Radio Re-Invented - Again (Guest Post)

By John F Peterson

I consider myself to be lucky in that I was a teenager during the tumultuous years of the 60s. The changes we were part of had a lasting impact on the world we now call home.

Music reflected, and in some cases incited, those changes and heard it all on the radio. In fact radio changed with us during those years as well with the emergence of free-form "underground" radio on the little used FM band.

We are in change again. While the transition may be less "in your face" than it was in the late 1960s, it will have no less of an impact, and again radio is reflecting those changes. There are few who would not acknowledge that the online revolution is truly upon us - that our lives are inextricably interwoven wit the internet, and we couldn't undo it if we wanted to.

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The impact can perhaps be best seen by looking at what is going on in contemporary radio. AM radio stations are now largely talk, and in many ways the political pundits who make their living being outraged at whatever is in the news are reminiscent of the old time preachers who plied their trade on the air several decades ago. Even FM radio, once the last bastion of creative freedom, is now so over-commercialized that one could scarcely recognize it.

Enter internet radio.

If you haven't ventured into the world of online radio you have a great awakening coming. Every musical style and taste is catered for, and in many ways it's that sheer volume of choices that reflects those social changes that we are living through.

Internet radio has done something else that perhaps will have even a greater impact - it has loosened the stranglehold that a few large corporations have on the electronic media. For those of us old enough to remember, we saw this happen as FM emerged as a viable radio medium.

It's happening again, only this time the low cost of entry into the market and the fact that there is no practical limit to the number of stations that can broadcast online means that the genie is well and truly out of the bottle.

I hear critics belittle online radio as something that will never compete with AM and FM stations because it isn't mobile. Well guess what, the cell phone companies and wireless internet providers have already taken care of that little problem, and US auto makers are now including internet radio receivers in some models of new cars.

To be fair there is still some time before the gap closes between AM and FM broadcasters and those stations streaming over the internet. In my view this is a good thing as online broadcasters still need some time to polish their act. There is no doubt, however, that the time of parity is coming.

John Peterson is a 30+ year radio veteran and champion of online radio. He is an online broadcaster operating several stations, and author of the book Internet Radio: How to do it! - a book that molds traditional radio programming techniques to online radio. http://www.internetradiohowto.com

WOVV Update; and the Debut of Sanity Theory

I continue to be impressed with the responsive of the folks at vTuner to user requests for the addition of new audio streams to their database.

I blogged recently about WOVV, the new radio station in Ocracoke, North Carolina -- the village's as well as the island's first ever. Although WOVV will go on the air later this year as a regular broadcast station, for now it exists as an Internet stream. Today I discovered that that stream is now available for me to listen to on my wi-fi Internet radio device, which uses the vTuner database.

When I wrote about WOVV, this was not the case. So, I emailed vTuner via its contact page and requested that the station be added -- and now, there it is. Thanks again, vTuner (they also added WPAQ, the old-timey station in Mt. Airy, following an earlier request). You do customer service right.

Now, a point of blogmaster privilege ...

Can't really relate this to Internet radio, but I want to congratulate my daughter and her friends on the upcoming debut, this Friday, of their band, Sanity Theory.

These young ladies have been practicing hard and I'm looking forward to seeing and hearing them when they perform at an event at their school. They'll be playing a Green Day song this first time out of the gate, but they say they intend to start writing and performing songs of their own as soon as they can. They are even planning the art for their first album already!

Having always been a frustrated rock 'n' roll performer myself, I am excited for them. I wish Sanity Theory all the best this Friday and beyond.

Their blog is at sanity-theory.blogspot.com, and here's their Facebook page.

Munchkin Radio: Little Bunny Foo Foo and the Hokey Pokey

Out of Salt Lake City, Utah comes this cute idea, one that could probably be duplicated elsehwere: Munchkin Radio, a kids' music channel.

Calling it a radio station might be going a bit far. It's really a set of playlists of children's songs, each about 20 minutes long. The concept, I think, is that kids can listen to their favorite sets, over and over if they like, but 20 minutes probably matches the average child's attention span.

