iheart radio – Being a small town girl, I am not too familiar with Clear Channel Broadcasting. I remember the Howard Stern controversies – who doesn’t – but Clear Channel has otherwise not frequently touched my sheltered ears. Their iPhone app, iheart radio, has changed that.

Initially only offering twelve Clear Channel radio stations, iheart radio now streams over 200 stations from across our good ol’ U.S. of A. It works on both iPhones and iPod touch. iheart radio’s programming offers something for everyone, ranging from country to rock to alternative to talk radio, including the liberal music station Pride Radio and ultra-conservative talk shows with Dr. Laura and Rush Limbaugh.

With iheart radio, you can seek radio stations by type of programming, by city, or by personality. You can also connect with local stations, of which I found seven. Since I am about four hours from a few large cities, I have no idea from where my “local” stations are streaming. My list of local stations did not match any of the city lists. I would appreciate it if Clear Channel offered a bit more description of the radio stations to which I am listening on iheart radio.

iheart radio can save your favorites, and it has a “shake it” button which chooses a random station for you to listen to. iheart radio lacks a search function which I think would be a great addition.

I have been listening to iheart radio for a week and the app has not crashed on me. iheart radio has streamed fine every day for me but one, when it refused to connect with any radio stations and only offered me the passive-aggressive hope-filled phrase, “Buffering.” iTunes user reviews reference the buffering problem as well as some crashing issues.

I was already addicted to the Public Radio Tuner app, and iheart radio fills my same need of listening to the radio more clearly on my iPhone than I can on my car stereo. I cannot say if people who already live in big cities feel same the pleasure since they can already access Clear Channel stations on their radios.

For me, iheart radio is a good alternative to listening to my middle-of-nowhere radio stations. I like variety when I listen to the radio, and that is exactly what iheart radio offers.

Editor’s Note: When AppCraver last reviewed iheart radio it was hot off the shelves. We’re glad the app has matured and have adjusted the initial score accordingly.

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category: Best Free Apps, Internet Radio, Music