In part two of his history of internet radio, Dom Robinson covers RealAudio, the technology that pushed streaming internet audio into the mainstream, years ahead of video. He talks with Dave Mallinson, an early employee at Progressive Networks – which would become RealNetworks – who discusses the delicate balance between getting good enough sound quality […]
Archive | Internet radio
Podcast #167 – Alternative Histories of Podcasting
Do you remember audioblogging? Prof. Andrew Bottomley does, and he’s here to tell some alternative histories of podcasting. From “Geek of the Week” to Odeo, he illuminates many more bygone shows and platforms from the 1990s and early 2000s that gave rise to what we’ve now settled on calling “podcasts,” for better or worse. Bottomley […]
Dash Radio Investment Demonstrates Interest in ‘Real’ Internet Radio
News about Dash Radio crossed my transom the other day, as the growing internet radio operation announced that it secured $8.8 million in seed funding. It’s interesting to see this sizable of an investment made in pureplay internet radio operation that isn’t attached to an on-demand service, like Spotify, or a personalized service, like Pandora. […]
Podcast #160 – Marking a Quarter-Century of Internet Radio
Internet radio is older than you think. In fact, it’s at least a quarter-century old… and maybe even a little older. That’s the history Dom Robinson uncovered, and he joins to tell the story. He’s the co-founder of online video company id3as and a contributing editor to Streaming Media, and he reveals how he discovered […]
Internet Radio Is Older Than You Think
A protocol for streaming audio on a computer network was first published 44 years ago. That’s likely a good two decades or more before you, or most people, even heard of the internet. In fact, streaming audio over what became the internet was in use – for academic conferencing purposes at least – over the […]
Net Neutrality Is Over (For Now) – What It Means for Radio
Monday, June 11 was the day the FCC’s repeal of the Open Internet Order took effect. That means federally mandated network neutrality is over. Internet service providers are now free to throttle or block specific sites or services, or to offer paid prioritization to others, with the only proviso being that they disclose it. (For […]
Is YouTube the Home of the New Radio Pirates?
“Will performance royalties create a new class of radio pirate?” That was the question I posed in early 2016 after the music royalty rates for small internet radio webcasters skyrocketed with the expiration of the Webcaster Settlement Act of 2009. In essence I wondered if some webcasters would just choose to keep on broadcasting online […]
How To Listen to Super Bowl LII on the Radio this Sunday
Looking for info on how to listen to this 2021’s Super Bowl LV? Click here. Every year I enjoy the little treasure hunt of figuring out where you can listen to the Super Bowl on the radio. Having done this for five years now, parts are the same every year, especially when it comes to […]
Podcast #119 – Chicago Independent Radio Project
The Chicago Independent Radio Project launched as an internet radio station nearly a decade ago, with a mission of bringing a truly independent music- and arts-focused community radio station to Chicago. Thanks to the Local Community Radio Act, which allowed the growth of low-power FM stations in the nation’s biggest cities—and a lot of hard […]
Tackling Creative Inertia with Broadcasting: Radio Cinéola
I just listened to the latest episode of The Quietus Hour featuring an interview with Matt Johnson, the principal behind the English post-punk band The The. Although Johnson largely put the band on hiatus—save some film soundtrack work—since its last formal release in 2000, I learned from the interview that on UK election day in […]