The Munchkin Radio web site apparently sells ads to local kid- (or parent-) oriented businesses in the Salt Lake City area. So even though it's available over the World Wide Web, it is tightly targeted to one community. I picture a mom sitting at the computer with her tyke in her lap, letting the kid enjoy the music while she peruses coupons and ads for Chik-fil-A and Jumpin' Jacks.

Munchkin Radio also provides the entertainment for your child's birthday party. I guess they deejay and play music, but maybe they go the whole way with clowns, balloons and everything. Again, this is restricted to the Salt Lake City area.

Munchkin Radio was launched by Mike Peer, who until recently was program director at SLC's terrestrial (over-the-air) station KENZ, which plays album adult alternative music. According to a news story, KENZ (101.9 FM) this week dispensed with on-air personalities in favor of an entirely automated playlist.

The same story noted that some industry analysts speculate that Internet and satellite radio are peeling listeners away from traditional terrestrial stations. Mike Peer disagrees, but in an instance of making lemonade out of lemons, he turned to the Internet for his own kids'-music enterprise.

I'm intrigued by the idea of starting an Internet radio "station" that is deliberately targeted to a particular locale for its business model. If it works, it could certainly copied in other towns and cities.

Also ... I was in the mood to hear "Little Bunny Foo Foo."  Thank you, Munchkin Radio!

Iceland Music Export: Not Just Björk and Sigur Rós

For such a small country, both in landmass and population (about 300,000), Iceland has managed to make an impressive amount of news lately.

As I write, the plume of ash from one of Iceland's volcanoes is still creating flying slow-downs across Europe, though the situation seems to basing somewhat. And the people of Iceland are still coping -- and making headlines by fighting against -- the raw deal they got from the international bankers, who managed to crash their economy and leave them with a crushing debt.

Even though I haven't been there (yet), I've become fascinated with this remote, weirdly landscaped country and its culture.

My Íslandphilia began with my liking for the music of Björk, which led me to search out the Sugarcubes playlist (Sugarcubes being her first group), and on to Sigur Rós and a couple of others. Just when I think I can lump all of this music together in some sort of Nordic-European pop category (one suffused perhaps with a haunting weirdness to match the land and the climate), I discover Lay Low, a fresh Icelandic singer who channels Patsy Cline of all people.

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So, I want to know more and to hear more of this country's musical output. And, it would also be great if possible to keep up with the news directly from Iceland -- in English (Icelandic is a fascinating language, virtually the same as what the Vikings spoke, but even other Scandinavians cannot understand it).

As I understand it, most Icelanders do speak English in addition to their native tongue, so it would not surprise me to find an English-language radio station broadcasting or streaming from Iceland. Alas, that does not seem to be the case.

There are a couple of dozen Icelandic stations that stream on the Internet and that come already programmed into many of today's wi-fi Internet radios. My Aluratek, for instance, seems to have most of them already on tap.

Unfortunately, none of those stations provides news or discussion in English. (Útvarp Sögu, the all-talk station, is interesting to listen to just for the opportunity to hear the sound of the Icelandic, though.)

As for music, the Icelandic stations mostly seem to play the same artists you would hear on U.S. and U.K. stations -- Beyonce, Taylor Swift, and all the rest. I assume they do mix in some of their homegrown artists, but I don't care to sit through an American top-40 rotation to wait for them to come around.

To the rescue comes Iceland Music Export, or IMX. (URL icelandmusic.is/).

IMX and its web site are part of an effort to promote Icelandic music to the world. In addition to news and information on Icelandic artists, it offers a continuous stream of Icelandic music.

I don't know if the IMX stream qualifies, strictly speaking, as a radio station, even in the Internet sense. It sounds to be a pure-music stream, without announcements or talk. Nor am I aware that is available on any wi-fi radio devices, which is where my real interest in Internet radio lies. But for those of us eager to explore Icelandic music, it seems to be the only game in town -- but a good one.

