Internet Radio - The Ultimate in Personal Listening (Guest Post)

By John F Peterson

Only a few short years ago it would have been inconceivable that there would be as many radio listening options as there are today. It isn't just the integration of the computer into our lives, and the logical extension of using those computers as an entertainment option, but rather the sheer volume and choices in streaming radio that have become available.

Whatever your taste in music or spoken word, there is an internet radio station that caters to that taste. These days it doesn't matter if your musical development stopped at the Grateful Dead, or that you "live" for talk shows that discuss UFOs, you will likely not find one, but many online stations that program that 24/7.

Several years ago the futurist Faith Popcorn talked about the trend toward "cocooning" - building an individual, comfortable space around each individual. She may as well have been talking about internet radio as that is precisely what this art form has become.

The holy grail of internet radio is profitability, and very few stations or station clusters have achieved it. To a great extent this has helped online radio gain a stronger foothold than it might have otherwise, as it has helped define that medium. That is, internet radio is virtually commercial-free. That means that those stations doing it that are not connected with a commercial broadcast station are doing it for ego, and the love of producing a program that is different than what is available through AM and FM stations.

It will be interesting to see how these stations and the greater online radio industry develops over the next couple of years. The next most important development will likely be the increased availability of internet access in cars. This will seriously challenge traditional broadcasters who have always held that in-car listening was their domain. In the long run, preserving "their domain" may be center around producing programming that financially strapped internet radio can't - programs with a high personality or local content.

However slowly or quickly in-car internet listening happens is really irrelevant as the battle lines have already been clearly drawn. I suspect that long term viability of AM and FM stations will hinge more on how fast they retrench as purveyors of personality in its many forms, and leave the wall-to-wall music formats to iPods and marginally profitable internet stations.

When this happens as it must, given the economics and strengths of broadcast over internet-delivered formats, the winner will be certainly be the listener, and this is what it should have been about all along!

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 Internet Radio: How to do it! - video series that molds traditional radio programming techniques to online radio. http://www.internetradiohowto.com

Internet Radio Made Me A Hero to My 13-Year-Old

That's what I like to think, anyway.

My daughter's preferences in music currently include Green Day, Linkin Park, Fallout Boy, My Chemical Romance, Three Days Grace and other groups, whose names escape me. With the exception of some of Green Day's oeuvre, these are not exactly my cup of musical tea. But then, that's how the parent-child natural order is supposed to work.

Nevertheless, I'm happy to support her in her pop-cultural likes and pursuits, up to a point (see concert discussion below).

Evidently, the main local rock station that the kids her age listen to "really sucks." It rarely or never plays the above named groups or even much of that genre of music (whatever that is).

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A few days ago I decided to sample some of the one-hundred stations that are programmed into my Internet radio device under the "Alternative" category. I didn't tell my daughter that I was trying to find something for her, but I knew she was in the next room and could hear, assuming she didn't have her iPod earbuds in or wasn't too wrapped up in a Skype conversation with her boyfriend.

On radio, the "Alternative" label seems to cover such a multitude of sins -- styles, artists, periods -- as to be almost meaningless. In my traipse through the category I caught snatches of everything from Hootenanny-era folk songs to German death-metal blitzkriegs to Gray's-Anatomy, whispery-female-on-acoustic-guitar type music.

Whenever I landed on a station that sounded, to my ears, like something my daughter would approve, I lingered awhile. It must have taken about 28 such samplings before I finally got a reaction. As I played yet another ambiguously noisy stream, this one from a station in Jacksonville, Florida, my daughter burst into the room to ask (perhaps with a tinge of worry) why I was listening to such good music for a change. Bingo!

The station calls itself x102.9 -- actual call letters, WXXJ. On a web page aimed at potential advertisers it describes itself as "Jacksonville's New Rock Alternative station ...Targeting Generations X and Y (Adults 18 - 44 years old)."  That must say something about either their targeting or my 13-year-old daughter, but I'm not sure what.

My daughter says about 40% of the songs on x102.9 are by artists she knows and likes, and the rest of the programming generally matches her tastes and introduces her to new artists to like. She listens to the station on her laptop while Facebooking or doing homework. (Here's the stream.)

x102.9 is part of the Cox media empire and I'm guessing that it is not unique; there are probably clones of it, programming-wise, all around the country. But it is the first one like it I stumbled across, and it is now my daughter's regular station -- at least until she "outgrows" that 18-44 demographic!

Finding this station and bringing it to my daughter's attention had an unintended (read unwanted) consequence, namely, that I might be forced to attend a Three Days Grace concert next month. Via the x102.9 web site, my daughter learned that the group's current tour will be bringing it to Raleigh, and she is dying to go.

Her mother, though, insists the only way she can go to her first real rock concert is if accompanied (not just dropped off) by a responsible adult. And since none of her friends' parents have stepped forward, that leaves one of her parents to bite the bullet and go . My daughter's choice would be me, and not because I'm the hipper one for turning her on to a cool radio station. She knows I will probably stand off and observe from a distance, whereas her mother will stay much too close and (horror of horrors!) might even start dancing. We'll just have to see who draws the short straw.

