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RADIO operators are using mobile apps to live-stream their new digital stations to the millions of smartphones being sold in Australia.

NEWSPAPERS and magazines may have seized on portable devices such as the iPad as their saviour in the new digital age, but the most portable medium -- radio -- is no slouch in the race to be on as many distribution platforms as possible.

Radio operators are using mobile apps to live-stream their new digital stations to the millions of smartphones being sold annually in Australia, turning iPhones into digital radios -- and potentially reaching a much bigger audience than can be achieved via the 250,000 or so digital radios expected to be sold this year.

ARN released an app last week that makes its metropolitan Mix, TheEdge96.ONE, and Classic Hits stations around the country available to anyone with an Android, Nokia or iPhone mobile (and soon to be compatible with the iPad), along with digital stations Classic Hits Plus and The Edge.

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The app, which is being sponsored exclusively by Kia for the first three months, includes Twitter and Facebook icons that enable users to tweet and update their Facebook page without leaving the application -- bringing radio a step closer to the online conversations it may spark on the social web. "It's essential that as an industry we embrace the technology," ARN group sales chief Paul Parker says.

"It's about extending the relationship with our listeners wherever they may be."

In January, Austereo launched iPhone apps for its TripleM and Today FM networks and digital station Radar, and another one is planned for its digital comedy station Barry.

Head of digital and new business Jeremy Macvean says more than 200,000 people have downloaded Austereo apps since the start of the year for all its stations -- a mere drop in the bucket compared with the more than five million people who listen to the radio each week.

Mr Macvean says live streaming to mobiles via apps, which incurs data charges, will not replace free radio once people have bought a digital receiver, but there are some advantages that come from effectively accessing the medium on the mobile web.

Listeners can already click to buy songs they like from Apple's iTunes store via Austereo's apps while they are out and about.

"You'll be able to do things like click to enter competitions," Mr Macvean says. "But digital radio, in my opinion, will become the default broadcast medium."

Fairfax's talk radio network, which includes Melbourne's 3AW and Sydney's 2UE, is available on apps, giving people free access to three-minute to five-minute news bulletins from its stations around the country.

The ABC's iPad app offers live radio and podcasts in the same interface as the ABC TV and online content.

Of course, when it comes to apps that offer live streaming of international internet radio stations, the choice is virtually endless.

But for those interested in listening to a variety of local radio stations, aggregators such as Home Radio Australia will collect your favourite internet-delivered streams and put them all in one place on one customised app.