Online radio comes to the BlackBerry

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The WunderRadio app brings online radio to BlackBerry phones. Credit: Jerome Adamstein.

BlackBerry phones are highly functional and many models have terrific keyboards, but they aren’t exactly hip, especially when it comes to apps. In that department, iPhones win hands-down. But finally, one of the best-liked online radio apps has come to the BB. WunderRadio, which can access Internet stations from around the world, has been released in a version that can play on the Curve and other models (the complete list is on the app site).

The app, which has a highly usable if not beautiful interface, allows you to search for a station by category -- talk, sport or music. Next comes a screen that allows you to choose a genre (not surprisingly, the category with the most genres, by far, is music) and then up pops the available stations.

At the top of the list will be your local stations, determined via the phone’s GPS capability.

Then you start up the station, which can take the better part of a minute to engage, but once it starts playing the sound is surprisingly good on earphones.

If it starts playing, that is. Several of the stations turned out to be duds -- often because the Internet address of the station needed to be updated. (Radiotime, the company that organized the programming, invites listeners to notify it when a station can’t be accessed.)

When it worked, it never failed to bring a smile to testers, whether listening to an all-Baroque station from Paris or Soca direct from Trinidad.

Two of nicest things about the app: You can save favorite stations for relatively quick access, and the radio pauses when you get a phone call.

Worst thing about WunderRadio: Although it functioned well in areas with Wi-Fi (we tested it on the Curve, which has Wi-Fi capability), it didn’t work at all on an Edge cell network. Perhaps folks with phones that can use 3G networks would fare better.

You can try for yourself. The BB version of WunderRadio can be downloaded and used for free for 10 days. Then if you want to continue using it, there’s a one-time fee of $9.99.

-- David Colker