Simple Radio: Live AM FM Radio

Review by eFreeware

Terrestrial radio still has plenty to offer, but the hardware has become awkward. Most of the stations worth hearing now stream online anyway, which leaves you juggling a browser, a station website and a set of bookmarks that never quite works the way you want. What you need is something that behaves like a tuner: open it, pick a station, listen.

Simple Radio: Live AM FM Radio is Streema's answer to that gap. Streema, Inc. has been running this app since December 2014, and the numbers behind it are substantial: more than 50 million installs and a 4.7 average across 943,134 ratings. It is a free download with ads and in-app purchases, and it is built around a catalog of over 90,000 stations.

A tuner built around a very large station catalog

The core idea is straightforward. You get a searchable directory of AM, FM and online stations, and you pick one to play. The developer's pitch is that it combines the reach of online radio with the simplicity of the old dial, and the catalog is the part that carries that claim. With 90,000-plus stations listed, the app is less about any single broadcaster and more about the breadth of what you can reach from one screen.

Finding something specific works along a few axes. You can search by genre if you know the sound you want, by category if you know the format, or by country, state and city if you know where the station broadcasts. That last option matters more than it might seem: radio is local by nature, and being able to narrow the directory geographically is often the fastest route to a station you actually recognize.

The developer also points to Streema's experience serving more than 10 million listeners a month and bills the app as stable and reliable in playback. Streaming quality will always depend on the station's own feed as much as the app, but that matters for a radio player, where a dropped stream is more annoying than a missing feature.

Music, news, talk and live sports in one place

What you can listen to spans most of what radio does. On the music side, the genres named include pop, rock, hip hop, Latin, rap, blues, country, jazz and classical, which covers the usual spread of commercial and public formats. Beyond music, the app is positioned around news, talk shows and Christian radio, so it works as a general-purpose listening tool rather than a music-only one.

Live sports gets its own emphasis. The developer lists NFL, MLB, NBA, MLS, NHL and Nascar coverage among the stations available, which makes the app relevant to people who follow a team or a season and want the radio call rather than a television feed. For anyone who has tried to find a game broadcast on a phone browser, a dedicated sports category is a meaningful convenience.

Stations available in the app include NPR Radio, BBC Radio, MRN, 77 WABC, La Mega 97.9, KNBR and WNYC. Those are useful reference points because they show the range on offer: public radio, international news, Latin music, and regional sports talk all sit in the same directory. If your taste runs to a particular format, the genre and category filters are how you get from that starting point to something closer to home.

Favorites, the car and casting to a bigger speaker

Day-to-day use hinges on the favorites feature. The developer's aim is one-tap access to the stations you return to, which is the right priority for a radio app: most listening is habitual, and the value of a tuner is how few steps stand between you and the station you already know you want. Setting up favorites is the part of the experience worth investing a few minutes in early.

The app also reaches beyond the phone. It supports Android Auto, so the same stations can play through a car head unit, and it can cast to any Google Chromecast-compatible device, which turns a phone into a remote for a television or speaker setup. The developer lists availability on iPhone, iPad, iWatch, Amazon Alexa, mobile and web as well, so the catalog is not confined to one platform.

Between the car and casting, the practical picture is a radio app that follows you around the house and the road rather than one tied to a single device. That is a sensible design for something people use in the background while doing something else.

What it needs, and what the free download includes

One requirement is explicit and worth stating plainly: an internet connection, over Wi-Fi or mobile data, is needed to play any station. This is a streaming app, not a receiver. On mobile data, long listening sessions will count against your plan, which is the sort of thing to keep in mind if you plan to use it on the road.

The download itself is free, and the app carries ads and offers in-app purchases. This is the familiar model for free streaming apps, and the free experience should be expected to come with advertising.

The content rating is Teen, and the most recent update, in October 2026, was described simply as bug fixes and improvements. That is a modest changelog, but it does indicate the app is still being worked on rather than left as it was.

Who gets the most from a streaming radio tuner

This app is for people who already know what they want to hear and want a quick way to hear it. If you have a handful of stations you check regularly, or a sports schedule you follow, or a home region whose radio you miss, the combination of a large directory and one-tap favorites is exactly the right shape. It is also a reasonable fit for anyone who wants background audio without curating playlists.

It is equally suited to listeners who like browsing. Searching by country, state or city makes it easy to sample stations from elsewhere, and the genre and category filters support the same wandering impulse. That is a different use case from the habitual listener, but the app serves both with the same directory.

The narrower fit is for people who want a music service with on-demand control over what plays. Radio is programmed by someone else; the app gives you the station, not the song. If your listening is built around choosing tracks, albums or playlists, this is a different tool for a different job, and the catalog's strength is breadth of stations rather than control over the music itself.

A broad, simple pick for habitual radio listeners

The install base and the 4.7 average suggest the approach has worked for a lot of people over the years, and the feature set is shaped around listening rather than around browsing menus.

The trade-offs are the ones that come with streaming: an internet connection is required, the free version carries ads and offers in-app purchases, and the music is whatever the station decides to play. None of that is unusual for the category, but they are the terms you are accepting.

If you want a station tuner that covers music, news, talk and live sports without much ceremony, this is a well-established option with a catalog large enough that most listeners will find what they are after. If you want to control the playlist, a dedicated music service will serve you better.

What's new in version 6.1.9

Bug fixes and improvements