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MurrayM

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#302991 9-Jan-2023 10:31
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My mother is currently living with my brother in Christchurch and he has an Amazon Echo Dot that my mother likes being able to tell to play whatever radio station she wants to listen to. So for Christmas I gave my mother an Amazon Echo Dot (4th Gen), with the plan being that she can have it in her room at my brothers house. I went with the Amazon Echo over a Google device because I thought my brother must be familiar in setting them up and it's what my mother has got used to using (my mother is a complete technophobe and my brother, while confident with what he's learned, still gets stuck on anything out of the usual). I'm all Google at home and have no experience with Amazon products.

 

My mother likes listening to a radio station called Magic and their website says it's available via Rova. My father has loaded the Alexa app on his phone and says he has looked at the music section of the app and it lists iTunes (I'm not sure if it's really iTunes or TuneIn) and some Amazon service that "costs $7 a month" (his words, I live in Auckland and so can't really see anything for myself). He says he tried asking it to "play Magic radio" but got some station in America. The Rova website says it works on Amazon devices but the only instructions they give is: "Open your alexa app, add the rova skill, and say ‘open rova’." If I could see the Alexa app for myself then I could probably do this, but my father really needs step-by-step "click here, now click there, type that, etc" steps. Also, I'm not really sure that this will let them actually listen to Rova on the Echo or if it will just work on the phone.

 

Can anyone give me some instructions on how to get this to work that I can pass on to my father? And what command to say to the Echo so it plays the Magic radio station (I'm not even sure if the programming on the station is the same across all of NZ or different in each region).

 

Thanks guys!


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MurrayM

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  #3018905 9-Jan-2023 10:33
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Additional info: I see that Magic is available on TuneIn, see https://tunein.com/radio/Magic-s87117/ so do they really need Rova? Doesn't the Echo's have TuneIn available out of the box?




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  #3018917 9-Jan-2023 11:20
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I just checked on my Alexa app.

 

Tunein is there - you probably need to create an account for Tunein (email address/password) and link it in the app.

 

Same with Rova, and probably also need to create an account.

 

You add them by going to the skills and games section in the app. Pretty straight forward.

 

 

 

I listen to GoldFM on IHeartRadio on the Echo, but you have to be quite specific to get it.

 

I have to say, Alexa, listen to gold 105.4 on iheartradio, and I'll get the NZ station. If I just say listen to Gold, or GoldFM, I'll get a US station. goldFM do advertise this on their station.

 

 

 

I'd assume you have to be quite specific to get the right TuneIN or Rova station. Rova may be more succesful as it is an NZ service, so saying 'Alexa, listen to Magic on Rova' may get what you want.

 

 

 

You can set services as defaults (or even the only service), so you may be able to get it down to Alexa, listen to Magic.

 

 

 

If you know the login and password for your mum's amazon account, you should be able to install the Alexa app on your phone and configure it yourself (and test it by talking to your phone).


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  #3018921 9-Jan-2023 11:35
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If you have created a TuneIn account and linked to Alexa you just need to say "Alexa, play Magic on TuneIn".

The missing steps are likely enabling the TuneIn/Rova skills, login to account.




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MurrayM

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  #3018924 9-Jan-2023 11:53
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So you have to have a TuneIn account and then link it to Alexa before you can listen to anything via TuneIn?

 

I see there is a TuneIn Live service, which is a paid subscription, but we just want the free service.


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  #3018931 9-Jan-2023 12:02
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You don't need the paid service, just the free account.




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  #3019315 9-Jan-2023 21:03
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If using the Rova skill, I'd recommend setting up a routine, When the command "Play Magic Music" is given, a customized action of "Open Rova and play Magic Music"

The fact you need to remember to tell it to open Rova first can be a bit of a pain when you just simply want it to work first time.


 
 
 

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MurrayM

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  #3019413 10-Jan-2023 09:06
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Geeze I should have just got her a Google Mini, much less faffing around. I use mine to listen to radio stations and didn't have to do any fiddling to get it to work. I just tried saying "Hey Google, listen to radio nz national on tune in" and it worked fine, and I know I don't have a TuneIn account set up (why would it be different on the Alexa?). If I leave off the "on tune in" then it automatically plays it on iHeartRadio.


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  #3019416 10-Jan-2023 09:12
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You can set which app is the default for music, radio and podcast through the app, then leave the "on tunein" out.





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MurrayM

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  #3020151 11-Jan-2023 15:10
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Just as a follow-up: I had a phone call last night from my father and he says that he has now got it all working. Apparently he had to install the Rova skill (as people above suggested) but he insists that he didn't sign up to anything or create any accounts (neither TuneIn or Rova). I mentioned the bit about setting a default for the radio provider and he's going to look into that.

 

Thanks everyone for your help!


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  #3020370 12-Jan-2023 09:41
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Good stuff. The account is likely optional (unlike some skills that require it to control certain devices, like Philips Hue for example or to use some account features, like Spotify lists).





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