Table of Contents

Why SomaFM?
Will you add other radio networks?
Will you add Spotify / YouTube / Apple Music / Tidal playback?
Does the extension play YouTube / Spotify audio inside itself?
Why does the audio keep playing after I close the popup?
Why does the New Tab Page show the player?
Can I export my history?
How big can the history grow?
Does it work offline?
Does it work on Firefox / Edge / Safari?
How do I uninstall and wipe everything?
Is this related to RangerHQ Radio (the WordPress plugin)?
Where do I file a bug or feature request?
Who made this?

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FAQ

Why SomaFM?

SomaFM is a listener-supported independent radio network with ~30 always-on channels across electronic, ambient, indie, jazz, lounge, classic film noir soundtracks, and more. Their content is publicly streamable, their API (channels.json, per-station .pls files, per-station songs/{id}.json) is public and well-documented, and their community guidelines explicitly welcome third-party tools that play their streams. They are the cleanest fit for a "first network" adapter on a brand-new MV3 extension.

Will you add other radio networks?

Yes — that's the whole point of the source-adapter pattern in src/sources/. Likely candidates: Internet-Radio.com, Radio Garden, Shoutcast / Icecast directories. See Adding a Radio Source for the implementation walkthrough; PRs welcome.

Will you add Spotify / YouTube / Apple Music / Tidal playback?

No, and that's a deliberate scope choice. Embedding paid streaming services would require OAuth flows, premium-account gating, broad host permissions, third-party SDKs, and a fundamentally different privacy story — none of which fits a lightweight free indie-radio extension.

Instead, RangerHQ Tuner gives you four search-link buttons next to every history entry. Click "Spotify" → opens Spotify's public search results page in a new tab. Click "YouTube" → opens YouTube search. Same for Apple Music and Bandcamp. The destination service plays the track; the extension just helps you find it. No auth, no API keys, no SDK.

Does the extension play YouTube / Spotify audio inside itself?

No. The four service buttons are plain HTML <a href> links that open a new browser tab pointed at the service's public search URL. RangerHQ Tuner only plays SomaFM audio (and any future radio adapters added the same way).

Because the audio is hosted in a Chrome offscreen document, not in the popup itself. The popup is just a view onto the playback state — closing the popup destroys the view but the offscreen document (and the <audio> element it contains) keeps running. The same applies to the New Tab Page.

Why does the New Tab Page show the player?

The extension declares chrome_url_overrides.newtab in its manifest, which is the standard Chrome way to replace the default new tab page. You opted in by installing the extension — Chrome will show you the override consent the first time. If you ever want Chrome's default new tab back, disable or remove the extension.

Can I export my history?

Not yet. The data lives in chrome.storage.local under the tuner.history key — you can pull it out by opening the DevTools console on the New Tab Page and running:

chrome.storage.local.get('tuner.history').then(o => console.log(JSON.stringify(o['tuner.history'], null, 2)));

A proper Export button is on the future roadmap.

How big can the history grow?

Configurable on the Options page: 50–500 entries. Default is 500. At ~200 bytes per entry that's ~100 KB — well inside Chrome's chrome.storage.local quota (~10 MB).

Does it work offline?

Audio playback requires a network connection to SomaFM. The popup will still open, and your history and favourites are still readable, but nothing will play.

Does it work on Firefox / Edge / Safari?

Right now: Chrome only. Edge should work as-is (it uses the same Manifest V3 / Chromium engine). Firefox would need a web-ext adaptation — on the future roadmap. Safari extensions are a separate beast and not planned.

How do I uninstall and wipe everything?

chrome://extensions → RangerHQ Tuner → Remove. That removes the extension and wipes its local storage. Nothing else needs cleaning up — no servers held your data, no accounts to delete.

Yes — they're family. RangerHQ Radio is the WordPress-admin sibling (lives in your WP admin sidebar, plays SomaFM there). RangerHQ Tuner is the browser-resident sibling for when you're outside WP. Same brand, same SomaFM source, same 4-button-search affordance — different surface. See Family.

Where do I file a bug or feature request?

Open an issue at https://git.davidtkeane.com/ranger/rangerhq-tuner/issues or email david@davidtkeane.com.

Who made this?

David Keane, Dublin, Ireland. david@davidtkeane.com · https://davidtkeane.com

FAQ