The IMX stream will definitely introduce you to the whole range of contemporary Icelandic music. To quote the web site: "If anything, the island’s incessant soundtrack is growing ever more dynamic, as artists and bands, inspired by the continual international success of their peers, continue to create original, world class music."

Because the stream includes all genres -- the common denominator being that all the artists are Icelandic -- the experience is much like listening to a college radio station.

When I tuned in this morning, I heard a bouncy pop song, followed by someone rapping in Icelandic (a weird experience in itself), followed by something reminiscent of a capella church choral singing, but which was said to be by an Icelandic metal group.

Now I am listening to a country song (sung with English lyrics), which was preceded by a minimalist jazz/New Age type piece.

The IMX site includes a "constantly updated list of some of Iceland's most active and able bands, musical groups and musicians in every genre." At a glance I would say there are about 300 acts on the list (single artists and groups).

Give Iceland Music Export a listen. You might be surprised at the diversity, as well as the quality, of the music pouring out of this little country. Long after the volcanic ash plume has dissipated, this music will surely be having its influence on the rest of the world.

By the way, the IMX site has a section of Icelandic music videos you might want to take a look at.

Videos. Volcanoes. Icelandic singers. This allows me to segue to this charming little clip of Icelandic artist Eliza Geirsdottir Newman explaining how to pronounce Eyjafjallajokull -- with a ukulele, no less.

WOVV, Ocracoke: Radio Comes to the Island

One of my fantasies has been to run a radio station in some isolated town, perhaps on an island, where I would, in effect, be the Voice of God.

I don't know if the people behind WOVV harbor such a grandiose vision of themselves, but their location would fit my fantasy perfectly: Ocracoke, North Carolina.

Ocracoke is a real village on an island out in the Atlantic, reachable by ferry, small boat or airplane. By "real village," I mean it's not a beach town, per se, unlike many other places in the Outer Banks. In fact, you have to drive a ways outside of town to get to the beach. It has a long history, most of it tied to the sea, and in particular, fishing;  residents with roots going back many generations; and sandy, tree-shaded streets where tourists and locals alike leisurely ride balloon-tired bicycles to the store.

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One thing Ocracoke has never had is its own radio station, even with the critical need for good communications in such a hurricane-prone location. That is changing.

A group of enthusiastic Ocracokers are nearing the go-live date for the town's and the island's first broadast station, WOVV. Also known as Ocracoke Community Radio, the station will be heard at 90.1 FM. Besides playing music, WOVV will broadcast local news, community announcements and tourist information, and will be supported by listener contributions and underwriting (the NPR model, in other words). In a nice touch, Ocracoke youth will be recruited to do most of the voice-overs for the underwriting spots.

For those of us who've vacationed in Ocracoke
but don't have the opportunity of living there, the good news is that WOVV already streams itself on the Internet (wovv.org/listen.htm -- or try the Flash player embedded here, if you see it). It's a great means of enjoying the local Ocracoke flavor from anywhere in the world.

Unfortunately (for me anyway), WOVV's stream is not available in the vTuner database, which means my vTuner-based wi-fi radio cannot currently play it.

The stream is available through other sources, though, including Shoutcast; so, for instance, you can hear it with the embedded Shoutcast player that you should see on this page. Just search in the player for "WOVV" or "Ocracoke" and you'll have it.

(Well, maybe. It was in Shoutcast earlier today when I tried it, but now I can't find it there. Oh wait, now it's back. In any case, you can always listen directly from the station's own site.)

UPDATE: Disregard my references to Shoutcast. I'm planning to remove the Shoutcast player from this site due to its slow loading time. It seems to slow down the page more than any other element on the page.

WOVV's local flavor extends to its music programming. For a town of fewer than a thousand permanent residents, Ocracoke is home to some impressive talent, including local bands Molasses Creek, Baby Dee and the Free Mustache Rides Again, Coyote and Mya Rose. The radio station gives precedence to such local artists, including devoting several hours each day to "Locals Only Beach" music blocks (see schedule).

