Twenty years ago, anyone who wanted to listen to the Louisville Police radio feed would have required a ‘police scanner‘ device. It’s significantly easier now, and there’s a variety of sites to listen to the Louisville Police scanner feed online. The majority of these feed streaming sources are free though some offer optional premium services.
The process of accessing the live Louisville Police scanner feed online varies from site to site. The best way to explain everything is to do so during our rundown of websites:
BROADCASTIFY:
Broadcastify bills itself as the ‘world’s largest’ source for streaming public safety feeds. The site also offers rail, aviation and marine radio audio feeds but clearly the largest area of focus is public safety, and particularly police and fire radio feeds. The feed coverage is incredible–according to the site Broadcastify streams over 4,500 different radio feeds. There are a number of feeds from Louisville and Jefferson County including police, fire and amateur radio.
You can access the streaming content in several ways. Broadcastify offers a police scanner app for an impressive range of platforms including Apple, Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile and even tablets running Windows 8. For online listening, there is a web-based interface or you can listen using a number of third-party audio players including Windows Media and WinAmp. To access the Louisville Police scanner feed just click the ‘Listen’ button at the top of the page and enter ‘Louisville’ in the search box.
Broadcastify also offers a premium upgrade that includes 180 days of feed archives, a personal page where you can ‘bookmark’ your favorite feeds, unlimited and uninterrupted access, as well as other perks. These features are interesting but at the time of our visit it was impossible to find a ‘sign up’ interface. This lack of clarity may have been due to maintenance, but it’s not good for any e-commerce site. They indicate a partnership with another police stream site, Radio Reference but give very little additional information. That small gripe notwithstanding, Broadcastify is a made to order site for any police scanner listening application.
LMPD LIVE SCANNERS:
In the past there have been live streams of Louisville Police scanners at LMPD.com. These scanners are no longer operational. According to a message on the site, there was an incompatibility with the streaming equipment after an upgrade to the radio system. The estimated cost to make the streaming work again is $1000. The message continues, indicating that the LMPD is soliciting public and private sponsorship to get the scanner streams back online. That being said, the page was last updated in September 2011 so it’s a good guess that the streams won’t be back anytime soon. There is some useful information here in the form of division maps and a list of Louisville Police 10 codes.
TUNEIN RADIO:
Although TuneIn Radio is primarily a platform for music and commercial radio feeds they also offer access to public safety scanners including the Louisville Metro Police Department. According to the site index there are over 1,000 police, fire and other agency feeds available via TuneIn Radio. In addition to the web-based platform, TuneIn Radio offers a basic and premium application for Apple and Android phones and tablets as well as Blackberry and Windows devices. Both versions offer similar functionality though the premium app streams audio without ads. Another premium feature might be of more interest to police feed listeners is the ability to record streaming content. TuneIn Radio is an excellent service for a variety of audio content and is highly recommended.
The Louisville Metro Police Department stream is available through a direct link at http://tunein.com/radio/Louisville-Metro-Police-s207789/. You can sign up for a free account and bookmark feeds for easy access.
RADIO REFERENCE:
RadioReference is about as comprehensive a site for public safety scanners–and much more–as you’ll find online. As noted in the review for Broadcastify, there’s clearly a business relationship between it and RadioReference. All stream links resolve to Broadcastify pages. It’s hard to tell whether this is a full blown merger or not. Details of the relationship are scarce on both sites though our best guess is that streaming audio serving will be from the Broadcastify site with business operations the responsibility of RadioReference.
Between the two sites, there is not only an abundance of live stream links but a wealth of very in-depth technical information. At the direct link for Jefferson County, Kentucky (http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?ctid=1044) you can access all manner of technical information including licensing, frequencies and even the equipment that various agencies have in use. There’s also a frequency database, a discussion forum, a reference source on radio related topics and a classified board to buy and sell equipment.
We’re left to assume that the RadioReference premium access will include the Broadcastify premium access. This access costs $15 a quarter with a wide range of payment options available including checks, credit cards, and Bitcoin. There’s plenty of content available for free, and the site stresses that the amount of free content is not going to change. Our only issue with RadioReference is the same as the one we had for Broadcastify–a lack of clarity about the relationship between the two sites.
