WebRadio

A terminal-based internet radio player built with FFmpeg and ncurses. Stream live audio from internet radio stations with metadata display, FFT spectrum visualization, and optional MusicBrainz integration. 100% AI-Slop

Features

• Stream internet radio stations using FFmpeg libraries
• Terminal UI with ncurses (color support)
• Real-time FFT spectrum analyzer visualization
• ICY metadata support (StreamTitle, artist/title)
• Optional MusicBrainz integration for enhanced track metadata
• Volume control with visual bar
• Song history tracking
• Keyboard-driven navigation

Dependencies

Required

• CMake 3.24+
• FFmpeg development libraries:
  • libavformat
  • libavcodec
  • libavutil
  • libswresample
• ncursesw

Building

Basic Build

# Release build (optimized, no debug output)
cmake -B build -S . -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX="$HOME/.local"
cmake --build build/release
# Or to install in {PREFIX}/bin
cmake --build build/release --target install

# Debug build (with status output)
cmake -B build -S . -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug
cmake --build build/debug

SIMD Build Flags (SSE2)

On x86/x86_64 CPUs, CMake enables SSE2 automatically for you:

• Compiler flag: -msse2
• Preprocessor define: WEBRADIO_USE_SSE2=1

No extra manual flag is required in the build command.

Clean Rebuild

rm -rf build && cmake -B build -S . -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release && cmake --build build

Usage

Station File Format

Create a stations.json file:

{
  "Jazz FM": "https://stream.example.com/jazz",
  "Classical": "https://stream.example.com/classical",
  "Rock Radio": "https://stream.example.com/rock"
}

Running

# Run with interactive station selection
cd build && echo "1" | ./webradio

# Run with specific station file
cd build && ./webradio ../stations.json

Station File Search Priority

When no station file argument is provided, WebRadio searches for stations.json in this order:

1. Current working directory (./stations.json)
2. Same directory as the webradio executable
3. User config directory:
   • $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/webradio/stations.json (if XDG_CONFIG_HOME is set)
   • otherwise ~/.config/webradio/stations.json

If a station file path is passed as an argument, that path is used directly:

./webradio /path/to/stations.json

Controls

Key	Action
Up/Down	Navigate stations
Enter	Play selected station
Space	Stop playback
+/- or [/]	Volume up/down
q	Quit

License

MIT License