Daily iPhone App: Vintage Radio

Vintage Radio is an interesting idea for an iPhone app: It's a ton of various old-time radio recordings (more than 34,000 mystery, horror, comedy, and other old 1930s and 1940s radio shows), all accessible to stream on demand. The app allows you to browse and search shows, set up and save playlists or even share shows on Facebook and Twitter. The selection is really amazing. I like a lot of old-time radio, and this app does have pretty much everything you need. If you have a lot of long car trips or plane rides, it can really help fill the time.

Unfortunately, Vintage Radio's biggest problem might be a dealbreaker. The app uses a very confusing subscription model to make money. Basically, you buy the app for $3.99, and get access to a certain amount of the shows for that price. After that, you have to pay a subscription to listen to more shows -- about $1.99 a month, or a little cheaper if you subscribe for a longer period. I also ran into some issue with the app where I only got a certain number of plays on it, and it's not entirely clear when you browse which shows are paid or free.

Even paying the subcription is probably cheaper than actually buying all of these shows. Even if you have to pay the subscription fee, if you actually spend a year listening to these recordings, it's probably worth it. Vintage Radio is a nice idea that's not implemented well, but if you're a fan of old-time radio, it's definitely worth a look.

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Source: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/vintage-radio/id455577974?mt=…

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Vintage Radio is an interesting idea for an iPhone app: It's a ton of various old-time radio recordings (more than 34,000 mystery,...

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Emma Noelle

http://relicradio.com and http://classicradionetwork.net/ both have free online streaming as well as some free and paid downloads. Relic Radio has some excellent podcasts.

January 28 2012 at 2:46 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Jason Pollock

Listen. If you're going to put something up as the app of the day, make sure you can actually, you know, recommend it. I would have expected "Vintage Radio is a nice idea that's not implemented well" to have resulted in the app not being eligible for "app of the day".

Oh well, that'll teach me to buy an app based on the first paragraph instead of the last.

January 27 2012 at 2:29 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Khalil AMAR

There's nothing better than the free TuneIn Radio or the 0.99 TuneIn Pro Radio

January 27 2012 at 11:24 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Jim Lind

As you can tell by the comments there are way to many ways to get Old Time Radio for free. Don't know why anybody would pay for it. I have a couple podcast subscriptions that work great for my needs.

January 27 2012 at 10:20 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

aperak fungisid

http://radiolovers.com/

royalty free.

January 27 2012 at 1:45 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

makeadvice

good one

January 27 2012 at 1:24 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

John E. Ray

Thanks for posting those links Jim/chppio! I'm glad I came back to read this thread!

January 26 2012 at 9:57 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

chppio

I've been a subscriber to "RU Sitting Comfortably" (http://www.rusc.com/) for several years now. $7.50/month gets you a HUGE amount of old time radio shows, nicely organized by genre, with good descriptions as well as historical information. It's a self-described "not for profit" site and the people who run it are warm, friendly folk. The monthly subscription allows you to download as much or as little as you like. Check it out -- I think honest, straightforward sites like this deserve positive exposure and more users!

January 26 2012 at 9:36 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

jim dolan

If you are a fan of Old Time Radio be sure to check out the Radio Theater Channel at www.otrlisten.com They feature scheduled old time radio series with restored sound as well as the CBS radio news on the half hour.

January 26 2012 at 9:35 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply