Listening To Music

The definition of “radio” is changing. While commercial and non-commercial stations continue to pour forth their offerings on AM, FM and shortwave, much more is available online. There, Internet technology provides a booster shot to traditional amplitude and frequency modulation to create new pipelines to programming of an almost infinite variety.

Three basic types of radio service are available online:

+ Internet feeds of “terrestrial” (regular broadcast) stations
+ Internet-only stations
+ Internet feeds of High-Definition (HD) broadcasts that are otherwise only available over the air to those who have HD radios

Here’s a breakdown of these online free radio offerings.

AM, FM and shortwave stations routinely stream their programming on the Internet. This gives them a worldwide reach but is primarily useful for listening in offices and other locations where a station’s signal may be marginal or unavailable. Most of what you hear on a station’s Internet feed is what’s actually on the air. There are two exceptions. Commercial breaks, where union voice talent requires additional pay for Internet play, are often “covered” on the Internet feed by public service announcements or station promos. The other exception is sporting events, which are sometimes blocked on the Internet by rights holders who assign exclusive markets to local broadcasters for their events.

The number of internet-only stations has waxed and waned. While some are hosted by large government broadcasters such as the BBC and Voice of America, many are small, independent operations. Music channels must pay rights fees to music licensing agencies and while special Internet-only fees have been negotiated many small broadcasters can’t afford to pay and go dark. Another expense is bandwidth. An Internet-only station with only a few listeners can carry on quite cheaply. But more popular stations are sometimes sunk by their own successes as increased listener numbers mean greater bandwidth requirements and higher costs to broadcast.

The last flavor of free online radio is the most recent. As AM and FM stations roll out HD channels a major drawback to mass listening has been the somewhat limited availability of HD-capable receivers. Auto manufacturers are installing HD radios in an increasing number of brands, beginning with luxury models. HD allows broadcast stations to actually add new channels to their signals. A station continues to broadcast its regular signal but uses digital HD transmission to create three or four more signals. These are purely digital and carry many types of programming that was previously only available online or from satellite radio services. A station that broadcasts classic rock on its regular FM service, for example, might program alternative rock, punk rock and new music on its HD signals. Only the regular FM signal will be available to standard tuners, however. An HD radio receiver is required to receive everything else — EXCEPT that many stations also stream their HD programming on the Internet!

Online free radio is always evolving. The only way to keep abreast of what’s on — and what’s gone — is to check regularly with site like live365.com and real.radio.com.