Official news, updates and announcements about AOL Radio

How to remove XM channels from your presets

Thu, 01 May 2008 15:05:59 GMT

AOL Radio listeners,

As you may have read on this blog or the Radio Guide main page, we no longer are carrying the XM Satellite Radio channels.

For those of you who stored those channels in your Presets, you may have to manually remove them from your settings in order to replace them with other AOL Radio stations.

To do this, click on the "My Presets" button the player:

A "Settings" window should pop up. Click on the XM channel(s) stored in your presets and click on the "Remove" button.

You should be all clear.

Until later,

T.C.

AOL Radio & XM Update: 4/30

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 18:37:10 GMT

Dear AOL Radio listeners

Today the partnership between AOL Radio and XM Satellite Radio ended. As you may or may not be aware, XM’s business is focused on having consumers pay for their channels and AOL's business has changed from subscription based to advertising supported, so we are no longer able to offer XM’s channels. In addition, the record labels have dramatically increased the music royalty rates paid for Internet Radio. This action by the record labels left us no choice but to look for an alternative way to stay in the internet radio business. These new rates have impacted the entire internet radio industry, not just AOL. SoundExchange is the organization that is responsible for the increased fees and we have tried over and over to work with them to adjust the rates to a fair level to no avail.

If you would like to voice your support of lowering these fees to protect the future of Internet Radio, please feel free to email John Simson, SoundExchange Executive Director at info@soundexchange.com or call him at (202) 640-5890.

The good news is that even with all these changes, we have a lot of great things planned for the future. The upcoming partnership with CBS RADIO will offer AOL Radio listeners access to an additional 150+ channels. For the first time, AOL Radio will offer an extensive line-up of news, sports and talk stations, in addition to music. In addition to the new content offerings, we’ll also be launching a new player that will have new functionality, including song skipping -- which is just a start to the new things planned.

The AOL Radio staff is very passionate about what we do and we work very hard to give you the best radio experience possible. We understand that change is hard and but we must adapt to the changing times in order to keep AOL Radio available for our listeners.

In order to maintain your listening experience, we have set up a page which highlights the AOL stations which are similar to the XM channels. For example AOL Radio's Pop Mix & XM's Flight 26 play similar artists. Click here to check out the related station page.

We understand your concerns about the upcoming changes and hope you'll give us a chance to show you that the AOL Radio experience will continue to be the best radio offering on the web.

Sincerely,

The AOL Radio Team

AOL Radio an Official Webby Honoree

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 18:55:06 GMT

It was announced this week that AOL Radio was selected as an Official Honoree for the 12th Annual Webby Awards.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Webbys, the awards are kind of like the "Oscars of the Internet" where the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences recognize excellence on the Internet. The Academy, by the way, includes people like David Bowie, Harvey Weinstein, Arianna Huffington and "Simpsons" creator Matt Groening.

This year there were nearly 10,000 entries from over 60 countries and all 50 states. Out of more than 10,000 entries submitted, fewer than 15% received this honor and were deemed Official Honorees.

Thank you guys for making it happen!

Until later,

~ T.C.

AOL / XM Update

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 17:59:57 GMT

AOL Radio listeners,

If you haven't already heard, on April 30, 2008, the partnership between AOL and XM will come to an end. At that time, XM Radio channels will no longer be available via the AOL Radio player.You will still be able to listen to all the AOL Radio stations free 24/7.

XM has come up with a special limited offer for AOL Radio listeners.

Click here to find out more

Until later,

~ T.C.

Sign-in issue resolved on AOL Radio

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 19:23:33 GMT

AOL Radio listeners,

Yesterday, we fixed an issue with the "Sign In" button on the AOL Radio player that started around Tuesday night. Members may have had trouble logging into AOL Radio or popped a white screen in place of the player. If you have trouble accessing Radio and couldn't sign in to get your presets and preferences, try logging into AOLRadio.com now.

Please let us know if you are still having problems.

Until later,

~ T.C.

AOL Radio and CBS Radio

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 19:47:15 GMT

Hey listeners,

If you've been paying attention to the newswires, then perhaps you've come across the big announcement: AOL Radio and CBS Radio will be teaming up in the coming months. You can read more about this at the article below:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08067/863281-28.stm

Our deal with XM will end on April 30, 2008 in tandem with the launch of our new partnership with CBS Radio. You can find out more at the link below:

http://music.aol.com/radioguide/xm_radio_guide

I'll have much more to report for you guys in the coming weeks and months so stay tuned...

Until later

~ T.C.

Station Programming Update - 3/1

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 21:38:33 GMT

Dear all,

It's been a while since I've posted here - sorry! We've been busy gathering feedback on the new AOL Radio and addressing all of your questions and concerns. Before I get into the new stations that are available on AOL Radio, I just wanted to first say thanks to all of those who have taken the time to send feedback to us. It really is appreciated and we are trying our best to answer as many of you as possible. As always, my e-mail box is open at TCinRadioNYC@aol.com.

Now, onto the station updates...

First, an XM update: As I've mentioned in the past, every month we examine, evaluate and rotate which 20 XM channels we offer for free on our network. This month, XM Willie's Place has been replaced with XM U.S. Country so if you're into '80s and '90s country, click here to check it out.

This past month, we've launched a bunch of new stations and have also made some changes in terms of station names.

New stations recently launched include:

Classic Hip-Hop - The golden age of hip-hop (click here to listen)
R&B and Soul Mix - Today's R&B and old school soul (click here to listen)
Rock Anthems - Fist-pumping rock songs (click here to listen)
All Michael Jackson - The King of Pop, 24/7 (click here to listen)
Beautiful Music - Popular instrumental and vocal melodies (click here to listen)

If you're wondering what happened to an AOL Radio station, we made some changes in names including:

Old Skool is now listed as '80s Hip-Hop
Reggaeton and Urbano have been combined into one station: Reggaeton/Urbano

That's it for now and I'll be back in the future soon with more announcements.

Until later,

T.C.

AOL Radio patch for Plug-In

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 21:06:45 GMT

Dear AOL Radio listeners,

Last Fall, we released a patch for the old AOL Radio player that contained enhanced security fixes for the plug-in (nicknamed "Unagi") needed to run AOL Radio. We recommend that you install this patch in order to get the most secure experience from AOL Radio.

The link to the patch can be found here: http://radaol-prod-web-rr.streamops.aol.com/mediaplugin/unagi_patch.exe. Download this file to your Desktop and double-click the file to install the patch.

Once you've installed the patch, click on this link:
http://radaol-prod-web-rr.streamops.aol.com/radio/radioclient/common/html/OpenRadio.html?stationid=-1
to go to the old AOL Radio player, or go here to launch the new AOL Radio 4.0 player.

~ T.C.

Having trouble downloading the Unagi plug-in?

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 22:12:31 GMT

A couple of you have written in to say that you are having trouble with the automatic installation of the necessary plug-in (which we call "Unagi") on your computer that is needed to run AOL Radio.

If you are among this group, you can try installing it manually in order to get music playing on the AOL Radio player.

For PC users, to manually install the plug-in, save the file at the link below and then run it by double-clicking on it.

http://radaol-prod-web-rr.streamops.aol.com/mediaplugin/3.0.84.2/win32/unagi3install.exe

Let us know if you are still having trouble,

~ T.C.

Presets issue...stay tuned

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 16:50:59 GMT

AOL Radio folks,

We've had listeners inform us that their presets disappear on random occassions using the new AOL Radio player. We apologize for the inconvenience. We are actively working on the fix and I'll keep you updated on our progress.

Thank you for your understanding,

~ T.C.