radio-active
A terminal-based application to search, play, and record from over 40,000 radio stations worldwide.
What is radio-active?
Radioactive is a terminal-based application that allows users to search, play, and record from a global database of over 40,000 radio stations. It solves the need for a lightweight, command-line radio player with advanced features like scheduled recording, favorites management, and real-time song information, all accessible without a graphical interface.
Developers, sysadmins, and terminal enthusiasts who prefer command-line tools for media playback and want a feature-rich radio player integrated into their workflow.
Developers choose Radioactive for its extensive station library, recording capabilities, and user-friendly terminal interface, offering a more accessible and powerful alternative to other CLI radio players like PyRadio and TERA.
Overview
Play any radios around the globe right from the terminal :zap:
Use Cases
Best For
- Listening to global radio stations directly from the terminal
- Recording live radio streams for later playback
- Discovering new stations by genre, language, or location
- Managing a personalized list of favorite radio stations
- Setting sleep timers for automated playback stopping
- Integrating radio playback into shell scripts or automated workflows
Not Ideal For
- Users who prefer graphical interfaces with visual equalizers and playlist managers
- Environments where installing FFmpeg is restricted or impractical
- Systems with legacy terminal emulators that cannot handle modern UI rendering
- Projects requiring offline station databases or complete independence from external APIs
Pros & Cons
Pros
Integrates with RadioBrowser API to provide access to over 40,000 stations, searchable by country, genre, language, and tags, as highlighted in the features list.
Supports on-demand and scheduled recordings with configurable duration, file types, and save paths, including examples like '--record-at' for timed captures.
Designed for simplicity with a menu-driven interface for favorites, history, and discovery, plus runtime commands for quick actions like track info or recording.
Allows extensive tuning via config files for features, player selection (FFplay, VLC, MPV), sorting, filtering, and volume control, as detailed in the options table.
Cons
Recording functionality requires FFmpeg to be installed separately, adding setup steps and potential compatibility issues, especially on Windows or restricted systems.
The README explicitly warns that the interface may break on non-modern terminals, limiting usability in environments with older emulators or basic setups.
Depends entirely on the RadioBrowser API for station data, making it vulnerable to API downtime, changes, or rate limits without built-in fallbacks.
As noted in the TODO list, native packages for deb, rpm, and exe are not yet available, complicating installation for users preferring system package managers.
Frequently Asked Questions
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