The definitive Air America stream links list

Well, the dust has settled and the smoke has cleared since Air America Radio updated their webstreams. And LTR has finally figured the whole damn thing out.

Air America's most recent streaming woes were reported here back in March via this post and this post. What happened is that the network changed stream hosts, leading to a period of several week where many irate and confused listeners were trying to figure out why they could not get the direct streams to work. LTR came to the rescue with links to streams of various affiliates, and was able to list 1-3 separate stations for each. That problem has since been resolved, though there have been some recent reports of media player makers such as iTunes not updating their links. If that's still the case, you should be able to direct post the new stream links in each player and bookmark them.

What it boils down to is that Air America currently has two basic streams. There's one for Windows Media Player and an mp3 stream that works in Winamp, iTunes and RealPlayer, among others. You can access the stream of your choice at either of these two links:

Windows Media Player http://winmedia.voxcdn.net/aar

Winamp/iTunes/RealPlayer: http://aarlive.voxcdn.com/live.m3u

Now, bear in mind that these streams will open in whichever media player you have set as your default. For example, in my case, I have Winamp set as my all-around media player. The current incarnation of Winamp will play many Windows Media Player files, therefore, the WMP stream will open up Winamp. Same with the mp3 stream, which it always has. If you have iTunes or RealPlayer set as your default for mp3 streams, the mp3 stream will open in either one of those players. As far as I know, neither of these media players will play WMP streams. You may run into the same situation with Windows Media Player. If you need to set a default player, you can do that with the 'options' or 'preferences' tab in your player of choice. Got all that?

Air America also has a browser-based player, in case you prefer listening through your web browser or if you are unable to listen through a separate player.

Furthermore, on the left side of the page, where all the individual shows and timeslots are listed, there are other streams for each listed. I have left up the links to WWRL in New York, which airs most of the network's schedule, therefore serving as a pretty decent alternate. And there are a few other individual affiliate streams listed as well, just in case.

So, a typical listing on the left side of this page may look like this:

Lee Rayburn 9A-12P

Let's break it all down. First, there is a link to the host or show, in this case fill-in host Lee Rayburn, who is listed as the temporary host of the shift on Air America's site. Next is the time the show airs, eastern time zone. Following that are cute little icons, which , by clicking, will open up a direct webstream. First is a little . That denotes the browser-based Air America player. You can choose between the WMP or mp3 stream at that link. The next is the web-based browser for WWRL in New York. Following that are two Windows icons. The first is Air America's WMP stream, which will open in a separate media player, followed by another for WWRL, which does likewise.

The next icon is , which denotes an mp3 stream that can be opened up in most media players, including Winamp, iTunes and RealPlayer. The next is a radio station webstream, this one for the browser-based player for KEUN in Lafayette, LA. And finally, there's a , which denotes a podcast feed for those of you unable to listen live and wish to tune in later. Now, in this particular case, this podcast link may be outdated, but most of the other ones should still be active. Some hosts archive their shows on their websites, and that will be denoted. Also, many of Air America's feeds are subscription-based, so the link will direct you to their site for downloading information. Same with the Nova M Radio shows like Mike Malloy. I'll go through this weekend and update all of these.

So there ya go. All you ever needed to know about how to listen to Air America and other progressive talk programming on the internets. Cool, huh? If you have any questions, concerns, corrections or other updates, then go right ahead and post them in comments below.