Echo & Alexa Forums

General Category => Alexa Across the Pond (Europe) => Topic started by: Redmoonrider on February 18, 2018, 07:28:49 pm

Title: How to play BBC radio
Post by: Redmoonrider on February 18, 2018, 07:28:49 pm
Hi, brand new at this but managed to set it up and get it working apart from bbc radio eg radio 2, radio 4.  If I say play radio 2 it says it doesn’t have an answer or something!

How would I go about obtaining the bbc radio stations - any advice welcome, I’m in the U.K.

Also I notice it plays other radio stations via tune in although I haven’t got that app on my phone - that puzzled me too.

Hope someone can help.
Title: Re: How to play BBC radio
Post by: dragon123 on February 19, 2018, 02:33:06 am
First off, tunein is a standard alexa option, check your settings under music. No app or skill needed. If you click the link provided there it takes you to the tunein website.

If you search that tunein website it does have a lot of bbc radio stations:
https://tunein.com/search/?query=bbc

And there are also a lot of radio 2 stations:
https://tunein.com/search/?query=radio%202

So you really need to be more specific than "play radio 2"!


"Alexa, play BBC Radio 2 from tunein" works for me. Or just "Alexa, play BBC radio 4".
Title: Re: How to play BBC radio
Post by: mindmagic on February 19, 2018, 04:45:28 am
There's a new BBC skill which, although not perfect, works better than TuneIn or Radioplayer (for all UK stations, but you have to enable it). Say "ask BBC to play Radio X". This should enable the BBC skill (if not, do it through the app) and next time you can just ask "play Radio X". This only seems to work for national stations, though; you'll still need to say "ask BBC to play Radio X" for local stations.
Title: Re: How to play BBC radio
Post by: strayfish on February 19, 2018, 09:07:51 am
I didn't have to enable it, suddenly there was the BBC playing BBC stations without Tunein. For now, I don't even have to say 'play', just Radio 6 (or 4 or 5 - you get the gist!) but that might change because it has in the past.