Adding Streaming Radio to Apple TV

Your copy of iTunes plays streaming radio. Your iPhone can do the same with the right application--and that right application might be Pandora Radio, AOL Radio, Tuner Internet Radio, StreamItAll Radio, and allRadio. But how about the Apple TV?

It works as well--maybe. Once upon a time, one gpenston posted the Stream Internet Radio Directly on Apple TV Take 2 hint on Mac OS X Hints. And it gave me hope.

And then that hope was dashed when I couldn't get it to work. Now that I'm spending time whipping my Apple TV into shape, I thought I'd give it another go. And this time it works. And, as the admirable gpenston claims, it works this way:

Click on the Radio entry in iTunes' Source list and find some radio streams you'd like to listen to on your Apple TV. Create a new playlist and drag those stations into the playlist. Select your Apple TV in the Source list, click the Music tab, choose the Selected Playlists option, and tick the box next to the radio playlist you created. Click the Apply button at the bottom right corner of the iTunes window and then click Sync.

With luck, the playlist will be synced with your Apple TV and those streaming stations will be accessible (and play) on it as well. I say "with luck" because it didn't work for me the first time. It's possible that the first sync request didn't take, as the Apple TV refused to see that playlist. I tried again after adding a "regular" track to the playlist and it worked as it should. I can now play streaming radio on my Apple TV.

If you have an Apple TV, give it a go and put that comment link below to good use to report your experience.