Wednesday, November 09, 2005

An Enlightening Discover

So, I was at work the other day, getting bored with listening to WMMR playing Led Zeppelin, Ozzy Osbourne, Nickleback, and Three Doors Down for the third hour in a row, and I decided to look up some modern rock streaming audio on the internet. To my pleasant surprise, I found a station in London that played great-sounding songs that I have never heard before. It was refreshing to not hear the same monotonous crap over and over again.

I’ve openly complained about the lack of creativity that local radio stations in the Philadelphia market have, and I’ve known that a good alternative to this would maybe be internet radio streams (or just internet radio stations), but I’ve never had the time nor the motivation to try to find a good one. Little did I know, it is incredibly easy – just by typing in streaming modern rock (or streaming classic rock, or streaming heavy metal), one can have a seemingly endless selection of music at his/her fingertips.

I know that satellite radio is the big rage, but with increasing hot spots and Wi-Fi availability, I’m guessing that this could be a huge market – especially if an automobile manufacturer would jump on board and put in some sort of internet radio device (I’m sure somebody has thought of this … if not, I just gave up a billion-dollar idea … your welcome).

Another neat product that can make any/all of us our own DJ’s and program directors is a program called “Pirate Radio.” It basically is a program that creates an internet radio station on your computer. The program itself is only $29.99, and can be found at www.pirateradio.com (great Christmas gift, if one does not know what to get for Karl). I’ve listened to a few of the stations here, and although not all of them are good, there are some really creative outlets here.

2 comments:

Ink and Stone said...

Dig it!

Terrestial radio is currently the suck right now.

Satelite radio gives ya more options.

Internet radio is the best! I used to listen to a few different industrial streams a while back.

The Rev said...

There are a few logistical problems to inernet radio in cars. I would think that you would have to create a nationwide wifi network to do it. At that point, you may as well give everyone free internet access with a laptop. That, and the internet audio quality is a step below regular radio so it wouldn't sound as good in car systems.

But you are right. There are many ways to get the music you want to hear on the internet. Yahoo has a site launch.yahoo.com where you can personalize your own station with different forms of music and you can get that same experience tailor made for your tastes for free.

Terrestrial radio is the suck, and that is because the companies are still making their money without putting lots of creativity into programming. That, and enough people are still listening and creating the audience they need to sell to advertisers. If we all stop listening altogether, it will change. But that may never happen.

I continue to buy as much Sirius stock as I can.