I've missed a few things from home in NJ since I've been here in Houston. I'm adapting to texas but somethings just don't compare. I haven't taken the time to bother listening to the radio here since I don't currently have a antenna attached to my receiver but I do have a few old favorites from back in good old Monmouth/Ocean county NJ. Stations like the Rat, B98.5, G106.3, 88.9 to name a few. I figured I'd lost it forever unless visiting.

I was wrong. 

TuneIn Radio to the rescue. TuneIn radio accesses an online database of radio stations by location, genre, etc. These stations are streamed either by the station or by fans of the site setting up streams.TuneIn allows you to find these radio streams and tune in right on your handset. You can even save the different radio stations to presets just like on a regular radio. Browsing by location is easy, drilling down by continent, country, state, and region. You can even choose between streams of varying quality and types. Who woulda thought a 33k aac stream would sound so good?

This app, combined with my Motorola DC800, and unlimited data is pure win. I'm currently listening to my home town tunes (NJ) in Houston Texas. Thats a special type of feel good. Oh, and they sound better streamed than they ever did on a car radio. No static, bleed over, or anything. It's radio heaven.

That alone forces me to give this app 2 thumbs up.

Its interesting when you think of it. Something as old fashioned as fm radio in this age of Sirius, XM,  Pandora and Last.fm can be so improved by technology. Local radio stations have a distinctive feel to them based on the locale and feels kinda homey compared to the newer "better" alternatives. For example I used to always listen to FM106.3 in High school. Then I added b98.5 and always popped onto the rat for a bit. Then I got annoyed by the commercials and switched to xm radio nearly exclusively. Then I stopped driving and my xm listening dropped off. So I switched to Last.fm. I loved the ability to listen to custom "radio stations" based on on initial seed idea. And the commercials are minimal and the service is free unlike xm. But there is something to hearing the extra stuff on the radio. Hearing the local contests, and weather for your hometown is kinda special. I never really realized how nice it was to hear all that crap that I hated so much I stopped listening to it.

Now, I can tune in to any radio source that makes me smile at a moments notice. 

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I love technology.