• Plank
  • Busy Chum
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2008-05-17
  • Posts: 217

Topic: Mediafly news channel replacement

I used Mediafly's news channel as a morning alarm for several years now.  Now that Mediafly will be removed from Chumby, can anyone recommend a good news channel that can be used for an alarm?

  • From: Australia
  • Registered: 2009-03-19
  • Posts: 503

Re: Mediafly news channel replacement

Ooh! Waking up to the news? You must have nerves of steel wink

  • From: New York
  • Registered: 2009-04-12
  • Posts: 10

Re: Mediafly news channel replacement

You can try the NY Times weekday headlines.  I have been using that as my alarm for a while but it is not updated on the weekends.

  • Registered: 2009-05-16
  • Posts: 13

Re: Mediafly news channel replacement

I have mine set to wake me with the local NPR station stream.

  • From: New York
  • Registered: 2009-04-12
  • Posts: 10

Re: Mediafly news channel replacement

I wonder, will Chumby consider adding a replacement podcast aggregation widget once MediaFly is gone?  I am a regular user of MediaFly to organize and play podcasts on the Chumby Classic.  I hope there is something that will replace it for this purpose.

  • Registered: 2010-11-30
  • Posts: 22

Re: Mediafly news channel replacement

I am so sad to no longer have medially podcast channel. It was part of my daily routine. Would really appreciate something similar.

  • From: Deutschland
  • Registered: 2010-01-16
  • Posts: 220

Re: Mediafly news channel replacement

in the past i also used mediafly especially for podcast but:
since the youstreams-Widget it was better for me to use this.

i did not know that mediafly was removed. a year (or more) ago they told to let play video-podcast for chumby.... so is it removed that feature is missing now.

  • Registered: 2010-11-30
  • Posts: 22

Re: Mediafly news channel replacement

The benefit of the mediafly podcast was  that it gathered together sources on the same subject and put it in one place to run continuously. For example, I am a news/politics junky. To have the daily podcasts from every different viewpoint all in one place was invaluable to me. No flipping from one place to another. I got NPR, CNN, Fox, BBC, all in one station. PLEASE PLEASE come up with a replacement. The you stream is just another radio station.

  • Duane
  • Duane
  • Blue Octy
  • Offline
  • From: San Diego, CA
  • Registered: 2006-08-24
  • Posts: 8,199

Re: Mediafly news channel replacement

For those of you that don't know, Mediafly is changing their business model and is no longer offering the podcast aggregation that is used by the chumby and other devices.  We've received formal notice from them to discontinue offering it, and starting with Control Panel 2.8.83, the Mediafly service will be removed from the listing of music sources.  For those of you wondering, using an older Control Panel won't work - the actual service is being discontinued soon at their end, and it simply won't work.

I'd be willing to consider adding an alternative to Mediafly, however, I don't know of any.

Duane's Website

  • Registered: 2010-11-30
  • Posts: 22

Re: Mediafly news channel replacement

Thanks for new update. Appreciate your keeping your eyes and ears open.

  • From: Durham, NC, USA
  • Registered: 2010-04-12
  • Posts: 167

Re: Mediafly news channel replacement

At this point, the only alternative to Mediafly that I know about is Stitcher. It works well for a large number of podcasts, but, I don't believe it has a streaming news aggregator channel, the way Mediafly does.

There are certainly plenty of all news radio stations out there with open streams. Personally, I wake up to WFLN (on Shoutcast), which carries the full 5 minutes of the CBS hourly newscast, and then switch to a local NPR station's open stream at 6 minutes after the hour. But, I know that solution is not really what you are looking for.

Going off on a tangent, it would be nice if the CBS channel on the Chumby were updated to pull in all of the content you can find on other platforms. Why there is still an icon for Katie Couric's Reporter's Notebook 9 months after she left CBS is a mystery. Same thing for Harry Smith Reporting, although he "only" left CBS 7 months ago.

Same complaint about blue octy radio. I don't think its lineup has changed in years. And why, of 21 channels (only 20 of which seem to work), are 3 Slovenian? It is a fine country. I have been there. But, considering there are about 200 countries in the world, and as far as I can tell, the lineup has 1 UK, 1 South African, 2 Canadian, 3 Slovenian, and 14 US stations, it seems like there is a lot of room for a more representative mix.