LightFM

I’ve been experimenting with swapping my iPhone for a Light Phone. It’s been the inspiration behind a few apps I’ve built in the quest to make something I’d love enough to replace my iPhone. Instead of just building a Spotify app for Light Phone, I decided to start with a radio tuner. LightFM is inspired by the kinds of FM radio you’d find from my childhood, like a Sony walkman, or a 1980s car radio.

The Light Phone’s sandbox blocks GPS. So LightFM works out roughly where you are from your IP. From there it pulls every FCC-licensed FM station within 90 km (generous for FM range). Streams join onto those call signs from radio.garden, NPR, and other sources 🤐.

The Light Phone dedicates a hardware dial to brightness, but it seemed a bit silly to not use it as a frequency dial.