(Solved) Alexa Not Playing The Radio Station? 8 Reasons

Are you worried about Alexa not playing the radio station?

Hurrah, I’ve got the solution.

Alexa is a smart assistant used to play music, audiobook playlists, and podcasts.

Alexa also helps you to find weather updates or play recipes.

One of the most common uses of Alexa is playing radio stations anywhere in the world.

You can easily choose your desired radio station to play.

You cannot only play historic broadcasts but also live radio stations.

Sometimes, your Alexa stops playing radio stations.

If you come to this article you must be questioning: Why is my Alexa not playing radio stations?

There are some reasons behind this issue. Following are the reasons why your Alexa stops working:

1. Your desired Radio station is not available in your selected area
2. Your Alexa needs to reset
3. Wifi connection problem
4. You need to update your Alexa device
5. Your Alexa Cache needs to be clear
6. Installation of required Alexa skills
7. You have not entered the right command
8. Alexa does not understand your words

In this article, I will explain why your Alexa is not working and help you find the solution.

Now let’s dig straight into the article.

8 Reasons Alexa not playing the radio station?

1. Your desired Radio station is not available in your selected area

Reason: No doubt Radio stations can be played from all over the world at any place while some radio stations can only be played in specific areas.

You can get access to those radio stations only if you’re connected to the broadcast of the country where these radio stations are located.

BBC radio is the best example to understand.

This radio is available only on Alexa and you cannot listen to this radio in any area outside the UK.

Solution: You need to choose the Radio station that is available in your area.

And make sure the Radio station you are choosing to play should be connected to the broadcast of your area or country.

2. Your Alexa needs to reset

Reason: Sometimes your Alexa device doesn’t have any serious issues to resolve.

Then it just needs to restart, and it will start working again.

Solution: Restart your Alexa device by shutting it down.

Once you shut your device down wait for a few minutes and then turned it on.

If you see your device working again that’s good but if you see your Alexa device is not working again you can try other solutions.

Once you reset the Alexa you can keep playing the radio station all night.

Unplugging your device might work well if shutting down didn’t work well.

So, you can follow the same procedure you used while Shutting your Alexa device down.

• Unplug the Alexa device.
• Wait for a few minutes.
• Then plug it back.

3. Wifi-connection problem

Reason: Normal FM/AM radios do not require any wifi-connection but Alexa needs a quality wifi-connection to perform well.

If your router or wifi has some network problems it will affect your Alexa not playing the radio station.

Solution: For this reason, you need to unplug your router and wait for some time.

Wait for approximately 5-7 minutes and then plug your router again.

Once your router starts working again connect your Alexa device to the router and your Alexa radio station will start working again.

You may try the following Tips

• Take your Alexa device near the router.
• Try to connect your Alexa device to a 5GHZ channel instead of a 2.4GHZ.
• Do not allow microwaves, baby monitors, or other devices to congest your router.
• Minimize the obstruction in the way of your router by turning off other extra devices that are connected to the router.
• Switching off devices like tablets, smartphones, PC, or laptops the l of the router can be decreased.

4. Your Alexa device needs to update

Reason: The performance of your Alexa device can be increased by updating it from time to time.

Like any other software and device, Amazon also adds fixed bugs and security improvements with updated features.

If you do not update your Alexa device regularly it may be a reason Alexa not playing the radio station.

Solution: You can update your Alexa device by following the given steps:

• Open the Alexa app on your device
• Go to the menu and select “Devices”
• Choose Alexa device after selecting “Echo and Alexa”
• Now you need to select “status”
• Scroll the menu down and select “About”
• Here you will find the new version of the software. Now decide which is most suitable for your Alexa device.

• Now update Your device.

5. Your Alexa device Cache needs to be clear

Reason: Sometimes your app cache has to be removed.

This may load the Alexa device and stop it to work properly.

Therefore cleaning the Cache might help your Alexa radio station to work again.

Solution: Follow the steps below to clear the Alexa app Cache (on a smartphone)

• Go to the “settings” on your mobile and select “App”
• Now select the “Alexa App”
• Find “Storage” and click on it and then select “clear data”

6. Installation of required skills

Reason: If you want your Alexa to work more than to help you enlist lists and set alarms.

You have to install some skills on your Alexa devices.

Now Alexa store has many Alexa skills that make the Alexa device more convenient.

Enabling the right radio skill is essential when you start listening radio on an Alexa device.

Solution: Following are the steps below to get appropriate radio skills and fix the issue of Alexa not playing the radio station:

1. Open the “Alexa app”
2. Go to the home screen and select  “More”
3. Go to “Categories” and select “Skills and games”
4. Now select “Music and Audio” and find the option “Radio”
5. Finally, the following options will appear.

• Simple Radio
• BBC sounds
• My radio
• Radio Anchor
• Radio Paradise
• Radio fun time
• My tune Radio

7. Right command if Alexa not playing the radio station

Reason: Often it happens that you cannot give the right command.

As Alexa is so smart that when you say something the app does not break the command. 

Solution: When you want to play anything give the command to Alexa like this “Alexa”, play [Radio station name].

Here make sure to call an accurate sequence of letters.

For instance, Do not say “WOVC” in place of “WVOC” It may interrupt the command and confuse Alexa.

8. Alexa does not Understand your words

Reason: Sometimes you give the correct command and you know it well.

Still, you see Alexa does not play the radio station.

In this case, the device mistakenly does not understand what you said.

Solution: Alexa also repeats the command that you give to it and you can know what you actually commanded.

In some cases, you really give the wrong command to Alexa so it does not start working.

How to keep Alexa playing radio station all night?

Most people use their Alexa devices during the day to play music, set alarms, listen to the news, and much more.

But what about at night? If you’re someone who likes to fall asleep listening to the radio, you might be wondering how you can keep Alexa playing radio station all night.

You can do just that by following this quick guide.

1. Decide how long you want to sleep and set a sleep timer.
2. You can tell Alexa to play “[radio station].”
3. As soon as the radio station starts playing, wait for it to end.
4. Make sure your sleep timer is set for two hours by asking Alexa.

Make sure you just set a sleep timer for your desired duration and enjoy your favorite tunes until you drift off to sleep.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Conclusion

Alexa not playing the radio station is a very common issue that usually keeps happening.

But after following this guide I’m pretty sure you’ll be able to connect Alexa with the radio station.

The main reason that causes this issue is the weak internet connection and the outdated Alexa server.

So make sure you keep everything up to the mark to keep things aligned.

In a nutshell, if Alexa is not playing the radio station, contact Amazon support for help.

They will help you any time. Moreover, you can also ask a question in the Alexa community.

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