181.fm Radio

181.fm Radio is a simple widget that provides quick access to a wide array of radio stations on the desktop. It is very simple to install and set up, even by users with little or no experience in software apps.

The interface of the tool is based on a small frame that you can move to any position on the screen, with the help of the mouse cursor.

With the simple click of a mouse button, you can select one of the eight preset radio stations. But you may also stop the stream and adjust the volume level with the scrollwheel button or mute it. The artist and song that are currently played are shown on top of the frame.

Two buttons are made to let users get lyrics for the current song or look it up on YouTube, but these services are no longer available, since the developer's website is not active anymore.

A few settings can be changed from the Options panel. You can change the current channel and modify the presets. There are plenty of radio stations available, based on their genre: oldies, '80s, '90s, pop, rock, country, urban, dance/techno, easy listening, Latin/tropical, or talk/radio.

You can make the radio station automatically play at startup, disable scrollwheel volume control, alter the default background color, as well as choose a search engine to use. Thanks to the options provided by Windows by default, you can also make the frame stay on top of other windows, and adjust its opacity. Unfortunately, you cannot add a custom channel to the list.

The widget is very light on the system resources, using a minimal amount of CPU and RAM, thus it's not a concern to the computer's overall performance. It has a good response time and works well, without causing the OS to hang, crash or pop up error dialogs. Thanks to its overall simplicity, 181.fm Radio should please all users who are looking for a widget that lets them listen to their favorite radio stations.