Apps for listening to the radio without the radio

These smartphone apps do radio - in one way or another - and blur the lines among traditional broadcasting, on-demand service, and customized personal "stations" that play stuff that's like what you like.

Stitcher Radio by Stitcher Inc., a free app for Apple, BlackBerry, and your desktop PC, plays live and on-demand talk radio and podcast segments. The name implies you get to "stitch" together your favorite programming for listening anytime.

Listen to multiple segments of a program, such as This American Life from Chicago Public Radio or Old Time Radio dramas.

It's mostly free, though a list of paid subscriptions to conservative and other talkers' podcasts - Rush Limbaugh and Don Imus, for example - is easily available.

TuneIn Radio Pro, at 99 cents for multiple platforms by Synsion Radio Technologies, is a tuner for AM and FM broadcast radio from around the world, including the newer digital HD broadcasts. It claims access to 50,000 stations in any language - be it Macedonian, Malay, Malayalam, Maltese, or Mongolian - from virtually anyplace in the world.

Tapping "options" while a station is playing will give a menu that includes a list of other stations "you may also like" and a timer to set for recording the station, or to alert you when your show is coming on.

Pandora Radio, free for multiple devices by Pandora Media Inc., is the gold standard in custom music radio. Start by selecting a genre of music, or by typing in the name of an artist, song, or composer. The app starts playing. You fine-tune your personal "station" by giving musical selections a thumb up or down. Buy the song if you really love it.

Slacker Radio by Slacker Inc., free for multiple platforms, is like Pandora but claims "four times the music of the leading competitor." It offers several options for fine-tuning of music selections, recording for off-line play, and - when your tastes change - the opportunity to edit your earlier ratings.

HiDef Radio by Smartest Apple is free and boasts that it plays Howard Stern's satellite radio show on Apple devices without a subscription. Promotional material says the app pulls in 30,000 stations, but in the app they're called "feeds." You can add any streamed station through the search screen.

HiDef is a relative term, as the display shows that some stations are streaming at very low bit rates.

For sleepless newsies, a companion app, 5-0 Radio, plays police scanners. A paid version, HiDef Radio Pro, for $1.99, lets you record feeds and send them via e-mail.