Poet Ponders the Digital

Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley September 3, 2012 Deadline October 2012 Issue Internet Radio: Something for Everyone Radio has changed dramatically since I first wrote about Internet radio five years ago. Way back in 2007, you needed a computer with a broadband Internet connection to listen to streaming audio. Today, I listen to live BBC broadcasts on my iPhone while taking walks. You can stream audio from the Internet through car radios, televisions, stereo systems, and even an “Internet-ready” refrigerator is sold with a streaming audio app. Most Blu-ray players and high-end home audio receivers include Internet radio features, often via the Pandora streaming audio service. Streaming audio has been available on the Internet since the mid-1990s. RealNetworks launched in 1995, with the RealPlayer featuring a few dozen audio streams. Despite pioneering streaming audio and video-on-demand services, RealNetworks was unable to establish itself as the leading Internet radio prov...

Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley October 2007 Issue September 16, 2007 Confessions of an (Internet) Radio Junkie Video didn’t kill the radio star, even though MTV was launched with a video making that very claim. Radio changed, and so did MTV. One still plays music, the other promotes unrealistic reality shows. More importantly, I can now listen to more radio programs than ever before, even if my tastes are unusual… and they are. There is a place where radio is king, and I don’t mean in the car when commuting to work. I know this place well, because it is where I listen to KCRW, KGO, KCBS, and hundreds of stations with no call letters. This is a place without the Federal Communications Commission, which means I hear songs uncensored. There are stations where disc jockeys still choose the music and introduce each track with a bit of background trivia. I am an Internet radio junkie. Terrestrial radio stations, those familiar AM and FM broadcasters, first moved to the Internet d...