Q: Need to stream terrestrial FM radio to my Airplay devices
I am running into issues with streaming local FM stations. While they will play the local NFL game on their airways for free, if I try to stream my local FM stations to listen to a game, they have the games blocked out and require me to purchase a streaming service the the corresponding sports league. This is total crap. If Apple or any of the other smartphone manufactures would simply enable the FM transistor that is already on the phones, I could tune into my local FM station playing the game and then airplay the audio to the 6 zones in my house powered by Airport Expresses.
To this point I can find no FM devices that support Airplay. By support Airplay, I mean transmit that device's local FM broadcast to an Airplay device/location, not receive an Airplay stream from a device, which plenty of newer FM radios do now.
There are FM transmitters that plug into an iPhone 3.5mm headphone jack, and transmit an FM signal to allow your iPhone or iPod to transmit a radio signal to a late model car, and enable the car to tune into your phone as a radio station. I am looking for the opposite, an FM tuner that you could plug into your airplay device like an iPhone or iPad, tune into the local terrestrial FM broadcast, and then play the incoming audio from your iPhone/iPad to an Airplay zone in your house. (or just enable the FM chip that is already in the iPhone)
The real root of this is the smartphone manufactures disabling the FM chip already on the phone's board, to require folks to use more data from the carriers or being forced to purchase streams from leagues. My rub with this is that broadcasts on local FM stations are a free public utility. This is not piracy. We are being robbed of a public utility of AM and FM terrestrial radio broadcast by our device manufacturers. We should be able to tune into it local AM/FM stations on out smart phones, or at least buy a radio/device with an FM tuner that can the push that transmission to an Airplay device.
Does ANYONE have an ideas on how to accomplish this? I'm seriously ready to contact the FCC, as I believe that access to terrestrial FM stations is also in the interest of public safety. If you are out of town and unabl to receive the local broadcast, sure, be forced to pay for it, but if you are able to receive the local broadcast, you should be able to access it for free.
iPhone 6, iOS 9.3.5, need outside of the box thinkers
Posted on Sep 5, 2016 8:45 PM