Happy Boredom

Clear Channel Communications has its own streaming radio iPhone application called iHeartRadio. Much like the CBS Radio app the Clear Channel App lets you stream live and internet-only radio stations on your iPhone. iheart radio has fewer channels than the CBS Radio application. I believe it’s because CBS has deals with Yahoo! and AOL Radio.

On the positive side, iHeartRadio has access to Grand Rapids 1300AM WOOD. This is a good sign because I believe that I will be able to listen to University of Michigan Football streaming radio on my iPhone. That alone will reserve iheart radio a special spot on my iPhone.

UPDATE for 2013-2014 Season

Instructions to listen to Michigan Football on your phone for 2013-2014 Season

You still use the iHeartRadio app, but you need to look for different stations for 2013-2014.

Michigan —> Ann Arbor —> W4 Country 102.9
Michigan —> Grand Rapids —> WBBL 107.3

Instructions prior to 2013-2014 season

Being a University of Michigan Alumni living in California it is devilishly difficult getting Michigan games on TV, especially when they stank up the conference last year going 3-12. This year they are getting less national TV exposure and/or they are on the Big 10 Network which I do not get with my cable provider. Consequently I have turned to Internet streaming radio to see if I could listen to Michigan football on my computer or my iphone.

This season, 1300 AM News Radio in Grand Rapids is your salvation for listening to Michigan Football with your computer or iPhone.

YES! Michigan Football via iPhone streaming radio.

Listen to Michigan Football on your iPhone via Internet streaming radio. To do this download the iheart radio application (Get it from itunes).

• Install and open iheart radio from the app store. It’s free.
• Tap the “All Cities” link
• Scroll down to “Grand Rapids, MI”
• Look for “Newsradio WOOD 1300”
• Add it to your favorites by tapping the star icon on the top right corner.

• Wait until Game day, then go to 1300AM to listen to Michigan Wolverine Football on your iphone! It should be fine over 3G.

Michigan Football on your Desktop via streaming radio. Silverlight or Flash based player

Grand Rapids news radio 1300AM WOOD on RadioTime has streaming audio of Michigan Football games. If I remember correctly I had to install the Silverlight Plugin in order to listen to the games. Since WOOD 1300AM is a Michigan Football affiliate you get the regular broadcasters who typically do a decent job at being Michigan fans but not mega-biased.

Other Teams (Updated 10/31/2009)

University of Tennessee Volunteers Football on your iPhone.

Toledo Rockets on your iPhone — Formats, Sports, WDFN 1130AM The Fan, Detroit.

950 AM KJR, Seattle
h3. Research Reference if you want to listen to college football team on your iphone.

Most streaming audio providers use Flash or Silverlight. iPhone can run neither. You can take advantage of the fact that most of the United States’ radio has homogenized into the 3 major players. CBS Radio and Clear Channel comprise a substantial market share. Cumulus is the mysteriously the 800 lb Gorilla NOT in the iphone app room. Given the usefulness of the CBS and Clear Channel-based radio apps I would expect Cumulus to put out an app soon too. If this happens you would probably have access to 70% of the radio stations in the USA.

Both CBS radio and iheart radio have dozens of large and mid-market sized radio stations. Browse for the radio stations that broadcast your favorite teams and you may be lucky enough to find a live broadcast without any problems.

You may not be able to get an audio stream for your team in their home market/city. I read somewhere that radio stations in the primary broadcasting area of a sports team do not necessarily own the rights to stream live audio feeds of the football games over the Internet. In the case of Michigan Football, radio stations in Ann Arbor and Detroit cannot stream live game audio. Cities outside of the core area — in my case, Grand Rapids — have both the regular radio rights and the Internet streaming rights.

Michigan sports Radio Affiliates by Michiguide.com has radio listings for Red Wings, Pistons, Lions, and college sports. I have not had the time to test all of the stations to see if any of them have iphone compatible streams. Unfortunately I cannot listen to sports on the iphone via RadioTime links because somehow they repackage streams to use Silverlight or Flash.

If you know of a radio station that broadcasts your college football on an iPhone compatible audio stream please in the comments.

One-way trip for two people from San Francisco to Los Angeles: 1 full tank of gas at $3.10 per gallon. Or in other words about $32 dollars worth of gas.

Last weekend the wife and I drove from San Francisco (actually Daly City) to Los Angeles (in truth, Pasadena) on a single tank of gas traveling at an average speed of 80-85 miles per hour. The distance door-to-door was right around 394 miles. We made the entire trip but about The Prius feels solid until you get up to around 87 MPH when the ride starts to get a little shaky and the engine be straining to get any more speed. Acceleration in higher speeds (i.e. accelerating from 77 to 87) leaves something to be desired. On the other hand, from a fuel performance point of view the Prius is sweet. I was getting about 48-55 miles per gallon the until we reached the ascension into the hills after the Grapevine.

I have had the Prius for about 18 months now. We have put 30,000 miles on the sucker without any major problems. The car is not perfect, however.The buttons on the stereo occasionally don’t work unless you pound on the console a few times. The passenger side rear door has some dealer-installed door guards that squeak and scrape every time I open the door.