NPR Station Finder Service

Name: NPR Station Finder Service API
Brand: NPR Station Finder
Availability: InStock

★ Only Publicly Available OpenAPI DocumentMediaAudio Processingoauth22 EndpointsREST

For Agents

Resolve a listener's location or station ID into NPR member station metadata, including stream URLs and donation pages. Two operations under /v3/stations.

Connect the NPR Station Finder Service to your agent

Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the NPR Station Finder Service, or any other public or private API you need. You set the rules, the agent never sees your credentials, and every call is logged.

Install Jentic One Beta (Self-Hosted)

Jentic One Host machine

# On the machine that will host your Jentic One instance:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh

Agent machine

# On the machine where your agent runs (keep this separate from the instance):
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh
jentic register       # connects your agent to your Jentic One instance

Jentic One is in public beta. The setup above keeps your agent separate from the instance, which is what you want before using real credentials: an agent running as the same OS user as Jentic One can read its stored keys directly. Just evaluating? A single local install is fine to start. See the secure deployment guide for the tiers.

Capabilities

What an agent can do with NPR Station Finder Service API.

Search NPR member stations by latitude, longitude, ZIP, city, or state

Retrieve a single station's full profile via GET /v3/stations/{stationId}

Surface live audio stream URLs for HD and standard NPR broadcasts

Expose donation and pledge URLs scoped to each member station

GET STARTED

Start building with NPR Station Finder Service API

Explore with Jentic

View OpenAPI Document

Jentic publishes the only available OpenAPI document for NPR Station Finder Service, keeping it validated and agent-ready.

The NPR Station Finder service resolves geographic, ZIP, or station ID lookups into structured NPR member station data. It returns each station's call sign, frequency, broadcast streams, member affiliations, and donation portal URL. Two endpoints under /v3/stations cover both list-search and single-station retrieval, making it the canonical way to render the right local NPR station inside listener-facing apps.

Use Cases

Patterns agents use NPR Station Finder Service API for, with concrete tasks.

★ Local Station Resolution in NPR-Powered Apps

News apps and smart speakers use the Station Finder to translate a listener's coordinates into the right local NPR affiliate, returning the live stream URL needed to start playback. The /v3/stations endpoint accepts lat/lon and ZIP queries and ranks results so the top match represents the listener's primary local station, with no client-side station database required.

Call GET /v3/stations with lat=37.7749&lon=-122.4194 and return the streamUrl of the top KQED result

Pledge-Drive Donation Routing

During NPR pledge drives, third-party apps must route donation buttons to each listener's correct local affiliate. The Station Finder returns a donationUrl per station, so the app can deep-link the user to the right pledge portal without hardcoded mappings. This is essential for compliance with NPR's member-station revenue-share model.

Resolve the listener's station via GET /v3/stations/{stationId}=305 and surface donationUrl in the in-app pledge button

AI Agent Public Radio Discovery via Jentic

Voice agents and chat assistants use Jentic to find the Station Finder, search for stations matching a location intent, and execute the call with isolated OAuth credentials. The agent never holds NPR client secrets, but can resolve "play my local public radio" into a concrete /v3/stations request and a stream URL.

Use Jentic to search 'find my local NPR station', load /v3/stations, and execute it with the user's geolocation

Key Endpoints

2 endpoints — the npr station finder service resolves geographic, zip, or station id lookups into structured npr member station data.

METHOD

PATH

DESCRIPTION

GET

/v3/stations

Search NPR member stations by location or other criteria

GET

/v3/stations/{stationId}

Retrieve a specific NPR member station's profile

GET

/v3/stations

Search NPR member stations by location or other criteria

GET

/v3/stations/{stationId}

Retrieve a specific NPR member station's profile

Why though Jentic?

Three things that make agents converge on Jentic-routed access.

Credential isolation

OAuth client credentials are stored in the Jentic vault and never exposed to the agent. Tokens are scoped to the station finder's read scopes only.

Intent-based discovery

Agents search by intent (e.g., 'find my local NPR station') and Jentic returns the GET /v3/stations operation with its query schema, so the agent calls the right endpoint without browsing dev.npr.org.

Time to first call

Direct NPR integration: 1-2 days for OAuth client registration and station response handling. Through Jentic: under 30 minutes — search, load, execute.

Related APIs

Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.

Alternative

NPR Station Finder Service

Identical v3 station-finder spec hosted under a longer slug

Choose this when your tooling indexes the npr-station-finder-service path; both expose the same /v3/stations operations.

Complementary

NPR Sponsorship Service

Returns sponsor audio spots that must play between NPR segments

Pair with Station Finder when an audio app must insert sponsor content alongside the resolved station's stream.

Alternative

Listen Notes

Cross-publisher podcast and audio search platform

Use Listen Notes when discovery should span the full podcast ecosystem rather than NPR member stations only.

FAQs

Specific to using NPR Station Finder Service API through Jentic.

What authentication does the NPR Station Finder use?

It uses OAuth 2.0 authorization code flow against https://authorization.api.npr.org/v2/token, with scopes including identity.readonly and listening.readonly. Through Jentic, OAuth client credentials are vaulted and only short-lived tokens reach agent execution context.

Can I look up NPR stations by ZIP code with the NPR Station Finder?

Yes. GET /v3/stations accepts ZIP, city, state, and lat/lon parameters and returns ranked station matches with stream URLs and donation pages.

What are the rate limits for the NPR Station Finder?

NPR's developer documentation at https://dev.npr.org/guide/services/station-finder does not publish a hard rate limit, but partner apps are expected to cache station results since the data updates infrequently.

How do I retrieve a single NPR station's profile through Jentic?

Search Jentic for 'NPR station details by ID', load the GET /v3/stations/{stationId} schema, and execute with the numeric station ID. The flow is pip install jentic, then await client.search, load, and execute.

Is the NPR Station Finder free to use?

Access requires registering an OAuth client at https://dev.npr.org. NPR does not charge for the API but limits use to apps under its NPR One Enterprise terms.