Level 1

8 points

Radio Margaritaville

None of my iTunes installations (3 Mac 10.4 and 1 Windows XP) v8.1.1 will play Radio Maragaritaville in iTunes Radio. None of the other stations I have tried seem to be affected. I have talked to the staff at the station and they haven't a clue. The computers are connecting to the internet by router, wired and wireless to cable modem. Highlight the station, click the play button and it says connecting but never plays. They don't use playlists.
Is there a cache I can delete?
Is it possible that Radio Margaritaville has my IP blacklisted?

iTunes 8.1.1, Mac OS X (10.4.11), and Windows XP sp3

Posted on Apr 24, 2009 1:14 PM

48 replies

Jul 2, 2009 10:30 AM in response to Pete VG

Count me as another iTunes user experiencing the same exact symptoms as described above....and not happy about it. Apple?

Jul 2, 2009 1:49 PM in response to looking4OPH

Interesting situation Here in London, the faster stream works on my machine but not (at the same) on the machine upstairs. But the slower stream works on both at the same time.

Right, after some running up and down I think I may have found the issue.

The mac upstairs will not play the faster stream at all - regardless of what this mac is doing, but....

Upstairs the faster stream is listed as 64kbs whereas this one lists it as 40kbs (the slower is 24 on both).

So, those folks who can't connect, what speed is the stream showing on your machines?

Pete VG Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 2, 2009 2:37 PM in response to Donna Thomas

Pretty sure the bit rate has nothing to do with the problem. My iTunes used to display 64kb until it connected and then it would say 40 sometimes. But it did that when I could still connect. Red Herring I think.

But the main thing is still

*FIX THIS APPLE*

Jul 3, 2009 9:47 PM in response to Pete VG

"But the main thing is still

FIX THIS APPLE "

What's there to fix?

So far, there's no clear definition of the problem beyond "it doesn't work," there's no clear isolation of the cause or issue, there's no repro steps listed; even using the same machine at different times can yield different results.

Given that one complainant even mentioned that he was able to connect using the same machine at one location but not another would give serious weight to it being a non-Apple issue. It could be networking, DNS issues, traffic-shaping by the network provider, routing issues in general, etc. None of which are uniquely or even likely to be Apple issues.

Pete VG Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 7, 2009 6:47 AM in response to Lance Taylor

What is not clearly defined about this?

Under certain specific situations some of the stations (not just one) don't work. Since I can make it work by changing the ISP I'm connecting through, it can't be my setup. MY ISP says they are not blocking anything having to do with iTunes. They even provided me a list of all the ports they are blocking and why. I have to agree that they are not doing this. Several of the posters here have had lengthy conversations with Radio Margaritaville. If it is something they are doing, they don't know how to fix it. I seriously doubt that is is them given the fact that so many other stations have the same problem. When I talked to Apple support about this, the tech at Apple couldn't play RM either. So, who is supposed to fix this? It's not my setup, My ISP isn't blocking anything, RM either isn't doing it or doesn't know how to fix this.

Apple is the face of this problem. When some newbie clicks on a station in iTunes and it doesn't work, who do they blame? Apple. They should have the resources to resolve this (I sure don't). Being in the software industry myself, I know that reproducing the problem is 80% of fixing it. The Apple Tech has done that.

Again who is going to fix this if Apple doesn't help??

Pete VG Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 17, 2009 1:58 PM in response to Pete VG

Alright, Fine, I frikkin' give up. I have wasted enough time on this.

I'll just keep listening to the windows stream.

maddaug

Level 1

0 points

Jul 26, 2009 5:41 PM in response to Pete VG

Apple virgin here, just hooked it up today and sure would like to listen to RM on Itunes. You are not nuts. It doesn't work on my mac or pc's using itunes.
What are my other options?

maddaug

Level 1

0 points

Jul 28, 2009 6:01 PM in response to maddaug

I just talked to support and was told they would look into this. I say we all just keep on requesting Itune support to fix the problem until we find that one person that cares enough to take on the challenge.
Heavens, there must be a parrothead or JB fan in that group.

Jul 31, 2009 4:08 PM in response to maddaug

I had RM in a Playlist and it stopped working also about the same time. About 10 minutes on Google to refind it in the Radio list, and when I clicked on the 64 RM, it started working again (at 40 anyway). I copied the station to the playlist, and it worked there also.

maddaug

Level 1

0 points

Aug 1, 2009 5:35 AM in response to Mark Verschell

Mark can you share the link from Google that you used to find RM? I'm not quite sure I understand how you found the link on Google and then added to your playlist in RM.
Sorry.
This is frustrating.

Aug 1, 2009 6:10 AM in response to maddaug

Sorry, that was unclear of me, wasn't it?

What I meant was I did a G-search to find someone who had posted somewhere which category RM was under (Folk, which I suppose makes sense), rather than go through 500 radio stations (I have never found a search function in iTunes for Radio Stations). Then, I went to Radio->Folk and clicked on the 64 kbps link for RM, that worked. So, I dragged the 64 kbps link to a Playlist I made called "Radio Stations" and checked that clicking on that link still worked.

I have no idea why the RM item in the playlist that had been working for more than a year stopped working. None of the other radio stations in that playlist exhibited the same behavior.

By the way, it says 64 kbps, until I click on it - at which point it changes to 40 kbps.

maddaug

Level 1

0 points

Aug 1, 2009 6:21 AM in response to Mark Verschell

I just don't understand why Rm works for some and not for others. Even on my PC it never worked in itunes.
So are you saying it works some days and not others for you??

maddaug

Level 1

0 points

Aug 1, 2009 6:38 AM in response to maddaug

Is there any reason why you wouldn't just download the windows media player for Mac? I am a newbie to Mac so give it to me straight.
This is the only reason I would even consider downloading WM is for RM.
Oh wait will RM even play on the WM player for Mac???

Aug 1, 2009 11:29 AM in response to maddaug

RM as an iTunes Radio Station has worked fine for me for more than a year now. It stopped working about a month ago, and I have been busy and traveling and basically just ignored it for the last month. Yesterday, I went through the steps I mentioned and it worked. Bottom line, it stopped working once so far.

I do have WMP for Mac and occasionally listen to RM that way. The reason I choose to do the RM iTunes radio station is that I use Remote and AirTunes to play RM on my powered speakers. That way I don't need to drag my laptop around to hear RM and other stations.

Pete VG Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 10, 2009 7:57 AM in response to Pete VG

iTunes 9 doesn't fix this but it moves the RM entry again. Now it is under Reggae/Island.

Oh well, listening with QuickTime/Flip4Mac. Stutters and disconnects sometimes but better than nothing.

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Radio Margaritaville