Welcome!

Experience the all new CBS Radio, a free online experience that allows you access to over 500 music, news, sports and talk stations. This unique one-of-a-kind listening platform incorporates stations covering the widest possible range of formats and genres. Whether it’s Pop, Rock, Jazz, Classical, Oldies, Urban, Country, World, Latino, Alternative or any of over a hundred other styles and genres, CBS Radio guarantees you’ll be able to connect directly with all of your favorite music, news and information. And it doesn’t stop there. Hear a song you like? Then buy it. Got a favorite station? Share it with a friend. Got a lot of favorite stations? Save them for instant access the next time you log on. CBS Radio puts you in control and gives you instant access to one of the largest digital music libraries in the world.

 

 

General Questions

What software do I need?

CBS Radio works entirely through your browser, so you do not need any separate software. You do, however, need Flash Player for your browser, which is often already installed. If not, you can get the latest Flash Player plug-in (currently Version 9) for your browser here:

    PC and Macintosh Users: Download Flash Player for All Platforms here

What type of Internet Connection do I need?
All radio stations are available to narrowband (dial-up) and broadband users, but they will receive those stations at different bit rates to ensure the optimal experience for their bandwidth. Broadband listeners should be prepared to handle a stream of around 64 Kbps, while narrowband will come in at around 32 Kbps.

To see how to change your connection speed setting, click here.

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Getting Started

Why does it say "Accessing" in the album art area?

If you are listening to a CBS Radio station, "Accessing" means that either the album art or a slide is being retrieved. This should not affect your ability to listen to the best quality stream available.

If you are listening to an AOL Radio or Yahoo! LAUNCHcast station, "Accessing" usually means that the next song is being selected for your player. Because each listener is getting a unique Radio experience, you may encounter a slight pause between songs since each session is exclusive to that user.

 

Controls

The radio controls are just like controls on any music player.


→The Pause/Play button pauses the stream. A second press of the Pause/Play button will continue playback.
 
→The Next button skips the current song. Due to music industry rules, you’re only allowed to skip six songs within an hour.
 
→Mouse over the volume control to adjust the playback volume accordingly.
 
→The volume button can also be clicked to MUTE.
 
→The Broadband/Narrowband button allows you to choose your internet connection.
 

Song Information Display

You can find information such as the artist, song and album names for the song currently being played. The timer located at the bottom of this box indicates how much time is left in the current song.

 

Rate this Song

Want to let the DJ know how you feel about a song? Select a rating at any time while a song is playing to tell our DJs what you think about that song. Your feedback is an important factor in station programming.

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Buy Songs or CDs

There's an e-commerce link, allowing you to purchase a digital version of the song that’s currently playing, or the entire album it's featured on as either a digital copy or physical CD (if available) . This example shows the "download" link highlighted:


After clicking on this link, you will be asked if you want to purchase a download from Amazon.com, or the iTunes Store, or both. When the song changes, so does the e-commerce link, so if you missed the immediate opportunity to purchase the song, just go the HISTORY tab and you’ll be able to buy it there.

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Bottom Navigation

At the bottom of the player there are navigation links to access Stations, your listening History, Presets and Settings.

 

Stations

How do I search for stations?

You can search for stations by genre or location. Results are organized by relevance, depending on your search query.


 

History

How do I access my listening history?

Your listening history is accessible by clicking the History tab. You can view your history by song or station or both.

How long is my history stored?

The history in the player retains the last 25 songs or stations that you've listened to for each session. Closing a session will erase the history from the player.

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Presets

What is the point of presets?

Like most radios, you can save your favorite stations for easy access. Once a station is set as a preset, simply click the play button to launch the station.

How do I add a station to my presets?

On the player, there is a Station Information section that contains a link to "Add to Presets". Clicking this link will add the current station to your presets.

How do I change my presets?

The Presets tab on the player takes you to a page where you can manage your presets. On this page you can remove, change the order of, and play your presets.

How many presets can I set?

We've tried this ourselves, and couldn't find a limit. So we asked our tech team, who said you can save at least 50 presets. If you need more than that, maybe you should just take a look at the entire directory again!

How do I delete a preset station?

In addition to being able to delete presets from the Presets tab, you can remove a station from your presets by listening to the station and pressing the ?Remove from Presets? link in the Station Information window.

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Settings

The settings tab offers users the ability to manage general settings of the player: specifically, connection speed and default volume.


How do I set my connection speed preference?

