How To Stream WGN on Your iPhone for $6.
One major recurring theme on the show is how to stream WGN on various devices. While on the air last show we were trying to figure it out for the iPhone when we got emails from Gary K. and Ben H. suggesting a couple iPhone Apps that could do the job. I’ve checked some of these out and am happy to be able to recommend an App from Nullriver called Tuner Internet Radio. Clicking this link should bring you to this App’s page (assuming you have iTunes running on your computer). From there you’ll need to purchase the App (for $6) which will automatically download it. Once the download is complete, sync your iPhone in iTunes (which will transfer the App to the phone).
From here we need to configure the Tuner App to stream WGN… Unfortunately it’s not one of the stations offered among the presets… WGN isn’t found by using the search function either… instead I employed my keen investigative skills, akin to killing an ant with an anvil, which led me to the following info which should work for you…
- From the Main Menu on your iPhone, find the icon (of an old-fashioned radio) that says Tuner and tap it.
- From the Genres screen (should be the default), the Top 500 screen or the Search screen… click “Open” in the upper left.
- Into the Title field type WGN AM or whatever suits you for bookmarking purposes.
- Into the URL field type the following address : http://provisioning.streamtheworld.com/pls/WGNAM.pls (this has to be entered in exactly, down to the finest detail).
- Click “Done” and you should be on the air… If so, click the bookmark icon in the upper right to save it as a preset (you’ll never have to enter in that pesky URL again).
A little convoluted… but if listening to WGN on your iPhone is what you want to do… you probably won’t consider this that big of a deal… and for any of you that might want to know how I sleuthed out that URL, drop me a line and I’ll let you know… I decided it was too tedious to include here.
Happy streaming.
February 26th, 2009 at 5:03 pm
I did this and on the wgn website it showed the cubs were on. But when I tried it, it was just a talk show and not the cubs. How do I listen to the cubs?
February 26th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
The only way to listen to the Cubs on WGN is over traditional terrestrial radio… In other words, on your radio tuner. Cubs games can’t be streamed over the internet due to contractual issues with MLB.com. What you’re getting on the stream during Cubs games is “Best of’s” from that week on WGN.
February 26th, 2009 at 11:51 pm
So there’s no way to listen to them on my iPod?
February 27th, 2009 at 12:09 am
Not unless it’s possible through MLB.com… although that will surely cost you something I’m guessing.
April 12th, 2009 at 7:59 pm
You get can Cubs games on the iPhone by purchasing MLB’s application “At Bat 2009.” It was $10 I think, and it lets you listen to home and away feeds of almost every game. Some games only had the opposing team’s feed, but I think they were working out a glitch.
June 19th, 2009 at 10:00 am
Not sure if this is new to OS 3.0 but you can just copy the URL into safari and listen to WGN.
June 19th, 2009 at 8:50 pm
Joe > Copy what URL into Safari?
As far as I can tell the WGN streaming engine is Flash-based and Safari on the iPhone still doesn’t support Flash content.
June 24th, 2009 at 8:31 am
At least in OS 3.0, when I copy the URL I to the browser the stream is opened in QuickTime and begins playing.
June 24th, 2009 at 8:43 am
Joe > Please paste the URL that you’re using in to the comments here…
June 30th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
I am using the same one aa above http://208.92.52.88:80/WGNAMCMP3
June 30th, 2009 at 11:20 pm
On my (1st Generation) iPhone running the latest 3.0 software… accessing this URL in Safari produces an empty Quicktime file… no audio. Same thing happens with my desktop copy of Safari. Maybe it works on a 3G or 3GS… that I’m not sure of.
July 1st, 2009 at 11:45 pm
Excellent! Clicking the link above works on both my original iPhone running the new 3.0 software as well as my wife’s iPhone 3G running the older 2.2 software.
I found this post, tried the links on both phones and am typing this reply, all while riding as a passenger in a car doing 65 MPH on I-55 heading to St. Louis for the weekend.
We’re streaming Nick Digilio over EDGE and it’s working great. It’s much clearer than the over-the-air WGN signal 250 miles outside Chicago.
July 1st, 2009 at 11:55 pm
@Joe: By the way, to get the audio to start, you need to press the “play” triangle in the QuickTime player interface that opens when you click the link.
September 7th, 2009 at 5:39 pm
After a few failed attempts, the URL that finally worked for me in Safari was http://208.92.52.88/WGNAMCMP3 It’s the same as listed above, except this URL omits the “:80.” Give that a try if the other tips listed here don’t work.
October 12th, 2009 at 8:43 am
I was using the http://208.92.52.88:80/WGNAMCMP3 URL just fine for 4 or 5 months, streaming WGN. Then suddenly on the morning of Oct. 8, it wouldn’t work anymore. I continue to get the same error every time I try this address now: Tuner – unrecognized stream type: text/html!
I didn’t change any settings on my phone (it’s a 3G). Did something at WGN change? I’ve ‘rebooted’ my phone – I’ve re-entered the URL into this Tuner app (several times). I’ve tried entering the above URL into Safari (both with & without the “:80″ and that doesn’t work at all. ANY ideas would be most appreciated!!
October 12th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
Hi CJ > Turns out the same thing is now happening on my original iPhone… didn’t notice it because I don’t use it much… but I’ll look into it the first chance I get and see if I can figure out what changed.
October 21st, 2009 at 11:02 am
Hi Nic,
Just wondering if you figured out what happened to the WGN streaming. I’m having the same problem as CJ.
October 21st, 2009 at 11:08 am
Will, CJ > I actually gave CJ a solution that was working up until today… I hadn’t yet gotten around to posting it here… but now CJ has written saying it’s no longer working… which I just now confirmed…
I’ll look into things more later… one way or another, the entire WGN website is not up to snuff for 2009 standards… that’s for sure.
October 22nd, 2009 at 1:59 pm
Try this one guys…
> http://provisioning.streamtheworld.com/pls/WGNAM.pls <
This is working for me right now… although so far these have seemed to work for a while and then they go bad for whatever reason… it seems it’s a problem with the “Tuner” iPhone App… I have a list of 50 valid streams that I got from the station last night… they all work when I initiate a stream in iTunes, but none of them work in “Tuner”… couldn’t tell you why other than to say all signs point to “Tuner” as the problem.
Let me know if this works…
October 27th, 2009 at 12:18 pm
Hi monkeycoder,
Thanks for the info. It worked for a couple of days then stopped.
October 30th, 2009 at 12:33 am
The link I put up in my last post continues to work for me… although the stream does cut out and causes me to reconnect it far too many times to be normal… after messing with this for the last couple weeks it really feels like it’s the “Tuner” application that has the problem. The stream url’s I have all work reliably in iTunes which is a good way to troubleshoot… I’m keeping my eyes open for an update that will hopefully fix these intermittent drop-outs.
November 22nd, 2009 at 8:51 pm
Very helpful site. I travel a fair amount and this will be fantastic to have. I tested tonight and found that this URL http://provisioning.streamtheworld.com/pls/WGNAM.pls when posted directly into safari, gives me a crystal clear WGN feed. It does knock me off my wifi connection, but connects well over 3g.
April 12th, 2010 at 2:51 pm
The streamtheworld link doesn’t seem to work now. It’s delivering the standard WGN feed, but not the Cubs. Has anyone found a way to stream this year’s games?
April 12th, 2010 at 3:16 pm
You can’t stream the Cubs games on WGN due to MLB restrictions. To stream Cubs games you should go to MLB.com and check out your options… there is a cost.