To be clear: WOVV is (will be) a legally licensed broadcast station, with call letters assigned by the FCC, FCC construction permit, and everything. Yet somehow this crew looks like they could have stepped out of the cast of that "Pirate Radio" movie, which means they're probably having a ball with this whole broadcasting endeavor, on top of and aside from the community service thing.

CNN story about WOVV

Ch-Ch-Ch Changes

As you can see (assuming this is not your first visit) there have been some changes here.

One reason I haven't posted lately is I've been occupied redoing the look of this site. I think I've finally arrived at a layout that I like enough to live with for a while.

That means: More posts are a'coming. I'll be back to reviewing some of my favorite Internet radio streams.

There are scads of radio listings and station directories on the Web. In fact, I plan to add a link roll over on the side there with links to some of the more comprehensive ones.

Here at the Internet Radio Buzz, I am more interested in describing some of the noteworthy streams (both simulcasts of broadcast stations and Internet-only stations) that I come across. This necessarily will not be an attempt at comprehensiveness. My goal is to be much more interesting than that.

There are tens of thousands of radio stations on the Internet. You can find and listen to them on your computer, of course, but now you can also purchase standalone devices that play these streams like a "real" radio set -- all you need is a wireless signal. It is the advent of these devices that is helping drive the explosion in Internet radio popularity.

Speaking of listening to Internet radio, one of the additions I've made to this site is an embedded Shoutcast player. Now you don't have to leave the page to hear any of thousands of radio streams.

Check out the player on the right there (and maybe down a little bit). Its database does not have all the stations that I will be reviewing here, but its selection is still huge. For example, KMRC, the Louisiana swamp pop station that I previously reviewed, is not there. But if you type "swamp pop" in the player's search window, you will find some Internet-only stations that play this genre. If you like what I'm doing here, please

• Let others know about this blog (share, tweet, digg, etc.).
• Become a follower.
• Comment!  I would really like to get some conversations going here with other radio fans.

Thanks,
Steve

AM 1710 Antioch: Old Time Radio at Its Best

The Lone Ranger rides again, thanks to OTR -- as do the Cisco Kid, Fibber McGee and Molly, The Shadow, Jack Benny, the gang down at Duffy's Tavern, and a multifude of other fondly remembered characters from the golden age of radio.

"OTR" is devotee-speak for Old Time Radio, and as you might guess, you can enjoy it any time day or night now via one of a number of Internet streams.

One of the best of the OTR audio outlets is AM 1710 Antioch, which is run by Jay Lichtenauer from his home in Antioch, Illionis, "a mile from the Wisconsin border and 20 miles inland from Lake Michigan," as he points out on his web site.

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Besides streaming his incredible collection (18,000 episodes!) of old radio shows over the Internet, Lichtenauer beams his programming through the air using a micro-power AM transmitter mounted on his roof. This is "part 15" broadcasting, a legal way to run an over-the-air station without a license ("part 15" refers to the relevant section of the FCC regulations).

According to Lichtenauer's own tests, this means that if you happen to be in Antioch, and as close as a mile from the tranmitter (though half a mile would be much better), you can pick up his OTR shows on your regular car radio. He figures there are several hundred neighboring households that could hear him if they tuned to 1710 AM.

Lichtenauer is also a licensed amateur radio operator, and a collector of antique radios. An all-around radio geek, in other words.

Aside from the sheer number of shows that are in rotation on AM 1710 Antioch, the station earns high marks for quality.

First of all, the Internet stream is crisp and stable -- for which Lichtenauer pays almost $3,000 a year, and for which he solicits listener donations. (If you have Flash on your system, you can listen via the embedded player that you should see just below.)

Second, though, he goes to a good deal of trouble and expense to make sure he has the best copy possible of every show he streams. This means not only locating a good, clean copy to begin with (and eschewing those junky re-re-re-recordings that are so easy to come across), but also doing his own audio processing before putting them in the queue.

Naturally, the audio quality of shows from the 1920s, '30s, '40s and '50s varies greatly, even with the best efforts at restoration. But AM 1710 Antioch perhaps comes closest of most OTR streams to providing a consistently even listening experience.

