Frequently Asked Questions
The following is a list of questions that you may have relating to the operation of the Grab Radio application.
It covers both iPhone and Nokia phones.
How do I select a radio station on Grab Radio?
Press the browse button and select from the list of options
Local Radio- plays all ‘local’ stations
Talk Radio - Select from a list ranging from Entertainment to Technology
Sports- Lists all the stations Playing sports features
Music- Gives you an option of listening to a range of different musical styles ranging from Classical to Rock and Heavy Metal
Browse by location- lets you wander the globe listening to stations from all over the world.
Nokia Only:-
Browse by Language- Select your station based on your language preferences. This is a great feature for improving you language skills.
Sub Categories
Within certain categories such as Music you can also select by ‘Most Popular’ or by location.
What Happens if I cannot access my favourite radio station?
There are couple of reasons why this may happen, but primarily it is down to stream compatibility with a certain phone.
iPhone
Usually this is because the radio station has put their audio out using an RTMP or RTSP (Real Time Streaming Protocol) which is not supported by Apple.
Nokia
Certain radio stations put out their radio streams in formats which are not yet supported by Nokia phones. In the main these are Windows wma streams put out using the mms protocol. In these cases you will get a message stating that you could not be connected to the server.
Thankfully we’ve built in our DAH* hybrid FM tuning feature to overcome this problem.
If you get a message that states that you could not be connected to the server and you are in range of the transmitter press the FM button and you can connect to their FM broadcast. If you are not within range, please contact us and we do our best to get the station to put their stream out in a compatible format.
Advantages of FM tuning
You can turn the fact that a station is not putting out a compatible stream to your advantage as you will not be using your data allowance if you are connected to a 3G or Edge mobile network.
You will still have the option of using the other features when you are on an FM broadcast, such as Grabbing Tagging, More, etc. if the station is putting out this information.
*Digital Analogue Hybrid technology pioneering by Global Internet Radio Technologies
Manual Tuning
If the preset that is stored in the phone does not tune into your ‘local’ broadcast straight away you also have the option of tuning in manually. Just press the options button and select the Tune FM Radio Manually option.
You can then fine tune your setting based on your location and press the set button to keep it on that frequency.
Remember your headphones or audio output cable act as an antenna when tuning into FM broadcasts so it’s important to have them plugged in.
What Happens if the stream is not campatible with my phone and I am not in range of the transmitter and I want to hear that radio station?
Please send us a message and we will contact the station and ask them to put out a stream which is compatible.
NB: If you are ever in contact with any radio stations concerning this matter, please ask them to put out a shoutcast MP3 stream as this works with the vast majority of phones.
Together we can make a difference.
What happens if I like a tune and there is no song or artist information?
Try changing the stream to another that may contain metadata. In our experience stations with a range of streams tend to opt for a 64 kbps stream for this information.
(This option is available on iPhone only).
We have also included a Shazam button which can be pressed to identify tunes. NB: You must have Shazam installed on your phone for this to work.
What happens when I ‘Grab’ a tune?
The ‘Grab’ button takes you to either the iTunes Store or in the case of Nokia phones the Ovi Music Store. In each case you will be taken to your ‘local’ country store where you will be shown a menu of different recordings of the particular piece of music. Select the version you want and you will be given the option to purchase the piece of music or the whole album.
How do I pay for my Grabbed Tunes?
If you have an account with iTunes or Ovi you will be prompted for your password when you ‘Grab’ a tune. If you do not have an account you can set one up on the iTunes Store or Ovi Store.
Once signed in you will always be asked to confirm the purchase.
The tune will then be downloaded to your phone where you can sync. it with your computer.
What happens if I Grab a tune and no matches are found on iTunes or Ovi Music?
Try reducing the number of words in the title of the song/piece of music by touching the title and deleting some of the words. Also if there is a bracket in the title delete it as brackets are not liked by the search engines.
How do I get back from the store to Grab Radio
Touch the ‘home’ button on your iPhone to return to Grab Radio. By clicking on Grab Radio you will be brought back to the radio station that you were listening to.
With Nokia phones you can press the home button and go back into applications. You see a green circle on the top right corner of the Grab Radio application icon. This means that the application is still open, and all you have to do is click on it and it will open up.
Please note that with Grab Radio background listening is possible when you are in other applications.
What Happens when I ‘Tag’?
The ‘Tag’ icon allows you to mark the songs that you might want to keep track of. These songs are saved to a personalised list that you can browse using the [star]. Songs on the ‘Tag’ list can be purchased through Ovi Music or iTunes if desired.
Where do my Tagged tunes go?
‘Tagged’ music can be accessed through the [star] function.
How do I delete Tagged music from my personalised list?
Drag the screen from left to right over the title in the list. A delete option appears over the title.
How do I know if I can Grab and Tag music from a radio station?
The Grab, Tag and More functions will light up when a station is playing music that can be tagged and grabbed.
In the case of Nokia phones these will be a grey colour if this information is not available.
How do I get my favourite radio station on Grab Radio if they are not already there?
Contact us nominating your chosen station
Why can’t I ‘Grab’ and ‘Tag’ when listening to all radio stations?
The radio stations with ‘Grab’ and ‘Tag’ functions have provided the information for this service. If you cannot ‘Grab’ and ‘Tag’ from a particular station it is because the information has yet to be provided. Eventually every station should be able to provide the information and you will be able to ‘Grab’ and ‘Tag’ on all stations.
Why can’t I Grab and Tag all music tracks?
If you are listening to a radio station that usually has the ‘Grab’ and ‘Tag’ functions but they don’t light up for a particular piece of music this is because the information has not been provided for this particular piece that allows it be grabbed or tagged.
Don’t worry though as you still have the Shazam option and by pressing this button the application will identify the music (as long as it’s in the Shazam database).
What do I need to do if I experience a drop out, i.e. an interruption in the signal?
iPhone
Increase the buffer rate on the settings page which is accessed via a small ‘i’ on the top right hand corner of the application page. Also switch the Wi-Fi button to ‘off’.
Nokia
Press options then set buffer size. Start off with 15 and if that does not work gradually move up to 24 in increments of 3. Remember you are compensating for a poor network connection and this will lead to longer station access times.
In our experience the stations broadcasting at data rates of 64Kbps and below are less prone to dropping out. This is because in some countries (such as Ireland) network speeds can be considerably slower than in other countries.
Speedtest is a a great application which allows you to assess the speed of your your wi-fi network connection. This is a free download so go to iTunes App store and type Speedtest into your search facility. Download the application and run it to determine your network download speed.
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