WiFi Radio

About two years ago I came back to Jersey from visiting my parents with my wife and children. Not a particularly remarkable event but it was the first time I mentioned WiFi radio to my wife.

While in England we had DAB and dozens of stations that can be instantly tuned, I loved it and so did my wife. We came back to FM and seven stations that crackle and can be untuned by waving your hand over the radio.

This was really annoying so we stopped listening to radio again - well apart from the odd show we both enjoy that isn’t available to download from the BBC or as a podcast from another station.

Then I discovered WiFi Radio - radios that connect to a home WiFi network and let you listen to any radio station streamed live anywhere in the world - and stream audio files from your computer.

My wife was pretty excited by the idea of being able to listen to any radio station from anywhere in the world - although we’ll probably only ever listen to British stations because British radio (BBC) is the best in the world.

She asked lots of questions about how it worked and then the dreaded one for any married geek after a new toy came out - how much does it cost. At the time they were around £200 and we ‘were’ just about managing with the FM radio.

Two years later and a WiFi radio is back on the shopping list and this time they’re below £100 and within the margin of what we’re prepared to spend on the device. Add to that the fact that radio has become a big part of my wifes life again and it looks like I’ll have the chance to open a shiny new box once again.

But you know what I’d like more than WiFi Radio? A device that will let me set the podcasts I want and have them automatically synced to the device so I can listen to them anywhere in the house whenever I feel like it.

Instant on podcasting from a device that isn’t a computer and isn’t connected to a computer - it could easily built into a WiFi Radio device - maybe that’s what the next generation iPod HiFi should be.

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