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.

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

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%)."

(Continued below)

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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.)

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