CBN Radio

What CBN Radio is

CBN Radio is a free audio streaming app from The Christian Broadcasting Network. It offers twelve continuously running stations sorted by genre rather than by programme: modern worship, contemporary Christian hits, instrumental, mainstream country, Southern Gospel, urban Gospel, a kids-branded hit-music stream, classic Christian from the 1970s to early 1990s, Spanish-language music, two Christmas stations and a CBN News audio feed.

It is not a talk radio app and not a podcast client. There is no schedule grid, no host bio, no episode list and no download button - you open it, pick a station, and it plays until you stop it. CBN's offer page adds a news feed from CBN and The 700 Club, an optional login, alarms and a prayer request form around that core.

Twelve formats, one of them country, none of them talk

Most free Christian radio apps are one station with a schedule, or an aggregator handing you a list of local affiliates. CBN Radio is neither: it is a twelve-lane music service where the lanes are formats, and two of those lanes justify the install on their own. Cross Country is not Christian country - CBN describes it as 'continuous country hits' from Carrie Underwood, Rascal Flatts, Tim McGraw and Chris Young, which is mainstream secular country curated by a ministry. Fiesta Hoy is Spanish-language and sits in the same list.

The other real differentiator is that the Christmas stations never stop. CBN calls The Christmas Station 'a year-round gift of Christmas music' and pairs it with Cross Country Christmas. That is a deliberate decision an ad-supported commercial service will not make. What CBN gives up in exchange is everything episodic - no shows, no archives, no podcasts - which is the trade a listener has to weigh before installing.

The twelve stations, named

CBN's station page gives each a line. CBN Praise is modern worship (Brandon Lake, Phil Wickham, Kari Jobe, Elevation Worship, Maverick City Music). CBN Contemporary Hit Radio is CCM (for King & Country, TobyMac, Lauren Daigle, Cody Carnes). Selah is instrumental - orchestra, soft jazz, soaking music. Cross Country is mainstream country. Southern Gospel blends bluegrass and classic gospel. CBN Gospel is urban gospel (Tasha Cobbs, Kierra Sheard). CBN Classic Hits covers the 1970s to early 1990s (Carman, Petra, Amy Grant, DeGarmo & Key).

The rest are Superbook Radio, Fiesta Hoy, the two Christmas channels and CBN News. Superbook Radio deserves a flag, because the sources disagree about what it is. The App Store description calls it music for kids - 'upbeat and positive music for kids, they will love songs from Hollyn, Switchfoot and Lecrae' - while CBN's own station page describes it as 'Christian Hit Music in CCM, Pop, Hip-Hop, and Rap genres' with Colton Dixon, Apollo LTD, TobyMac and for King & Country, and never mentions children. Same station, two audiences described.

What sits around the player

CBN's offer page lists the non-playback features: skipping songs, saving favourite stations, a news feed of 'encouraging stories from CBN and the 700 Club', a login to save preferences, alarms, song suggestions, testimony sharing, and a prayer service framed as 'Need prayer? We will pray for you'. The skip control is the interesting one - a true broadcast simulcast cannot offer it, which implies these are server-side playlists rather than a relay of a terrestrial signal.

What is absent matters as much. No sleep timer, no offline caching, no Chromecast or AirPlay claim, no CarPlay, no Android Auto, no Apple Watch app. Apple's compatibility block covers iPhone and iPad on iOS 13.0 or later, iPod touch, and Mac on macOS 11.0 or later with an M1 chip - the iPad-app-on-Apple-silicon path rather than a native desktop build. The download is 41.3 MB, and the copyright line still reads 2019 against a February 2026 build whose release notes say only 'Bug fixes and improvements'.

Privacy and advertising, as disclosed

Apple's App Privacy panel lists Usage Data under data used to track you across other companies' apps and websites. Under data linked to your identity it lists coarse Location, Contact Info (name and email), Identifiers (user ID and device ID), User Content including support messages, Usage Data covering product interaction and advertising data, and a Sensitive Info category. The stated purposes include Developer's Advertising or Marketing, Analytics, Product Personalization and App Functionality.

Google Play's Data safety card is coarser - 'Location, Personal info and 4 others' collected, 'App info and performance' shared with third parties, encrypted in transit, deletion requests accepted - but Play adds the label CBN's pages never do: 'Contains ads'. None of this is unusual for a free media app. What is worth naming is the mismatch in framing: a nonprofit that raised $299,236,013 in contributions calls its app 'completely free', which most readers hear as unmonetised, while the stores describe an app that links a device ID to a name and email and uses usage data for advertising.

Pricing

Where CBN Radio falls behind

No on-demand library. This is the biggest gap and it is structural, not a missing setting. Twelve live streams means twelve things happening now: no archive, no catch-up, no episodes of anything. Moody Radio's app advertises on-demand programmes and podcasts with push notifications for new episodes, and rates 4.9 across roughly 13,000 App Store ratings while doing it.

No podcast feed. CBN produces a great deal of spoken-word content and CBN News is one of the twelve streams, but a live news channel is not an episode library - there is no search across programmes and no subscribe button. That pushes a listener out to a general podcast client for the spoken half of their listening, and it narrows the offer page's 'All of your favourite Christian music within one app' to exactly what it says: music.

No offline playback. Nothing CBN publishes describes caching, downloads or an offline mode, which makes the app dead weight on a plane, in a basement or on a rural commute. Streaming-only is defensible for a radio product, but combined with no dashboard integration it means an app you use on wifi, at home or at a desk.

No CarPlay, no Android Auto, no sleep timer. None of the three is claimed on either store listing or on CBN's two pages, and Apple's compatibility block shows no CarPlay entry, while Moody Radio's listing does advertise Apple CarPlay. For a service whose Selah station is pitched as soaking music, the missing sleep timer is the stranger omission - the offer page lists alarms, so CBN has time-of-day logic pointed at waking up rather than winding down.

One language, one stale copyright line. The App Store lists a single supported language, English, even though Fiesta Hoy is Spanish-language - and CBN's sibling video app manages a dedicated CBN Espanol channel while the radio app does not localise. The 2019 copyright against a 2026 build, and release notes reading only 'Bug fixes and improvements', suggest an app in maintenance rather than active development.

CBN Radio vs. CBN Family vs. Moody Radio

CBN Radio and CBN Family come from the same nonprofit and overlap more than the names suggest. CBN Family is the video app: its listing describes the full CBN Premium Library of documentaries, teachings and original movies, free access to Superbook Season 1, and three live video channels - CBN News, CBN Live and CBN Espanol - with 'no sign in or cable provider needed'. Crucially it also promises 'unique Christian music stations for free including praise, contemporary, top hits, and Christmas', so CBN Family already carries a subset of CBN Radio's streams. Want video with four music stations attached? CBN Family. Want all twelve, including Cross Country, Fiesta Hoy, Selah and Southern Gospel? CBN Radio. CBN Family rates 4.4 from 162 ratings against CBN Radio's 4.8 from 8,767.

Moody Radio is the closer functional rival, and it wins on features while losing on formats. Moody Bible Institute runs a terrestrial network across twenty-plus states plus a digital stream, and its app advertises on-demand programmes, podcasts with new-episode notifications, Apple CarPlay, schedules and local station selection; it rates 4.9 across roughly 13,000 App Store ratings. Moody's identity is teaching and talk with music around it - Chris Fabry Live, Faith & Finance Live, Open Line, Bold Steps - plus Spanish programming through Radio Moody, and CBN Radio has no equivalent to any of it. What CBN has instead is music breadth: mainstream country, urban gospel, Southern Gospel, instrumental soaking music and two year-round Christmas channels as separate stations.

The split is simple. Want people talking - sermons, call-in shows, interviews - in the car and after the fact? Moody Radio. Want uninterrupted music with a genre switch and no host? CBN Radio. A K-LOVE-style single-format service builds a station identity around hosts and listener call-ins; CBN Radio trades that for twelve lanes and no editorial voice, which is a defect or a feature depending on whether you want company while you listen.

Alternatives to CBN Radio

CBN Family★ 4.4The same nonprofit's video app: the CBN Premium Library of documentaries and originals, Superbook Season 1, and three live channels including CBN Espanol. It also bundles four music stations, so it duplicates part of CBN Radio. 4.4 from 162 App Store ratings.→Moody Radio★ 4.9Moody Bible Institute's network app and the stronger product on features: on-demand programmes, podcasts with push notifications, Apple CarPlay, schedules and local station selection. Teaching first, music second. 4.9 from roughly 13,000 ratings.→Dwell★ 4.9A paid audio Bible rather than a radio service, but the right comparison if what you want is continuous Scripture audio with voice choice, plans and offline listening.→SermonAudio★ 4.1The opposite trade: an enormous searchable archive of recorded preaching with speakers, series and downloads, and no curated music streams. Install it alongside CBN Radio if the missing spoken-word library is your complaint.→AudioVerse★ 4.7A free sermon and Christian audio library serving the Adventist tradition, with on-demand series and downloads - the episodic and offline ground CBN Radio does not cover, at the same price of nothing.→

More Christian Streaming Apps

Angel Studios★ 4.9A publicly traded studio that lets its paying members vote on what gets greenlit, then sells access through three tiers starting at $12 a month - and the series that built the company now streams somewhere else.→Bethel.tv★ 4.9The streaming home of Bethel Church (Redding) and Bethel Music - sermons, BSSM teaching, conference replays, and a decade-deep worship catalog in one app.→Moody Radio★ 4.9The free streaming app for Moody Bible Institute’s Christian radio network - listen live to local and internet stations, catch favorite teaching and talk programs on demand, and take it all into the car with CarPlay.→Wild Brothers TV★ 4.8A missionary family's adventure and wildlife channel with the highest App Store score in this category - sold with no free trial, no published refund policy, and a children's chat feature whose moderation is documented nowhere at all.→TBN+★ 4.8The streaming home of Trinity Broadcasting Network, free on every major device - and surprisingly deep once you start digging.→Bentkey★ 4.7A well-rated, genuinely ad-free kids' streaming service with charming originals - sold at a price that three of the vendor's own pages describe three different ways, on an annual-only, non-refundable commitment.→