LeaseyRadio.

Introduction.

LeaseyRadio makes it possible for you to listen to radio stations from around the world, provided they are broadcast on the internet. Thousands of radio stations exist playing a wide variety of music covering many genres. Speech content is also very popular for news, sport and discussion of current affairs.

When compiling our LeaseyRadio directory, we have chosen what we feel are some of the most popular and high quality music and speech radio stations covering ten specific genres. You can listen to any station of your choosing, add it to a list of favourites so as to hear it again, or assign it to one of the 20 presets which can be accessed from any application. Listening to your favourite station could not be easier! If on the other hand you would prefer to access a wider range of stations, you can now browse the Shoutcast radio directory, or the Radio Browser directory, both of which contain many thousands of radio stations to choose from.

Accessing LeaseyRadio.

LeaseyRadio can be accessed from the Leasey Basic Main Menu by selecting the option, “Listen to the Radio”. Alternatively, press the Leasey Key followed by the letter R, to access it directly.

The LeaseyRadio menu contains 21 items:

Setting An Audio Player.

Before you begin listening to radio stations, you must select an audio player. Select the last item on the LeaseyRadio menu, "Choose Radio Player".

You will be presented with four choices.

Press Enter on one of these options. The chosen player should then be used. You should only need to set this option once.

A few words about the Leasey Radio player. This radio player has no visible interface. You can control it by pressing ALT+Control+Windows+S for Stop, and ALT+Control+Windows+Up and Down Arrow to change the volume.

Viewing a Station from the 10 Categories.

If you press Enter on any one of the 10 LeaseyRadio categories, you will be able to view a list of all the stations contained within it. Press the Up or Down Arrow keys to move through the stations, or type the first letter of the one you are looking for.

When you select one of the categories, Leasey first checks online for the latest stations in the chosen category. This ensures that you always have access to the very latest stations in our database.

When you find the station you wish to listen to, simply press Enter to begin listening to it. You will hear the announcement, “Connecting to”, followed by the station name.

If you are using an older audio player such as Winamp, and the station does not begin to play, you should set focus to Winamp and type letter X. This should cause Winamp to reload the stream and begin playing it. This is particularly apparent when using what is known as a Secure Stream.

If you are using VLC Media Player, it may be helpful to make the following adjustment. When you choose a station to play, and then select another one, working through this procedure will ensure that the first station stops playing.

  1. Launch VLC Media Player.
  2. Press Control+P for Options.
  3. Press the Tab key repeatedly until you reach ""Allow only one instance." This is a Check Box. Be sure it is checked by pressing the Space Bar.
  4. Press Enter to save.

Assigning a Station to a Preset.

While it is true that you can store as many LeaseyRadio Favourites as you like, there will be stations that you would like to hear more frequently. To this end, you can set up to 20 presets which will allow you to quickly start playing 20 stations of your choice from within any program, without having to work through the menu system.

  1. Choose a station from any one of the 10 LeaseyRadio categories, the Shoutcast directory or Radio Browser.
  2. When the station begins to play, you may care to reduce the volume slightly or stop the audio playback in your chosen player.
  3. Press the Leasey Key then Windows+Dash. The LeaseyRadio Preset Dialog Box appears.
  4. When prompted to do so, please type a value between 1 and 20 to assign the station to a preset between 1 and 20.
  5. Press Enter to save the preset. You will be advised that the station has now been assigned to the chosen preset. Note that if a station has already been previously assigned, a Dialog box will appear, reminding you of the existing station name. Leasey will ask you if you would like to replace the previously stored station with the new one. Press the letter “Y” for yes or “N” for no as appropriate. If you have chosen to replace it, you will be advised that the new station has been assigned to the preset. If "no" was chosen instead, the previously stored station name will be announced as still being assigned to the preset.

To access any of the 20 presets directly, press the Leasey Key followed by Windows+1 through to Windows+0 for the first 10 presets, with Windows+1 representing preset number 1 and Windows+0 representing preset number 10. To access presets 11 through to 20, press the Leasey key followed by ALT+1 through to ALT+0. Simply press any one of the preset keystrokes to begin playing the assigned station. You will hear the announcement, “Connecting to”, followed by the station name.

When a station is assigned to a preset, it is also added to your LeaseyRadio Favourites list, so it can be accessed from there if desired.

Listen to the Most Recent Station You Were Hearing.

While this option can be accessed from the LeaseyRadio menu, (indeed it is the first item), a keystroke also exists to begin playback of this automatically. Press the LeaseyKey followed by ALT+Dash. You will hear the announcement, “Connecting to”, followed by the station name.

Search Directories.

Activating this option will allow you to search across three databases of over 90 thousand stations. Results are returned from the LeaseyRadio database and those belonging to Radio Browser and Shoutcast.

Radio Browser is like the Wikipedia of radio stations. Shoutcast is a platform on which some stations broadcast.

While you can activate this option from the LeaseyRadio menu, it can also be activated directly by pressing the Leasey Key followed by Shift+S for Search.

Having activated the option, you are asked for the name of a station or a key word to search for, such as Oldies. Type in the search term and press Enter. The results will be returned to you. It may take a few seconds for the results to be returned and formatted correctly, since there are three databases to search.

The list of results are displayed. Navigate the list with the Up or Down Arrow keys and press Enter to listen to a station. When the station begins to play using your chosen media player, you can add it to your favourites, assign it to a preset or add it as a Custom Stream. Please refer to the section of this documentation relating to Custom Streams.

