How to Listen to Free Radio in Windows Media Center

Windows Media Center is a media player that comes with Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows Vista Home Premium and Ultimate as well as Windows 7 Home Premium, Ultimate and Business. You can listen to radio in Windows Media Center in two different ways. If your computer is hooked up to a high-speed Internet connection you can listen to free online streaming radio stations in Windows Media Center. If you have an FM tuner installed on your computer, you can also use Windows Media Center to listen to free-to-air radio. Both of these options will provide you with a wide range of free radio stations to listen to.

Instructions

1. Open Windows Media Center. Scroll with the up and down arrows until Online Media is highlighted in the Windows Media Center start screen. Select Explore.

2. Select "music + radio" from the navigation bar at the top of the Windows Media Center screen. Choose from the list of Internet radio partners and then choose a genre. If the radio genre you wish to listen to in Windows Media Center doesn't appear in the window, select Genres from the left navigation bar or choose Thousands More Stations from the bottom of the screen. Select the desired radio genre, then browse the list for streaming radio stations. Click on the yellow button marked "Listen" to listen to the streaming radio station for free. Note that this option will work only if you have an FM tuner installed.

3. Scroll to Music in the Windows Media Center start screen, then select Radio. Click FM Radio. Click "Seek" or "Tune" to allow Windows Media Center to find free FM radio stations for you. You can also click the plus or minus signs to find radio stations. If you know the frequency of the radio station you'd like to listen to in Windows Media Center, type the number in directly. Use the buttons in the lower right-hand corner of the screen to play, record, fast-forward or rewind the radio transmission, or to control the volume of the playback.

4. Select "Save as Preset" to save an FM radio station's frequency for later listening. In the future you can easily access your FM radio presets from the Windows Media Center Radio gallery.

References

• Microsoft: Listen to Radio in Windows Media Center