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I’m always on the lookout for alternative methods to accomplish tasks, and I particularly enjoy challenges. Listening to radio is something I’ve enjoyed all my life, and even though I have many terabytes of music and subscribe to many different podcasts, I still enjoy radio to discover new music. Internet radio is nice and all, but I wanted a way to listen to radio on my Mac even when there is no internet available.

Unable to find anything that could do what I want, I asked the hive mind. Steve (Mac84) got back to me with a link that looked very promising. This could work! But would I be able to find some software for this that runs on macOS Sonoma? It didn’t take long before I stumbled upon a 3rd-party build of the Griffin software that made it a 64-bit app; macintoshgarden to the rescue once again!

A USB receiver, software that works on my Mac, now I needed the actual hardware. There are many available on eBay but I wanted the latest version, which is black in color. From what I could find there is zero difference between the v1 (white) and the v2 (black) but remember, I enjoy a challenge. The v2 is hard to find but after a few days of checking eBay, I finally got lucky and pleasantly surprised to find one with the separate (optional) antenna cable included.

Setup could not be simpler; launch the app and connect the Radio SHARK. The app recognizes which version you have connected and starts playing the first station it can find (or static). Find your stations, save the presets and you’re up and running within minutes.

Now this used to be a LOT fancier back in the day. The official app from Griffin had a built-in equalizer, recording capabilities, seek and much more. This 3rd party app, while I am extremely appreciative of whomever built it, is bare bones and has nothing but basic functionality. Not even RDS to show which song is playing!  I ran the Radio SHARK on my Pismo under Mac OS X 10.4 and it was a much different experience. But beggars can’t be choosers, I wanted FM radio on my Mac running macOS Sonoma without the need for an internet connection, and this app/hardware combo made it happen.

The Radio SHARK LED’s are always on and do not pulse or change colors like they did when connected to the official app. There is a CLI app available that lets you manually change the LED brightness or color (blue or red) but it does not support pulsing. I disabled them as I have enough random lights going on in this office and set it in the window. A cat will surely knock it down before the week is over but the metal foot adds a decent amount of weight so it might survive up there.

If I really want to record radio on the fly, I can open Quicktime Player, start a new audio recording and select the Radio SHARK as the sound source. I doubt I’ll ever use this but if needed, it can be done. The Radio SHARK has a headphone jack that can be used as such, but you can also connect an antenna there. Having the original antenna is nice (black cable) but if an extra antenna is needed, a pair of regular headphones will act as one too. I found the use of an antenna added no better reception for the stations I want to listen to.

I get a real kick out of this. A 2004 USB radio receiver (technically the v2 came out in 2007 but it’s the same hardware), a 3rd party update of the software, running on a 2012 Mac with an OS from 2023 that was last updated in 2025. Over two decades of hardware and software working together, how cool is that!

Nothing earth-shattering and I doubt it’s of much interest to anyone out there, but it gave me an excuse to write something again

Until next time!