Methodology

This page describes the method only. No station results are published here. Grades are published only after a station completes its seven-day private preview of its own results and Tim Hopkins explicitly releases them. Nothing is published automatically.

What the tracker will check

• Stream availability: whether the station’s published stream delivers audio, tried several times per run, a few seconds apart.
• Time to first response: the network time from connecting until the stream server sends its first bytes. This is not the time until audio is audible, and it is not app startup time.
• Audio format and quality: the codec and bitrate. Measured bitrates are normalized to the nearest standard tier when they are within ±5% of it, so small encoder variations are not treated as a different quality level. The raw measurement is kept alongside the normalized value.
• Now-playing information: whether the stream carries readable artist and title metadata.
• Secure delivery: whether the stream and the station website are served over HTTPS with a valid certificate.
• Station apps: whether a station app is listed in the app stores and how recently it was updated.

How runs are counted

• Each run tests every listed station from one server and saves timestamped evidence.
• Only runs made against the station’s current published stream address are counted. When a station’s stream address changes, earlier runs against the old address are set aside.
• Stream addresses come from the station’s own website or player wherever possible. Stations can send us their official address.

Limits

• All checks are automated and run from a single server location.
• Nobody has tested any station on real devices yet. Smart speakers (Alexa, Siri, Google Assistant), Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, pre-roll and lock-screen behavior are not covered until hands-on device tests are done using a published script.
• No uptime claim is made or implied. A small number of runs cannot show how reliable a stream is over days or weeks.
• Links in the directory are shown only after a read-only check that the page loads (HTTP 200, or a redirect that stays on the station’s own domain) and is clearly the station’s official page. Links that could not be confirmed are left out until they can be.

Link check details

Website and listen-live links were checked on 2026-10-19 (Pacific Time) with HTTPS requests that verify the site certificate, following redirects, with a short timeout and at most one retry. Raw stream addresses are not shown.

Contact and corrections

Questions or corrections: tim@hopkinsmediaconsulting.com.