Dial up a station that’s on your frequency

If you’ve ever been stuck with preset radio stations in a rental car or you’re on the road and searching -- desperately -- for a channel you like, Radio-Locator.com may be music to your ears.

What’s hot: Radio-Locator not only tells you where you can find adult contemporary, Top 40, hip-hop, smooth jazz, news/talk, Spanish, alternative and other radio formats in U.S. cities and Canadian provinces, but it also indicates signal strength. If your MP3 player or satellite radio requires an unused frequency on the FM dial, Radio-Locator can help you find what you need. Just click “Vacant Frequencies” from the link list on the home page. I also liked the coverage maps. Type in the call letters of a radio station, hit “Go” and scan down to the “Technical Info” section and click “View Coverage Map” to find where your station’s signal will be the strongest. There is also a “Radio-Locator Travel Guide” with 10 major cities pre-loaded and available for hand-held devices. You can add or delete cities from there.

What’s not: It lists only stations, not shows, so if you’re looking for, say, “A Prairie Home Companion” in the city you’re visiting, you’re out of luck. Radio-Locator is for broadcast AM and FM stations only; radio networks and shortwave radio stations are not listed.

-- Jen Leo