Note: While every effort is made to ensure that all the streams in the LeaseyRadio database play correctly and that links to the audio sources are up-to-date, we cannot offer the same guarantee to any links which are part of the other databases. We have no control over whether they are current.

It is possible to access a list of recent search terms. Having entered the Radio Browser search screen, type the word "Recent", then press Enter. A list of recently accessed search terms is displayed. Use the Up and Down Arrow keys to locate a previous search and press Enter. The list of results is retrieved and displayed.

If you wish to clear your list of recent searches, into the Radio Browser search edit field, type the word "Clear".

Browse the Shoutcast Directory by Station Genre.

Pressing Enter on this option will bring into view a list of the many station categories Shoutcast has available. Press Enter on a category to move into it.

A list of all stations in the chosen category will be available to you. Move through the stations with the Up and Down Arrow keys. Press Enter to listen to the station. If you do not hear anything, this could mean that the station is temporarily unavailable. If you are browsing the Shoutcast directory in this way, and the station is not available, please do not contact us as we will be unable to fix the problem.

If you have accessed a radio station from a search term, and you wish to return to the list of stations, press the Leasey Key then ALT+Left Arrow.

Custom Streams.

It is possible that you may wish to add a URL pointing to an audio stream which is not featured in the LeaseyRadio database. There are three methods of achieving this.

Adding a Custom Stream Manually.

The following procedure will allow you to add a Custom Stream to the LeaseyRadio database which can be accessed by other people.

  1. Be sure that you have the full URL pointing to the audio stream on the clipboard. This must not be the main page of the radio station's web site. It must be a URL which would play using your audio player, such as Winamp or VLC. If it does not play in your audio player, you cannot add a Custom Stream using this method.
  2. From the LeaseyRadio menu, select Enter Custom Stream for Sharing.
  3. Into the edit field now available, paste the URL obtained in step 1.
  4. Press Enter.
  5. Leasey will now attempt to validate the stream to check audio is present. If successful, you will hear the audio content for a few seconds, whereupon you will be taken to the next screen.
  6. You are then asked to name the station. Type the name you would like to assign to it and press Enter.
  7. You are then asked to assign it to one of the 10 categories. Select one of the categories with the Up and Down Arrow keys and press Enter. There is a further item in the list, "None". This means that you do not know which category it should be assigned to.
  8. The stream should then be added. Notification is then sent to Hartgen Consultancy notifying us of the addition of the Custom Stream. We will then move it to the desired category if we determine it is appropriate for it. However, you can still listen to it as soon as it is added. Go back to the LeaseyRadio menu and select "List Custom Streams for Sharing". Any Custom Streams not assigned as yet should be present in the list. Select one with the Up or Down Arrow keys and press Enter.
  9. If in the future you revisit the above option, and find that your Custom Stream is not present, it is likely it has been moved to the category you suggested.

Add Currently Playing Station to Custom Streams.

If you find a radio station in either the Shoutcast or Radio Browser databases which you think would be a good fit for the LeaseyRadio database, you can add it as a Custom Stream. The following procedure will allow you to add a Custom Stream to the LeaseyRadio database which can be accessed by other people.

  1. Be sure that you have selected the station to play out using your media player. You must have searched for it using Leasey.
  2. From the LeaseyRadio menu, select Add Currently Playing Station to Custom Streams for Sharing.
  3. You are then asked to name the station. Type the name you would like to assign to it and press Enter. Leasey has attempted to name the station for you. Prior to pressing Enter, you can view the title in the Edit Field. It can then be either amended or replaced as necessary.
  4. You are then asked to assign it to one of the 10 categories. Select one of the categories with the Up and Down Arrow keys and press Enter. There is a further item in the list, "None". This means that you do not know which category it should be assigned to.
  5. The stream should then be added. Notification is then sent to Hartgen Consultancy notifying us of the addition of the Custom Stream. We will then move it to the desired category if we determine it is appropriate for it. However, you can still listen to it as soon as it is added. Go back to the LeaseyRadio menu and select "List Custom Streams for Sharing". Any Custom Streams not assigned as yet should be present in the list. Select one with the Up or Down Arrow keys and press Enter.
  6. If in the future you revisit the above option, and find that your Custom Stream is not present, it is likely it has been moved to the category you suggested.

Adding a Private Stream to LeaseyRadio Favourites.

There is a further method of adding a Custom Stream. When you add such a stream, it is for your own use and will not be shared with anyone else. This might be useful if you own a radio station which is not broadcast 24 hours a day, but you would like to use Leasey to listen to it when it is broadcasting. This radio station will not appear in Custom Streams. It will be located in your LeaseyRadio Favourites instead.

  1. Be sure that you have the full URL pointing to the audio stream on the clipboard. This must not be the main page of the radio station's web site. It must be a URL which would play using your audio player, such as Winamp or VLC. If it does not play in your audio player, you cannot add a Custom Stream using this method.
  2. From the LeaseyRadio menu, select Add Private Stream to LeaseyRadio Favourites.
  3. Into the edit field now available, paste the URL obtained in step 1.
  4. Press Enter.
  5. Leasey will now attempt to validate the stream to check audio is present. If successful, you will hear the audio content for a few seconds, whereupon you will be taken to the next screen.
  6. You are then asked to name the station. Type the name you would like to assign to it and press Enter.
  7. The stream should then be added and you can find it in LeaseyRadio Favourites.
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