Today’s highly anticipated 9/9/09 Apple product announcement brought the return of the Messiah (Steve Jobs) but not the band bigger than Jesus. Alas, the much hoped-for debut of the Beatles in the iTunes music store did not arrive, despite Yoko telling Sky News to the contrary. The really big news today is a second coming […]
Archive | Internet radio
Re-meeting the Beatles on the Internet
If you are a cultural curmudgeon like me, you’ll doubtless respond to any mention of “Beatlemania” with the sign of the cross. But seconds after I went over to Accu Radio’s Re-meet the Beatles streaming radio page, I was won over by what I heard. “A lot of this music will be brand new for […]
FCC lets radio off the hook in content filtering inquiry
The Federal Communications Commissions report on the state of content filtering and blocking devices is out. It says a whole lot about the V-Chip, satellite/cable blocking systems, video games, youtube, and mobile phone apps, but not much about radio. The survey continues: “Most commenters addressing the issue contend that we should not examine audio-only programming […]
Review: a long way to go for Blackberry live radio apps
After reading my colleague Paul Riismandel’s review of Public Radio Player 2.0 for the iPhone, I’ve been meaning to survey the possibilities for live radio listening on my Blackberry Curve 8330—that is to say, to tune into terrestrial stations on the device. Alas, so far I haven’t found very many. Don’t get me wrong. There […]
Digital radio revenues up; terrestrial way down
If you are looking for the bright spot in radio’s future, it’s streaming from a digital platform. The Radio Advertising Bureau’s report for this year’s second fiscal quarter makes this abundantly clear. Local and national over-the-air radio saw a 25% drop in revenue, while digital saw a ten percent boost. Digital radio’s revenue from advertising […]
Pandora: news, sports, and weather coming, eventually
“Why can’t I listen to news, talk, or sports radio on Pandora?” the streaming site’s Tim Westergren says Pandora’s fans often ask. “That’s actually something we’ve talking quite a bit about as a company and something we intend to deliver to listeners eventually,” Westergren responded in a video blog he posted this week. But for […]
One of the Last "Progressive" Rockers Goes Digital-Only
When it comes to commercial radio, I’d argue that true progressive rock radio died somewhere in the early 80s, as tighter playlisting, more frequent rotations and shorter music sets became required, and DJs by-and-large no longer picked their records. Nevertheless a handfull of stations in the top major markets held onto the progressive moniker by […]
I love Onion Radio News
Whenever I’m feeling down, I do one of three things to get out of my slump: exercise, talk with friends, or listen to the Onion Radio News. “An airport security pig finds concealed truffles!” announces ORN’s ace reporter, Doyle Redland. “Airport Swine Unit Specialist Kevin Hannah couldn’t be prouder of his partner, Mr. Snout,” the […]
Gotcha! Tuning into the FBI
Ok. I admit it. I listen to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s “gotcha” radio service. The sounds files come in windows media player format. It’s basically a real version of Dragnet. Part of the reason why I tune in is because the cases are so weird that, well, I just like weird stuff, that’s all. […]
Is Future Perfect Radio the Future of Radio?
I spend a lot of time exploring Internet radio stations. And while most of it is for fun, I’m definitely on a Diogenes/Morpheus-looking-for-Neo sort of mission. I’m searching for Internet radio that feels like real radio. What is “real radio?” you ask. It’s radio that feels like it is situated in some actual place and […]