Frontera FM — Cross-Platform Radio Streaming App (iOS & Android)

The idea

A few years ago my dad started Frontera 95.1 FM, a radio station serving a handful of small towns in Intibucá, Honduras. The catch? You had to be near the antenna. I built a cross-platform app to take that signal global — live streaming, local news, and the daily schedule, all in your pocket.

How the app works

One codebase, two platforms (iOS & Android). The client syncs cached data, receives real-time push notifications via Firebase, tracks engagement through Analytics, and streams media with low latency from Cloudflare R2 — chosen over Firebase Storage for lower egress costs and better performance on the spotty cellular connections common in rural Honduras.

The backend that powers it

A fully serverless system: a web dashboard with role-based access control lets the station team manage news, ad banners, push notifications, and the radio schedule. Google Cloud Functions handle the logic, Firebase stores data and messaging, and Cloudflare R2 optimizes media. No engineer needed for day-to-day content.

Serverless was a deliberate choice: zero ops overhead for a solo maintainer, and auto-scaling for unpredictable traffic spikes during live events.

Publish once, live instantly

Articles published from the web appear in the mobile feed immediately — no app update, no redeploy. The team posts; users see it in seconds.

A schedule that knows what's on air

Real-time state sync — schedule changes propagate to all clients and auto-highlight the live show without polling or manual refresh.

Web to native, seamlessly

A shared content schema maps rich-text and media from the web CMS into native components — one source of truth, no manual reformatting, no drift between platforms.

The hard parts

Not everything was smooth: Gradle builds failing for no reason, Xcode caches breaking iOS at 2 AM, and an App Store rejection over content rights (Guideline 5.2.3) — resolved by documenting the full broadcasting-rights chain and approved on resubmission. Shipping is the real skill.

What's next

v1 is the foundation, not the finish line. A closed beta with the community is already shaping the roadmap: community chat and in-app ad booking are coming.

Stack: React Native (Expo) · Firebase · Google Cloud Functions · Cloudflare R2 · Role-based web admin · CarPlay

📲 App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/frontera-fm/id6780303468

🤖 Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fronterafm.radio