When I was using Linux regularly a few years ago, I found a nice little Internet radio app called Radio Tray. As the name suggests, it sat on the system tray at the bottom of the screen and allowed one to tune in Internet feeds from broadcast radio stations worldwide, as well as Internet only stations. Earlier today, I went in search of Radio Tray to install it on my recently-acquired Linux laptop, and to my dismay, I found it was no more, at least as far as Linux Mint is concerned. Undeterred, I decided to see what equivalents were available.
After downloading and trying several apps, I found and settled upon one called Tuner, which offers many of the same features that I had enjoyed in Radio Tray. It includes a collection of genres, such as rock, jazz, folk, and classical, and gives users the ability to 'star' favorite stations for quick access.
One genre missing from the list is 'Talk', which in Radio Tray included several sub-categories, including old time radio, which is what I used it for most, to listen to shows from radio's golden age. At first, I was a bit disappointed at this glaring omission, until I began playing with the Search function and found I could create my own collection of stations, even if the software did not allow me to create and populate my own genres.
Upon entering the phrase "old time", I was presented about a dozen stations that offer this type of programming. I was able to save the ones I liked in my library by starring them. I was also able to go off-list and add a few stations that I wanted, and that Tuner was able to find.
While it is not a perfect substitute for Radio Tray, it will get the job done and make my computing time a little more tuneful.
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