You can choose your preferred internet connection speed in the settings tab. From the player, simply click "SETTINGS" and choose between narrowband (dial-up) or broadband (high-speed).

Alternatively, you can click on the word "Broadband" or "Narrowband" in the player to toggle the setting.


When the player launches, the volume is too high/low.

In addition to be able to adjust volume manually on the player?s main page, the Settings tab allows you to change the default volume level (0-100, 100 is loudest) of the player.

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Advertising

Why is there advertising in my stream? Can I deactivate advertising?

Advertising allows you to listen to music for free! The advertisements used on CBS Radio are designed to seamlessly integrate with your preferences, so they are relevant to the things you like. And, no. You can't deactivate the ads.

How much advertising will I be subjected to?

You will only hear advertisements between 4 & 6 minutes an hour, and a pre-roll will play for every 10th station you change to.

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Troubleshooting

My player won't start. What can I do?

Since the player opens up as a new browser window, your pop-up blocker may be preventing the player from opening. If you have a pop-up blocker on your system be sure to enable pop-ups for cbsradio.com and play.it in your browser preferences and in your pop-up blocker software.

If this doesn't help, try re-installing the Flash software for your browser.

 

My audio is stopping, or stuttering. What can I do?

→Try closing unnecessary programs that are running at the same time. Graphic and video editors, in particular, take up a lot of memory and resources.
→If you have a large download in progress, slow it down or stop it when listening — the player needs a steady stream of data from the internet.
→Your browser's cache may need to be cleared out — see below for instructions on how to do it.
→If none of this helps, fill out a trouble report at the bottom of this page.


My player timed out. Why?

CBS Radio Time-Out Feature

In an effort to control streaming fees paid to agencies that represent artists, record labels & publishers many companies that provide Internet music services, including CBS Radio, have activated time-out features. In our case, between the hours of 10p - 5a, the CBS Radio player will stop streaming (time-out) after two hours of inactivity. What this means is, if you launch the player, minimize it then leave it untouched for two hours the stream will stop until you either mouse over it or click the start button to resume streaming.

While you may be an active listener, there are thousands who are not, and CBS Radio is held accountable for every song played while the player is on whether somebody is actually listening to it or not. We've set the time-out feature to function outside of normal peak listening hours to pose as little inconvenience on our active users as possible.


I'm using AOL Client 9.0 or 9.1 and I'm having problems with the player. What can I do?

We have received emails from AOL members who are having trouble listening to AOL Radio when using the AOL software. We have identified the cause and are working as quickly as possible to correct it. In the mean time, you will find suggestions here on how to fix the problem yourself until we can make the internal fix.


My presets keep disappearing in Firefox. Can I do something to prevent this?

At the moment, presets are saved as cookies on your local machine. If you login from a different machine or with a different browser, the presets will not carry over. Firefox has a specific option that actually deletes cookies when a user closes the browser. Here's how to fix this:

1. Click on Tools and select Options

2. Click the Privacy Tab

3. In the Private Data section, De-Select the line that says 'Always clear my private data when I close Firefox'

4. Click on 'Ok'

This should resolve your disappearing Preset issue.


I'm having trouble installing Flash

Some users are experiencing trouble in trying to install the Flash Player. Adobe has released an installable debugger tool. Visit the Adobe Downloads page to download, or use the following links:

Adobe's Debugger Tools

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Reset to Manufacturer Settings

Many software applications (like add-on messenger services or toolbars) take over control certain aspects of Internet Explorer. If you notice issues playing / streaming using Internet Explorer, you may want to reset it to the manufacturer settings. 99.999% of the time this will fix any issue with IE.

In IE 7:

 1. Click ‘Tools’
 2. Then ‘Internet Options’
 3. ‘Advanced Tab’
 4. Click ‘Reset’, ‘Reset’ again…

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Clearing your Flash Player cache

Visit Macromedia's Support Link to learn how to clear your Flash Player cache.

For more information, please consult Macromedia.


I received an Adobe 'Local Storage' pop-up. What does it mean?

Local Storage

This messaging is part of the Adobe Flash player, and this URL explains everything related to Local Storage Settings.

 

Supported Operating Systems & Browsers

With all of all of the above browsers we try to support at least the latest non-beta version of the browser software. We do not fully support Opera ? there are issues with the way it handles JavaScript.

Flash support ? We support all Flash versions after version 9.0.24

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If you still can’t hear anything after checking the preceding elements, please send us a message:

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