Nothing helps me drift peacefully to dreamland like interviews with witches, accounts of Bigfoot attacks, tales of time travel, and analysis of the role of inter-dimensional beings – generally referred to as “aliens” – in the afterlife and government conspiracy. The nighttime radio talk show, Coast to Coast AM covers all of these things and even more bizarre topics with style and a sense of humor.

There are a number of free radio apps in the Android Market that facilitate listening to C2C, but because most of them provide live or delayed streams from the actual on-air broadcast, they often leave you stuck listening to ads and even fuzzy transmissions. One of the reasons I chose to join the C2C premium service, Streamlink, was because I wanted access to MP3s of past shows. Once I stopped working graveyards, it was difficult to catch live.

For over three years, I had the previous night’s show automatically downloaded to my computer without advertisements – the ad space was filled with hold music. But then came the Coast to Coast AM iPhone app, which lets you listen live or to archived shows with no ads or empty space between segments. It has been the single app that requires me to use an iPod or borrow my wife’s iPhone at night, but those days are nearly over. I’ve contacted the show regularly to request an Android version of the app, and I’m not the only one.

On the June 6th broadcast, George Noory, successor to the legendary Art Bell, opened the show with this announcement:

“Hey, here’s some great news for you Streamlink members: As you know, we have the iPhone app right now. Well I’ve got a big meeting with out technical folks tomorrow morning and we are going to cut the deal for apps for Android and Blackberries. So all of you with all those phones, you’ll be able to have all your apps…if you’re a Streamlink member. And also, we’re going to be talking about some new video applications through the website.”

George has not updated the audience on the status of the meeting as of the July 7th broadcast.

The iPhone C2C app gives users access to news headlines, a game more than reminiscent of an Android app called Abduction, a screen for contacting the show, and of course, an interface for downloading and listening to shows. The iPhone app is free and has not yet been updated to iOS 4. I would guess that the Android version will have the capability to play in the background at the time of launch.

Here are some snaps of Coast to Coast AM for iPhone, followed by Streamlink pricing: