Update June 22, 2021: There are again problems with playing some Dutch radio stations via the Music app and with Siri. For example, if you want to play Radio 538, Radio 10, NPO Radio 1 or NPO 3FM, the BBC World Service UK stream will start. In the picture you can see the correct radio channel and Siri also understands which channel you want to play, but the stream of the English BBC is always started for a large number of channels. A small number of Dutch stations are still doing well, such as Sky Radio, Qmusic, BNR and Radio Veronica.
It is not entirely clear where this problem is. Something is probably going wrong at TuneIn, the supplier of the radio streams. However, in the TuneIn app, all Dutch radio stations play well, so the problem seems to be in delivering the correct streams to the Music app and Siri.
Usually such problems resolve themselves. In recent years, there have been several problems with this function for Dutch radio stations, as you can read later in the earlier version of this article. In the meantime, you can always use one of the many radio apps on the iPhone.
The following is the earlier version of this article from January 2020, when there were already problems
Update January 23, 2020:There is both good and bad news. The good news is that the Dutch (and Belgian) radio stations are back in the Music app. This means that you can search in the Music app for NPO Radio 1, Sky Radio, Radio 538 or one of the other national stations and play them that way. Automations made previously via, for example, the Assignments app also work when the weather is good.
The bad news is that Siri isn't always playing the right radio station yet. It will probably take a few more days before the correct radio stations are played when you ask for it. As a temporary solution, you can create a separate assignment or look up the radio station via the Music app.
Original article from January 20:
Since iOS 13 you can play radio with Siri, for example by saying “Play NPO Radio 1”. There are also other ways to play these radio stations, for example by searching for them in the Music app. If you also have an Apple Watch, you will also find these radio stations in the standard Radio app once you've played them. It now appears that the major Dutch radio stations can no longer be played.
Problem with radio stations via Siri and Music app
The problems seem to have been going on since this morning. We also experienced this ourselves when starting Radio 10 and Sky Radio, while iCulture reader Joshua noticed the same when starting the channels of the NPO. If you now ask Siri for NPO Radio 1, NPO FunX will be played. Something similar happens with Radio 538, Sky Radio and Radio 10: in all cases, the main station is not playing, but a theme variant. Strangely enough, at Sky Radio it's Sky Radio Christmas. Also in Belgiumë not all channels are played properly.
Searching for the stations in the Music app also no longer produces suitable results. Only the themed channels are still displayed and therefore no longer the main channels of the radio stations. Smaller stations such as Kink can still be heard. If you had included a radio station in an automation, for example as soon as you connect to CarPlay, an error message will now appear in the Music app.
Problems also abroad
The problems don't seem to be limited to the Netherlands to play. The same is happening in Germany at Radio Bayern 3, among others. It is still unclear exactly where the problem lies. The radio stations are played via TuneIn, but if you just go to the TuneIn app, all stations are still available. The only solution at the moment is to use one of the many radio apps for iPhone and iPad.
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