Ok, full disclosure—here are two things I did not know until now. First, that there was a sport called “stand up paddling,” which involves standing on your surfboard in the water and, well, paddling. Second, I did not know that there was a web radio station called “Stoke Radio,” which describes itself as “stand up paddle radio,” and is dedicated to music that celebrates and promotes stand up paddling events.
But there is such a sport and such a radio station, and it has made the semi-finalist list in the RAIN “Best Single Stream Webcaster” contest. Stoke Radio is part of the SUP Entertainment Network (correct me if wrong, but I presume that “SUP” = “stand up paddle”).
Very nice radio station, I should add. Lots of nice, bouncy tunes that you might associate with standing on the beach and cheering stand up paddlers as they do their thing.
Other semi-finalists picked by RAIN (which BTW stands for “Radio And Internet Newsletter”):
- Fusion Radio Commercial dance, house, electro, and trance music. Based in Chicago
- idobi Alternative rock, and third most-listened-to pureplay webcaster in Triton Digital’s Webcast Metrics domestic rankings
- Paladin Radio CHR/Top 40 radio, with weekend specialty shows
- Planet Candela bills itself as Hot Hits in English and Spanish, and has an on-air staff
- Soul City Radio from Baltimore, it specializes in Soul, Neo-Soul, R&B, and Jazz, and has a new morning show
- The Blast Christian metal with high bitrate streams
The finalists will be announced next week. The final final winners will be unveiled at the RAIN summit in Orlando, Florida, which gets underway in mid-September.
Other award categories include “Best Overall Online Radio Service,” “Best Streaming Broadcast Station,” “Best Overall Digital Strategy,” and “International Excellence in Online Audio.” Good luck to all the contestants.
