Google home can't play my local radio station

[Koksy]

All of a sudden, our local radio station, the Hitmix, won't play on any of our Google home devices for the last few days. I'm saying "play the hitmix on tunein radio" (or any other variation you can think of) and she responds "I've looked for the hitmix on tunein radio and it either isn't available or can't be played right now". Other radio stations are working fine, and the Hitmix plays fine on the tunein app on my phone though. I've contacted the radio stations and they've said nothing has changed so it must be a Google issue. Can anyone help? We can't get their FM signal where we live due to hills.

[Koksy]

I've also just discovered that if I ask Google on my phone to play the hitmix on tune in radio, she also says she can't play it or it can't be found. Yet if I open the app manually it works.

[Sharon65]

Same here a few days ago it stopped connecting on my speaker but all other stations working fine ??

[cedodd]

Same problem here but it's happening with several radio stations and especially when I try to play the station on a speaker group. I tried deleting, then re-creating the speaker group but that didn't work. I've confirmed that all my speakers (all 1st gen Google Home Minis) are on the same wi-fi network. I've also tried suggestions posted when this was happening to users about a year ago. So far, nothing's worked.  Google, give us some help here!! 

[Koksy]

Hey Google, anybody there? Mine won't play on single speakers as well as speaker groups. I've had the same problem before about a year ago too.

[cedodd]

So far, the only way I can get individual speakers to play my favorite radio stations is to say "Find [radio station call letters].  But that doesn't work if I want to play a speaker group.  Using the word "Find" might work for others on this thread. 

BTW, my station is on the Audacy app so I've asked for their support.  So far, "Listerner Support" has been very responsive but hasn't solved the problem.  So, it's been elevated to their "technical team".  However, I suspect that it's really a Google problem, not an app problem - especially because it's happening with several apps, not just one.

[Juni]

Hi folks,

Thanks for reaching out. I know how it feels when something isn’t working as it should. A few questions: what Nest speaker or display are we working with? When did it begin? What command are you using to play your radio station? Are you getting the same response when you use your phone’s Google Assistant? Check out the helpful link below other commands that you can use to play your radio station.
 

Listen to the radio on your Google Nest speaker or display

Regards,

Juni

[Koksy]

2x nest mini first generation, 2x nest mini 2nd generation, 1x nest hub first generation. 2x Philips android TVs with Google assistant built in. The response is the same on all of them when talking to them.

It started last week some time, not sure exactly when as I was away for a few days.

As above, I'm saying "hey Google, play the hitmix on tune in radio" or "hey Google, open tune in radio and play the hitmix", or any other way you can think of to say it. It's the same when using any of the speakers alone or trying to play a group. It's also the same when giving the same voice commands to my Huawei p30 pro.

The response is always the same "I've looked for the hitmix on tune in radio and it either isn't available or it can't be played right now".

The radio station plays fine on tune in radio when I open the app manually on my phone or android TV. 

[Muddi]

Hey everyone,

Sorry for the delays. To confirm, are you able to play other radio stations from TuneIn? What country are you located in?

Looking forward to your response.

Cheers,

Muddi

[cedodd]

I'm not having problems w/Tune-in unless I try to play a Tune-in station on a speaker group - then I get the message that the station is unavailable and/can't be found.  My biggest problem is playing a radio station on the Audacy app - both on individual speakers and on speaker groups.  The only way I can play the station is if I ask it to "Find" the station and that only works with individual speakers, not w/speaker groups.  I've also had problems getting podcasts to play on speaker groups.

[Koksy]

Hi Muddi, 

It's just this one station "The Hitmix" that won't play. Other stations are playing fine. The Hitmix was playing fine until about 10 days ago. It's our local radio station so we would really like it to work. It plays fine if I open the Tune In app, it just won't play on tune in when I speak to Google and ask her to play it.

[Koksy]

And I'm in th UK Muddi.

[Muddi]

Hi there,

Thanks for the information. To confirm, does the same issue happen when you use the Google Assistant app on your phone? Since the issue is isolated to a specific station, have you tried calling the radio station or TuneIn to check if they're getting similar reports?

Cheers,

Muddi

[Koksy]

It plays fine when I use the Google assistant on my phone. It doesn't work when I use Google assistant on my Google home devices or android TV. It plays fine when I open the Tune in app. Google home cannot play the hitmix after it's been working fine for several years. It's a UK based radio station and I am in the UK. As I said above, I've contacted the radio station and they said nothing has changed at their end with the radio stream. Not sure how I would call tune in from the UK... But the issue is with playing it on Google home devices so that makes me think the issue is with Google home devices and not tune in.

[Muddi]

Hello folks,

Thank you for providing this information. I will share it with the team and keep you updated on this thread.

Cheers,

Muddi

[cedodd]

As I've said, I'm having the same problem but primaritly with a radio station that's on the Audacy app.  But it's also happening w/another station that's on TuneIn.  The only way I can get any of them to play is to say the word "Find" before the name or call letters of the station.  And even this solution doesn't allow to play stations in groups.  I have contacted Audacy to help with the problem - so far, their suggestion didn't work so they elevated it to a higher level of Tech Support.

[cedodd]

4 Google Home Mini speakers, 1st generation. So far they only work individually to play radio stations if I say "hey Google, find [radio stations call letters]. They won't play the station in groups no matter what I say. I didn't used to start w/the word "find", but now nothing else works. I can play the station on my phone (Galaxy S20+) if I open the Audacy app.  This started approximately 4 days ago.