Radio Sweethearts

I have a ton of iPhone apps. I know I’m not alone in that, but even for a former Apple salesman, six pages of apps is a bit much. I don’t use all of them every day, and I’m cool with deleting a few that aren’t getting used.

There are a few apps, however, that I do use everyday. For example, I’m writing this in WriteRoom (which is also one of my most-used desktop apps), from which I’ll copy it into the WordPress app and post it as a draft.

I love streaming radio. I’ve always been a fan of regional formats, and Public Radio Player affords me the ability to stream public and listener-funded stations from around the country.

Public Radio Player’s got stiff competion now – if free apps can really compete with one another – in the form of the new, official NPR News app, which acts and feels a lot like the new NPR.org.

Along with streaming local stations and providing on-demand access to NPR-produced programs and podcasts, both of which are Public Radio Player’s bread and butter, NPR offers access to the text of individual stories and the ability to create an ad-hoc playlist of the stories you’re interested in listening to via the app. This almost makes up for the total lack of a Morning Edition or All Things Considered podcast.

What it doesn’t quite do is obviate the need for Public Radio Player. Yes, both apps stream local stations and provide on-demand programming. But here’s the thing: NPR is frequently used as shorthand for ‘public radio.’. We’re certainly guilty of that. But public radio isn’t National Public Radio alone. There’s Public Radio International, American Public Media, Public Radio Exchange, local stations, listener-supported stations, and, of course, listeners like you.

Public broadcasting is a far more diverse environment than the NPR News app demonstrates – by virtue of the fact that the NPR app only provides on-demand access to NPR content.

The main reason that I think I’ll use NPR News more than Public Radio Player – and I hope that someone from PRX is still reading – is that the current version of Public Radio Player loads slower than a school bus of unattended kindergartners.* And it’s FUGLY. To the point that’s a usability issue. Version one was pretty; version 2.0 looks like it was designed by Shrek while crying and listening to the Cure. (If I could have my choice, I’d throw the original color scheme in as an option in future releases.)

Meanwhile, the NPR News app is every bit as pretty as the new NPR.org. It’s snappy and crisp, and a joy to look at and therefore a joy to use.

*To be fair, Public Radio Player loads slowly because it’s downloading current and future programming for every station in its database. Which is very cool.