Quill Radio: the next generation of the ACB Radio Tuner

Your first five minutes

Here is how to get from download to music. Each step tells you what to press.

1. Download the installer and open it from your Downloads folder. Press Enter on each page to accept the choices it offers, then choose Install.
2. On the last page, press Space on the Launch Quill Radio checkbox, then choose Finish. Next time, press the Windows key, type Quill Radio, and press Enter.
3. The first time, a short welcome of three screens opens. Press Alt+N to move through it, or Escape to skip it. It will not come back.
4. Press Ctrl+B to open Browse Stations. Arrow down to a branch, such as ACB Media or Popular Stations, and press Right Arrow to open it.
5. Arrow to a station and press Enter. You will hear "Playing" and then the station. Press Enter again to stop it.
6. Like what you hear? Press Ctrl+Shift+F to save it to your favorites. Next time, it is waiting in the list when the app opens. Just arrow to it and press Enter.

A few keys that help right away: Ctrl+Up and Ctrl+Down change the volume. Ctrl+T tells you what is playing. Escape closes the window you are in. If you forget a key, press Ctrl+Shift+P and type what you want, such as "record". F1 explains whatever window you are in.

Want more help? Help > Tutorials (Ctrl+Alt+F1) has 41 short lessons that walk you through the app one step at a time. The user guide has a "Your first half hour" chapter too.

What's new in 3.0

• Two downloads. An installer, and a portable ZIP that leaves nothing behind on the computer. Help > Check for Updates (Ctrl+Alt+U) offers you the kind you already have, and lets you read what changed first.
• One place to browse. Browse Stations (Ctrl+B) puts everything in one tree. You can look by country, language or genre, or try the reading services, podcasts, audiobook libraries, and even TV. If there is a branch you never use, Station > Choose Browse Sources hides it.
• Works without the internet, for finding things. More than 62,000 stations come with the app. Browsing and searching answer right away, even when you are offline.
• Search the way you talk. Search Stations (Ctrl+F) understands names, frequencies, call signs and places. Typing "Sunny 105.7 Gulf Shores Alabama" finds that station.
• Missed something? Rewind live radio. Ctrl+Shift+Left goes back 30 seconds. Ctrl+Shift+L takes you back to live. For podcasts, recordings and files, Ctrl+Space pauses.
• Find your place in long listening. Podcasts and audiobooks have chapters. Go to Position (Ctrl+Alt+J) jumps to a time, and Where Am I (Ctrl+Shift+W) tells you where you are. You can also speed up, slow down, and skip silence.
• Described audio. When a video has a described audio track, Play Described Audio (Ctrl+Alt+D) switches to it.
• Easy to get around. Ctrl+Tab moves between Quill Radio's windows. Go To (Ctrl+G) lists every place in the app. If you delete something by mistake, Ctrl+Z brings it back.
• Your top ten favorites on one key. Alt+1 through Alt+0 play your first ten favorites without opening anything.

Read the full 3.0 release notes.

What else Quill Radio can do

Find almost any station

All ten ACB Media streams are there from the start, including Mainstream, The Trove, Cafe and Community. Browse Stations (Ctrl+B) opens the rest of the world: stations by country, language and genre, plus podcasts and audiobooks. If you know a station's web page but not its stream, Find Streams from a Website looks for it. You can also paste a stream address yourself.

Keep your favorites tidy

Put your favorites in folders, such as News, with Morning inside it. New Folder (Ctrl+Shift+E) makes one wherever you are. You can rename a station to whatever you call it. If you delete a folder, its stations move back to the top of the list, so you never lose one. Each favorite also remembers its own volume, so a loud station stays turned down.

Record a show

Press Ctrl+R to record what is playing, and Ctrl+R again to stop. You can also record one station while you listen to another. If your internet drops, Quill Radio reconnects and keeps going. You can schedule a recording once, every day, or every week. Ctrl+Shift+R opens the Recordings window, where you can play, find or delete what you have recorded.

Use it like a kitchen radio

Turn on Station > Resume Last Station on Launch (Ctrl+Alt+L), and the radio starts playing as soon as you open the app. Play Last Station (Ctrl+L) brings back whatever you had on. There is a sleep timer (Ctrl+Shift+Z) and a wake-up timer (Ctrl+Alt+Z). The media keys on your keyboard work too, even when Quill Radio is tucked away in the system tray.

It talks to you

Quill Radio speaks through JAWS, NVDA or Narrator, and shows the same messages on a braille display. It does this without moving your focus. Ctrl+T tells you the song or show that is playing. If you can't remember a key, press Ctrl+Shift+P and type a word to find the command.

Shares with QUILL and QUILL Cast

If you install Quill Radio next to QUILL or QUILL Cast, they share your favorites, history, recordings and settings. Save a station in one, and it is in the other too. A portable copy keeps its own, inside its own folder.

Where this came from

For more than ten years, the ACB Radio Tuner let blind and low-vision listeners hear ACB Media on their computers. We are grateful to the American Council of the Blind and to everyone who built and looked after it. It showed that a radio made for blind listeners could be simple and dependable. Quill Radio tries to keep that same care, and to bring it to every station we can find.

Questions, problems and ideas

We would love to hear from you. In Quill Radio, choose Help > Get Help from Support (Ctrl+Alt+F2). It writes a message to support@community-access.org for you, and adds your Quill Radio version so we know what you are running. You don't need an account. A real person at Community Access reads every message and writes back. You can suggest stations and podcasts the same way.

Documentation