UPDATE 5/6/2010: The more I listen to the first  background song on the band's web site ("The Good Life"), the more it grows on me. Of course I run the risk of liking it so much that I completely kill this group's coolness for my daughter. I'll have to be careful!

Oh, and I should also start referring to them as "3DG." That's the cool way, apparently.

KMRC, The Swamp Dog

In the 1950s in Louisiana, a lot of musicians began playing rock 'n' roll. Nothing unusual there, as this was happening all over the country. But in Louisiana, these artists created their own distinctive, emotion-laden sound in a genre that has become known as swamp pop.

Along with Cajun, zydeco, jazz and New Orleans R&B, swamp pop is one of the great contributions to popular music to come out of the fertile state of Louisiana. It is probably the least known outside the boundaries of the state, though.

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Rather than try to explain swamp pop, I will give you two links. First, there is this Wikipedia article, which is a pretty accurate summary of its style, history, key performers and some of its signature recordings. Second, here you can listen to Cookie and the Cupcakes singing "Mathilda," the quintessential swamp pop song; if you do not like this, your prospects for being a swamp pop fan are slim to none!

Although a number of swamp pop records became national hits (e.g., "I'm Leaving It Up to You" by Dale and Grace,"Just A Dream" by Jimmy Clanton, "Sea Of Love" by Phil Phillips), I never realized that this was considered its own genre until I heard a radio program about it. Then I began searching out the more obscure records and performers -- obscure outside of Louisiana, that is.

I am forever grateful to some friends who took me to a club in Lafayette, Lousiana to hear Warren Storm, one of the original swamp pop performers, play. The name of the club escapes me, but it was an interesting place -- a building divided into two big sections. You could pay to go in one side and hear Cajun music, or pay to go in the other and hear swamp pop.

I am also grateful to have discovered KMRC, "the Swamp Dog," and its Internet stream. KMRC is an actual radio station (1430 AM) in Morgan City, Louisiana, that plays swamp pop music almost exclusively. In this it might be unique. As well as the standard swamp pop classics, both in their original renditions as well as in interpretations by current artists, KMRC plays songs that pay tribute to the joys and miseries of working on the offshore oil rigs, a nice touch of local flavor.

Of the 13,000+ stations available to me on my Internet radio device, I currently have about 300 tagged as favorites. Out of these I've created a "#1 Favorites" list for quick access to the ones I enjoy listening to the most. That list has 7 stations on it at this time, and KMRC is one of them.

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Big Blue Swing

Big Blue Swing is an Internet-only stream, but, strangely, the people behind it (whoever they are) don't do very much to make people aware of it -- even on the Internet. Their web page, hosted on MySpace, is pretty bad. They do have their own domain, apparently: www.bigblueswing.com. But as of this writing, that domain simply redirects to the MySpace page. I don't think I would have ever discovered it if not for the fact that it was programmed into the vTuner database, which my particular Internet radio device uses.

This is all too bad, because Big Blue Swing's stream is high quality and consists of one of the best mixes of big band, swing and blues music that I have ever heard. The artists and records seem to span from the 1940s to the present, with an emphasis on the "swing" in everything that is played. You think you have heard this genre before, but Big Blue Swing gives a unique twist to it that is hard to pin down. Imagine music that is nostalgic and yet completely up-to-date and hip, if you can.

Since it's an Internet-only stream, there are few interruptions to the music. Every several songs, a recorded announcer comes on admonishing you to get up and dance, even if you're at work. Other than that it's song after song.

My only (minor) complaint is that the station's playlist can start to sound repetitive if you listen for hours on end. In fact, if you listen every day you will hear many songs more than once (or twice, or three times ... etc.). Thankfully, the order of songs is not repetitive, so you'll be continually surprised to hear what comes next. And assuming you like this kind of music to begin with, you'll come to love so many of the songs played on Big  Blue Swing that you'll look forward to them rolling around once more.

WPAQ, Voice of the Blue Ridge

Mount Airy, North Carolina is known as the boyhood home of Andy Griffith and also (quite naturally) the real town upon which the fictional TV town of Mayberry was modeled. For old-time music fans, it is also known as the home of WPAQ radio.

WPAQ first went on the air in 1948, the embodiment of a vision held by a young Ralph Epperson. Epperson was dedicated to promoting, encouraging and preserving the authentic music of the Blue Ridge mountain region. To that end he invited local musicians to come to the studio, where they would play live on the air -- while Epperson, often, was recording them for posterity.

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Ralph Epperson passed away a few years ago, but his heirs at WPAQ have hewed true to his original vision. This is an authentic country station, through and through. In addition to the bluegrass, old-time and gospel music, the announcers give the news, do charmingly less-than-slick commercials for local businesses, and even read out the obituaries.

The crown of the WPAQ lineup is undoubtedly "The Merry-Go-Round," a show of live music held each Saturday on the stage of a local theater. If you're ever in Mt. Airy on a Saturday, you can drop in and enjoy it in person, for free.

