Trouble getting iTunes radio stations

I moved out of the USA 1.5 years ago and use iTunes on a daily basis to get my news and various music stations as well. For the last week or so whenever I go to the radio stations and click on a category I receive a message that states: "An error occurred while contacting the radio tuning service. Check your Internet connection, or try again later".

My internet connection is fine as I am able to get online and access everything as usual, just cannot get into the stations themselves. I have tried on numerous occasions but get the same result. Every now and then one or more of the categories will open and allow me to access the stations, however usually it is not the category that I want to access, such as the news stations, which will not open. I have tried this on my G5 desktop, both of my G4 powerbooks, my white G3 iBook, my older G3 Pismo, and get the same results regardless of running Leopard, Tiger, or Panther. I do not own an Intel Mac and am hopeful that is not the issue, although I don't believe it is. Has anyone else had this problem? Does it have anything to do with my living overseas? (I wouldn't think so but I am at a loss here). Is it possible Apple is making changes to the stations causing this? As I said this has been happening for a week now.
Any advice is greatly appreciated!

You do not mention where you live outside the USA .
If I listen to the internet radio of the USA it is mostly country music .
Mostly it goes OK .
Sometimes I get the same message as you do .
A restart of iTunes including ATV mostly solved the problem .
And yes I live outside the USA , in Europe to be more precise .

Hi Dobby, I presently am living in Brasil. I have been using iTunes almost every day for years, even before moving here a bit over a year ago and never had this problem. If I am able to get the category to open up and gain access to the channels, if I close up iTunes and restart it again and try the same category that had just previously opened, it will not do so. Likewise, if a category does not open, a restart of iTunes does not seem to fix the problem. This is very frustrating. Sorry but I do not know what ATV is. If possible could you describe what it is and how to restart that as well? Or any other ideas?
Thanks for your input.

It might help if you describe with internet radio stations did not work .
ATV is used to stream audio or video .

It is not the radio stations that don't work, it is the categories that lead you to the streams or stations that rarely will open. If they do open, the radio stations work fine, it is just opening of the categories that does not work often. The categories I access the most are: news/talk radio, eclectic, alternative rock, and golden oldies. None of these categories seem to open consistently now as they used to. If I try 8-10 times, they may finally open, however if I close iTunes and then launch it again later, they won't open. The country category seems to work fine, which is the one you said you often use. Maybe I will have to become a country music fan!
Any other thoughts??

Yes the categories you mention are not working properly .
I do not know why , maybe it can not connect to the streams

itunes radio not working

I have been living in South Vietnam for over 2yrs. Just recently (end of Feb.2012) my itunes radio stopped working completely. I've never had an issue before. Nothing has changed in terms of computer or internet connection (wired cable). I'm at my wits end as I enjoy music from back home in the USA as well as news. I see that many others have had the same problem but nobody seems to have solved it.

Martin and Tom: it appears that what's happening there is that something (perhaps your ISP) is blocking the port iTunes needs to contact its radio tuner.

Do you have the same problem if you go to a radio station home page in the US and use the "Listen Now" button? How about with services like Shoutcast.com, any problems there?