I Heart Radio 2.0 - 127 Channels of Independent Canadian Radio for your iTunes

On July 17 I posted I Heart Radio 1.0. I put the 1.0 up there because I knew that people would respond and hand me more radio feeds and ... they did. While the original post had 32 channels of Canadian independent (campus, community and public) radio for you to choose from. This one contains 127 Channels of streaming audio. I felt that this warranted a 2.0 instead of a 1.1 if only for the sheer number of additions to the list.

The new file includes:

46 campus and community stations from across the country.

Improved (mp3 quality) streams of the four Radio 2 web only streams (composers, classical, jazz and songwriters) and 5 CBC Radio 2 streams (from Edmonton, Halifax, Toronto, Vancouver, and Winnipeg).

The Radio 3 stream

19 CBC Radio 1 Steams from various locations across Canada - so you can check out local programming, or you can time shift (if you missed your favorite national program in Toronto you can listen to it on the Vancouver stream.)

51 Radio Canada (French) streams - including local stations across Quebec and around the country, 9 Bande A Part music streams (the Francophone cousin of Radio 3), and the Espace Musique stream (roughly the equivalent of CBC Radio 2)

The Radio Canada International (multilingual) and RDI streams.

it is also worth mentioning that I still can't include stations who have only a windows media, or ream media stream - those don't work in iTunes.

So that's 127 channels (the extended cable of radio) without anyone trying to sell you anything. All of these stations are publicly funded and/or run by volunteers and while some of them are allowed a few ads no one on any of them is really trying to sell you anything, no one is telling you anything for their own financial gain they are programmed based on what people (staff or volunteers) feel is important, relevant, interesting or entertaining without the need to impress advertisers. It's not that money isn't a consideration - they don't have the money to do the things they might like to do, but they're not doing it to make money and that makes a huge difference. They are also not doing it for ratings. With their financing secure they don't feel the need to play popular (if icky) music, or the need to sensationalize anything to get ratings. Most of these stations (with the exception of some of the CBC Radio ones) have small audiences and are content with that. Try emailing the host of a university radio show sometime - they'll be thrilled and you will nearly always get an immediate and direct response.

By the way, if you have an iPhone and no one has told you yet you can get an app that lets you listen to all of the CBC Radio stuff from anywhere. I also need to thank the folks at CBC Radio 3 and CBC Radio 2 - especially Steve Pratt and the folks at The National Campus and Community Radio Association for their help in finding all of the feeds.

Let's move on to how to set it up.

If you didn't get the first post and haven't set this up yet:

1) Create a folder in your iTunes called Radio (or anything you like really)
2) Download the file Radio2.zip
3) Put the folder somewhere on your computer where you will be able to find it again (you'll notice it says 1.0 up top there).
4) Drop the files in the Radio folder into the iTunes playlist. Do it a few at a time - for some reason a few of them didn't copy over the first time I tried, but they all did eventually.

If you already set it up under 1.0:

There are going to be some duplicates (obviously) the best way to make sure you avoid this is probably do dump the old stuff (toss out the folder - clear the playlist) and then repeat the steps above. Other than that I'll leave it to you. I'm sure you can figure out how to get rid of duplicates but keep the stuff you want.

The full file list, in case you think I've still missed something:

radiocanada-rdi-64.m3u
radiocanada-premierechainewindsor-64.m3u
radiocanada-premierechainevancouver-64.m3u
radiocanada-premierechainetoronto-64.m3u
radiocanada-premierechaineseptiles-64.m3u
radiocanada-premierechainewinnipeg-64.m3u
radiocanada-premierechaineottawa-64.m3u
radiocanada-rcimultilangue-64.m3u
radiocanada-premierechaineregina-64.m3u
radiocanada-premierechainequebec-64.m3u
radiocanada-premierechainemoncton-64.m3u
cbc-songwriterhi-192.m3u
radiocanada-premierechainesherbrooke-64.m3u
radiocanada-premierechaine-64.m3u
radiocanada-pcmobilewinnipeg-64.m3u
radiocanada-premierechainetroisrivieres-64.m3u
radiocanada-premierechainecharlottetown-64.m3u
radiocanada-premierechainebk-64.m3u
radiocanada-premierechainechicoutimi-64.m3u
radiocanada-mobilepremierechainebk-64.m3u
radiocanada-premierechainehalifax-64.m3u
radiocanada-pcmobilerouyn-64.m3u
radiocanada-pcmobileottawa-64.m3u
radiocanada-pcmobilequebec-64.m3u
radiocanada-pcmobilehalifax-64.m3u
radiocanada-bapurbaine-128.m3u
radiocanada-pcmobilecharlottetown-64.m3u
radiocanada-bapelectronique-128.m3u
radiocanada-pcmobileedmonton-64.m3u
radiocanada-mobilerdi-64.m3u
radiocanada-pcmobileregina-64.m3u
cbc-r2vancouver-128.m3u
radiocanada-pcmobileseptiles-64.m3u
radiocanada-bapobsedee-128.m3u
radiocanada-pcmobilevancouver-64.m3u
radiocanada-bapextreme-128.m3u
radiocanada-pcmobilesherbrooke-64.m3u
cbc-r1winnipeg-96.m3u
radiocanada-espacemusique-128.m3u
cbc-r2toronto-128.m3u
cbc-r2winnipeg-128.m3u
radiocanada-mobilepremierechaine-64.m3u
radiocanada-bandeapart-128.m3u
cbc-r1goosebay-96.m3u
CKUW_UofWinnipeg.pls
cklu_LaurentianU_Sudbury.m3u
CJMP_PowellRiver_BC.pls
CJLY_Nelson_BC.m3u
CJAI_AmherstIsland.pls
CIWS_Stouffville_ON.pls
CIVL_AbbotsfordBC.m3u
CILU_LakehadU_ThunderBay.m3u
CIDO_Creston_BC.pls
CHLY_Nanaimo_BC copy
CHLI_Rossland_BC.m3u
CHCR_Killaloe_ON.m3u
cfxu_TheFox_XavierU_Antigonish.pls
CFUR_PrinceGeorge_BC.m3u
CFRC_Kingston.pls
CFMH_StJohn_NB.pls
CFBU_Brock_StCath.m3u
cfbs_Blanc-Sablon_QC.mp3.m3u
cbc-r1calgary-96.m3u
cbc-jazzhi-192.m3u
cbc-classicalhi-192.m3u
radiocanada-premierechainerouyn-64.m3u
cbc-canadiancomposershi-192.m3u
capr_sydney.m3u
canoefm_Haliburton_ON.mp3.m3u
radiocanada-pcmobiletoronto-64.m3u
radiocanada-premierechaineedmonton-64.m3u
radiocanada-pcmobilemoncton-64.m3u
radiocanada-pcmobilewindsor-64.m3u
cbc-r1edmonton-96.m3u
radiocanada-pcmobilechicoutimi-64.m3u
UMFM_Winnipeg.pls
LURadio_ThunderBay.m3U
CKUT_Montreal.m3u
CKUS_Winnipeg.pls
CKLR_QuebecCity.mp3.m3u
CFFF_Trent_Peterborough.m3u
CFBX_Kamloops.pls
CBCRadio3.pls
CKLN_Toronto.m3u
CKDU_halifax.pls
CKCU_Ottawa.mp3.m3u
CJSW_Calgary.m3u
CJSR_Edmonton.m3u
CJSF_Burnaby.m3u
CJMQ_Lennoxville_QC.pls
CJLO_Concordia_Montreal.m3u
CJAM_Windsor.pls
CIUT_Toronto.pls
CITR_Vancouver.mp3.m3u
CHUO_Ottawa_FR.m3u
CHUO_Ottawa.m3u
CHRY_Toronto.pls
CHRW_London_ON.m3u
CHMR_StJohns.pls
CFUV_Victoria.pls
CFRU_Guelph.pls
CFRO_Vancouver.pls
cbc-r1london-96.m3u
cbc-r1victoria-96.m3u
cbc-r1quebeccity-96.m3u
cbc-r1thunderbay-96.m3u
cbc-r1inuvik-96.m3u
cbc-r1halifax-96.m3u
cbc-r2halifax-128.m3u
cbc-r1vancouver-96.m3u
cbc-r1kelowna-96.m3u
radiocanada-baptranquille-128.m3u
radiocanada-pcmobilerci-64.m3u
cbc-r1whitehorse-96.m3u
radiocanada-pcmobiletroisrivieres-64.m3u
cbc-r1iqaluit-96.m3u
radiocanada-bapenracinee-128.m3u
cbc-r1charlottetown-96.m3u
cbc-r1yellowknife-96.m3u
radiocanada-premierechainerimouski-64.m3u
cbc-r1ottawa-96.m3u
radiocanada-bapmetal-128.m3u
radiocanada-baprockeuse-128.m3u
cbc-r1toronto-96.m3u
cbc-r1princegeorge-96.m3u
radiocanada-pcmobilerimouski-64.m3u
cbc-r2edmonton-128.m3u