Although I currently live in North Carolina, I'm a little too far outside of WPAQ's broadcasting footprint to pick it up on a regular radio at its dial position of 740 AM. But thanks to Internet radio I can now listen to a WPAQ stream whenever I want.

By the way, if you have a standalone Internet radio device that uses the vTuner station database, you have me to thank for WPAQ's availability to you. Well, I can't really swear to that, but it's possible.

You see, I was disappointed to find, at the time I acquired my vTuner-based Internet radio (an Aluratek), that WPAQ was not in vTuner. Although Aluratk's version of vTuner does have a facility for adding your own streams to the radio, it's a little confusing and doesn't always work. Mainly this has to do with the variety of formats used for streaming radio -- some simply won't work in vTuner.

Long story short is that I finally gave up on adding the WPAQ stream to my radio. Instead I settled for requesting that the vTuner folks add it to their database for me, and of course for others who would enjoy this type of station. I didn't really expect that much would come of this request, but lo and behold, a couple of weeks later I was checking vTuner and there in its list of "new stations" was WPAQ!

Thank you, vTuner and Aluratek. And thank you, WPAQ, for keeping a great radio tradition alive.

Internet Radio Receivers

Before I really get started in reviewing individual Internet radio streams, I want to give some background for this phenomenon -- especially in regard to the many new standalone devices that have made Internet radio listening so much more convenient and comfortable.

Brenty Newby is an expert on this subject, and so I will turn this post over to him:

Portable Internet Radio - Internet Radio Receivers
By Brent Newby

First, internet radio "broadcasts" can be either a play list, an actual radio broadcast, or a combination of both. What I'm speaking of here is a stand alone appliance for tuning to an online radio station with its' own call sign/station designation, just like traditional radio.

Radios such as these will cost anywhere from about $100.00-$300.00 depending on the factors discussed below. These receivers acquire their signal via antenna, ethernet or wifi, depending on your preference, although wifi probably lends the most versatility, when connected via your router.
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YOU CAN'T ENJOY RADIO WITH RINGING EARS!

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They come with a variety of features/capabilities. When connecting without a computer refer to the manual which should be included for setup instructions. Access is through a server which you log onto, enter your model number/code which configures the receiver. Depending on what software your radio is based will determine the ease of acquiring streams(broadcasts).

The tricky part has to do with the software upon which radios are based. Although there are a number of very good U.S. alternatives, I would recommend those which are Reciva based out of the U.K., and marketed here. This company is sometimes referred to as the "Microsoft" of the internet radio business in terms of dominance, and have access to some 16,000+ feeds.

Through their web portal, you can register and customize the stations appearing on your radios' dial through "my stations." Most reputable servers will enable access to thousands of broadcasts in their database. The ability of adding URLs not in their database is another desirable capability to consider when making your choice. That's it, as far as the basic procedure. Additional aspects to consider include: Sound quality, Network connectivity, and Extras which may offer enhanced versatility.

Sound quality: Whether the stream is 32k mono, or 128k stereo plays a large part in terms of the overall enjoyment experience, especially when playing music stored on a local file server(home or office computer). This is coupled with speaker response, in terms of dynamic range, highs and lows for overall sound presence.

Network connectivity, meaning the time from powering on and hearing music can vary widely from 4sec to 25sec. Broken connections can be a recurring problem. External antennas, and ethernet ports can help in these cases.

Extras items to look for would be direct 120v inputs(US only), or if you travel abroad, transformer powered. Is radio battery operated for portability? Can you record stations easily? Does it have a headphone jack(audio out), audio in/aux(mp3 player), remote control, alarm clock, FM tuner, dual speakers, etc.?
For more specific information go to Reciva Based wifi radios on my blog:
http://profyousion.com/profyousion/reciva-based-wifi-radios/

Brent Newby (aka profyousion) creates and assembles video music reviews and writes articles about jazz, fusion, funk, r&b, rock and pop artists...past and present. Find where you can learn more about music, it's styles and how to acquire the baddest jams in your favorite genres for free or very minimal cost on his blog at: http://www.profyousion.com/profyousion

Welcome to the Internet Radio Buzz

Internet radio is better than ever now, especially with the advent of standalone devices that receive streaming radio -- devices that really work! All you need, generally -- in addition to the radio itself -- is a wi-fi connection.

My Aluratek radio that I received for Christmas is capable of receiving (at current count) about 13,900 stations from all around the world. No matter what my preference in music or format on a given day, I can find a station that matches my tastes perfectly.

Of course, there's a lot of dreck out there -- "dreck" defined very subjectively by me as anything that is overdone and oversaturated in our society already. And by that I mean hip-hop, 90% of modern country, and much of current top-40. So there, I've put my prejudices out on the table.

Aside from those genres, my tastes are wide and eclectic. My purpose in this blog will be to report on some of the more unusual or interesting, or just plain excellent, streams that I have discovered in wandering the Internet radio dial. Keep in mind as you read this blog, that these are all streams that you can find and listen to right on your computer, if you do not have a standalone radio device (I'll be giving the URLs as part of my reviews).

Thanks for visiting me and I hope you will return often.

Steve Smith