back when I first suggested it to them, then RadioSure would have been there (on Android) first. Now, though, TuneIn’s outdone RadioSure, at least on Android, in spades!

    Of course, if RadioSure developed an Android app that had more of an interface like RadioSure on Windows (’cause TuneIn’s Android interface is definitely nothing like that), then I suppose RadioSure could still make a big splansh on Android.

    But now I’m rambling again. Sorry.

    Hope that helps!

    ______________________________
    Gregg L. DesElms
    Napa, California USA
    gregg at greggdeselms dot com