Lichtenauer has put the shows on an automated schedule designed to play them, to the extent possible, on  the same day of the year they were originally heard. I am listening right now to an episode of "Dangerous Assignment" that was first broadast April 10, 1950. You can view the current schedule here.

I enjoy listening not only to the old shows themselves, but also the vintage commercials that have been left in many of them (as opposed to being cut out, as is the case with some OTR re-issues that are sold on CDs, for example). Lichtenauer's station also plays Big Band era music to fill gaps between programs.

60 Million People A Week Listen to Internet Radio

An outfit called Bridge Ratings is reporting the results of its study of "audio device consumption trends."

The study covers a lot of territory, but here are the main points of interest to those of us who follow Internet radio:

• "Streaming audio via the Internet has become a family past-time ..."
• "[T]here are two distinct users of Internet radio: those who spend most of their time listening to pure-play or Internet only radio stations and those who spend most of their time listening to simulcast streams of traditional AM/FM radio."
• " More than 60 million people each week listen to radio over the Internet."
• By 2015 "... the percentage listening to AM/FM simulcast streams will fall to 81% while those listening to Internet-only radio streams will increase to 72%."
• "The percentage of streaming listeners for AM/FM simulcasts and Internet-only will reach parity by the end of 2016 (77%)."

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There's also information on over-the-air broadcast listening trends, satellite radio, cell phone usage, MP3 players, and more. But who cares about those things? (Joking, OK?)

The Bridge Ratings report concludes:

"Ten years ago, this report would not have been needed. Today, with so many options facing consumers interested in audio entertainment, it is more clear from this study how traditional radio's time spent listening is being siphoned off.

"Time-spent-listening projections for the next two years will be published shortly. Which of these devices will see continued double-digit growth? Internet Streaming is anticipated to add another 11-12% more listening by 2013." (Emphasis added.)

KTNN : Playing Country Music and Speaking Navajo

One of the pleasures of a car trip we made out west a couple of years ago was tuning in KTNN as we crisscrossed  New Mexico and Arizona.

AT 660 on the AM dial, KTNN is a 50,000-watt giant that blankets the Four Corners area during the day and reaches a huge part of the West at night, even up and down the Pacific coast, at least according its broadcast footprint that you can find on it its web site.

(Continued below)

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I've never had much of a facility for learning second languages, though I've tried with everything from Spanish (my most successful) to Samoan and Icelandic. Languages continue to fascinate me, though, and the appeal to me of KTNN is that much of what you hear on it is in Navajo. The station is headquartered in Window Rock, Arizona, capital of the Navajo Nation, and its announcers, I think, are all Navajo, or Diné, as many of the people prefer to call themselves.

Listening over the car radio as you travel across the mesa-studded landscaping, you're likely to hear a station ID in English followed by local news or a community event announcement in Navajo.

KTNN's programming is country music -- modern country, at that (as opposed to Old Time or even honky tonk, the forms that I prefer). But it's listenable, and more so because nearly every third or fourth song (at least) is a Native American song, such as you would hear at a pow-wow. Even now, as I sit here at home on the East Coast, the sound of a Navajo woman's unaccompanied chant, coming from my radio speaker, evokes ancient landscapes and ways of life -- at least, the images I have constructed of them.

Navajo has more than 140,000 living native speakers, and is used interchangeably with English in many Navajo communities, so it makes sense that a radio station situated in the heart of the reservation would have a large part of its programming in the language. 

KTNN is a commercial station that was established as a Navajo Nation Enterprise in 1985 and made its first broadcast in 1986. Its 50,000-watt license was the last one granted by the FCC.

As much as anything, KTNN -- with its mix of English and Navajo, and its alternation of the latest sounds from Nashville with the old songs of the region's native people -- is a reminder, reflection and a continuation of the collision of cultures in the American Southwest. 

The station provides a high-quality audio stream, which you can listen to over your computer or on any Internet radio device using the vTuner database (it might be available in other database formats as well, but vTuner is what my Aluratek device uses, so that's what I know).