ZapperRadioZaps away from ads and talk
It hears when a station goes from music to an ad break or a presenter, jumps to a favorite that is playing a song, and returns when the music comes back.
The trick: never disconnect
An ad plays when a stream starts. So ZapperRadio makes sure your streams have already started.
Pick up to 20 favorites
Star the stations you like and drag them into the order you want.
They all play, muted
Every favorite stays connected in the background. The pre-roll ad already played, on a stream you weren't listening to.
Click to unmute
You're instantly live in the broadcast. No connecting, no buffering, no ad.
The catch: each favorite is a continuous stream of roughly 64 to 320 kbit/s. Twenty of them usually add up to about 2 to 4 Mbit/s, which is nothing on most home connections.
Small player, smart ears
Because every favorite is already decoded, ZapperRadio can do things a normal radio player can't.
Same loudness everywhere
No more blasted ears when you zap to a loud station. Every favorite is measured the broadcast way (EBU R128) and levelled to about −14 LUFS.
See what's playing on all of them
Each favorite shows its current song, with an indicator for music, speech, an ad break or a broken stream.
Never lose a song again
Heart a track to keep it. The play history lists everything your favorites played in the last 12 hours, and one click finds it on Spotify or YouTube.
52,000 stations, forgiving search
Search by name, genre or country. Typos are fine: radoi 538 still finds Radio 538, and popular stations of your country come first.
A compact window
One click shrinks the player to just your favorites, sized to fit. Keep it in a corner and zap with a click.
Zap without leaving your work
ZapperRadio plugs into Windows, so it is there when you aren't looking at it.
- Media keys on your keyboard, headset or Bluetooth speaker: next and previous walk your favorites
- Station, song and logo on the lock screen and in the volume flyout
- Right-click the taskbar button to switch favorite, each with its current song
- Starts with Windows, so your favorites are already streaming when you sit down
Shortcuts that work from any app
Stop or playCtrlAltP
Mute or unmuteCtrlAltM
Next favoriteCtrlAlt→
Previous favoriteCtrlAlt←
Get ZapperRadio
Free, open source and ready in a minute. .NET and everything else it needs is included.
Windows 10 (2004) or later · v1.17.0The installer is not digitally signed yet, so Windows SmartScreen may warn you. Choose More info, then Run anyway. All versions are on the releases page.
Questions
Does it really block ads?
It avoids the ad you get when connecting to a stream, because your favorites are already connected. Ads in the middle of the broadcast are still there, but ZapperRadio recognizes them and can zap to another favorite that plays music until the break is over.
How much bandwidth does it use?
Each favorite is a continuous stream of roughly 64 to 320 kbit/s. Twenty favorites usually add up to about 2 to 4 Mbit/s, at most a little over 6. Stations you only browse are played on demand and stopped when you switch.
How does it know what is music and what is speech?
The audio of each stream is analyzed on your own PC with YAMNet, Google's open-source sound classifier. It uses the audio that is streamed anyway, so it needs no extra bandwidth, and about 20 ms of processing per station every 5 seconds.
Where do the stations come from?
The station list has about 52,000 stations and is stored locally, so it also works offline. Popularity data comes from radio-browser.info.
Why does Windows warn me about the installer?
The installer is not digitally signed, which makes SmartScreen cautious about any new app. Choose More info and then Run anyway. The complete source code is on GitHub if you want to check what you are installing.
Is it free?
Yes. ZapperRadio is open source under the MIT license.