The Public Radio Exchange has just released the 2.0 version of its iPhone app, which aggregates almost all the public radio stations in the U.S. This tuner is a collaboration by some of the biggies in the public-radio space: NPR,  Public Interactive, American Public Media, and Public Radio International (PRI). The 1.0 version of app has already gotten some rave reviews, but the 2.0 version, released this weekend, goes a lot further: besides streams, it has started showing what’s on right now on those stations, a seemingly small but game-changing move.

And, as it previously promised, it has added podcasts/downloads of the major shows as well, another important addition that will only increase the usage of the app. It has also added various search and directory listing options, on top of what the previous version had. The new version also allows for streams to be played on the slower Edge network, if Wi-Fi or 3G are not available. The new version is a bit buggy: it wiped out my favorite stations after upgrading (not a big issue for me since I didn’t have many), and is freezing up frequently; I hope the latter issue will be solved soon. The app is closing in on 2 million downloads, and likely will continue to be among the top apps for the iPhone.

So here’s why I think this is one major step to making public radio listening on radio obsolete: