M. Ward debuts pubradio app for iPhones

Musician and public radio fan M. Ward has created an iPhone app that serves as a guide to noncommercial radio stations across the country. The Wasteland Companion app, which shares its name with Ward’s latest album, features almost a thousand stations of various formats, according to Rolling Stone.

“The idea came out of my own necessity,” M. Ward told the magazine. “When I’m on tour, I want to listen to local radio with music being played by real people and actual voices in that community. Radio has the power to be a cultural hub.”

Ward’s travels have taken him to public radio stations as a guest — you can check him out on The Current in St. Paul, Minn., and on World Café out of WXPN in Philadelphia. His app is in the iTunes store.