Substituting streaming station for over-the-air broadcast
An automotive radio receiver includes an over-the-air radio tuner and a network interface. When a broadcast is received at the radio receiver, it includes embedded information that can be used to identify the radio station providing the broadcast. The radio receiver uses the embedded information to identify a streaming station that corresponds to the broadcast station. The radio receiver transmits information associated with the streaming station to a web service, which returns an address at which the radio receiver can access the streaming station. The address of the streaming station is stored in a memory accessible to the radio receiver for later use. The next time the radio receiver is tuned to the same broadcast station, the radio receiver instead connects to the streaming station at the stored address.
1. An automotive radio receiver comprising:
an over-the-air radio tuner configured to tune to an over-the-air radio broadcast on a particular frequency in response to a first tuning event, the over-the-air radio broadcast including embedded information at least partially identifying a radio station broadcasting on the particular frequency;
processing circuitry coupled to the over-the-air radio tuner and configured to determine, based on the embedded information, that the radio station broadcasting on the particular frequency is associated with a corresponding streaming radio station;
a network interface including a personal-area network interface configured to communicate with a mobile device coupled to a mobile carrier network via a packet-switched wireless network, the network interface coupled to the processing circuitry and, the network interface further configured to:
transmit information associated with the corresponding streaming radio station to a web service;
receive from the web service, via the packet-switched wireless network, a network address at which the corresponding streaming radio station can be accessed;
memory coupled to the processing circuitry configured to store the network address; and
the processing circuitry further configured to respond to a subsequent tuning event by using the network address to stream the corresponding streaming radio station instead of tuning to the over-the-air radio broadcast.
2. The automotive radio receiver of claim 1 , wherein targeted advertisements are inserted into the corresponding streaming radio station based, at least in part, on registration information associated with the automotive radio receiver.
3. The automotive radio receiver of claim 1 , wherein the embedded information includes information received via at least one of a Radio Data System (RDS) protocol or an in-band on-channel (IBOC) radio protocol.
4. A method for use in an automotive radio receiver including processing circuitry, an over-the-air radio tuner, and a network interface, the method comprising:
receiving, at the automotive radio receiver, first user input to the automotive radio receiver indicating a first tuning event;
in response to the first tuning event, tuning the over-the-air radio tuner to an over-the-air radio broadcast on a particular frequency, the over-the-air radio broadcast including embedded information at least partially identifying a radio station broadcasting on the particular frequency;
determining by the processing circuitry, based at least in part on the embedded information, that the radio station broadcasting on the particular frequency is associated with a corresponding streaming radio station;
transmitting information associated with the corresponding streaming radio station to a web service via a network interface coupled to a packet-switched wireless network, wherein the network interface includes a personal-area network interface configured to communicate with a mobile device coupled to a mobile carrier network via the packet-switched wireless network;
receiving, via the network interface, a network address at which the corresponding streaming radio station can be accessed;
storing the network address in a memory accessible to the processing circuitry included in the automotive radio receiver;
receiving second user input indicating a second tuning event, the second tuning event indicating that the automotive radio receiver is to be tuned to the over-the-air radio broadcast; and
in response to the second tuning event, using the network address to stream the corresponding streaming radio station instead of tuning the over-the-air radio tuner to the over-the-air radio broadcast.
5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the corresponding streaming radio station includes targeted advertisements inserted into the corresponding streaming radio station based, at least in part, on registration information associated with the automotive radio receiver.
6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the determining further comprises:
transmitting at least a portion of the embedded information, via the network interface, to an external server for identification of the corresponding streaming radio station.
7. The method of claim 4 , wherein the determining further comprises:
using a database cache local to the automotive radio receiver to determine whether an affiliation of the radio station matches a target affiliation; and
in response to determining that the affiliation matches the target affiliation, transmitting an identity of the radio station to an external server.