When Internet Radios Get Affordable 139
DeviceGuru writes "Grace Digital Audio has just released a new device that functions like an Internet radio tuner in a whole-house audio system and is being sold at a surprisingly affordable price point. The Solo Wi-Fi Receiver works in tandem with Reciva's Internet radio station selection web service, provides excellent Pandora support, and also supports optional Internet services such as Live365, MP3tunes, Aupeo, and Sirius. It has built-in buttons and a display for easy control, comes with a dedicated IR-remote, and is supported by a free iPhone remote access/control app. We hear a lot about the high-end Sonos gear, but at just over $100, this little gadget seems like a breakthrough in cost-effective Internet radio, much as the Roku Netflix player broke ground in low-cost Internet video streaming."
Chumby One (Score:2)
Since the goal is cheap, what about the Chumby One?
Oh... I live in Canada, I can't have one.
boo.
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My main complaint about the Chumby is that the user interface isn't ready for prime time. It's like it was designed to do the job, barely. It seems like little thought was given to polishing it and making it user friendly. It just requires far too many button (touch-screen) presses to get it to do what you want it to do.
On the flip side, the UI is just a flash download that you could replace with your own, in theory.
Doesn't take long for some sites (Score:1)
Yup, the site acts slashdotted 8 minutes after this posted up...
I probably won't be buying one of these anytime soon, but that is only because of my extensive music & stereo collection combined with 7 Linux & windoze machines at home. At this price, they should start selling well, Maybe they'll be the new hot xmas gift this coming season.
pricepoint vs price (Score:1, Funny)
How is a pricepoint different than a price. And how is 105.37 dollars a price point. Who says, "I'm looking for an internet radio, but I don't want to spend more than 106 bucks?"
Re:pricepoint vs price (Score:5, Insightful)
How is a pricepoint different than a price.
It's harder to sound like a douchebag if you only say price.
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No, 'MSRP' is manufacturer's suggested retail price. You can tell because the first letters in 'manufacturer's suggested retail price' spell 'MSRP'. Sometimes just 'SRP' without the 'manufacturer's' at the start, because, duh, who else would be suggesting a price?
It can also be called a 'list price', as in, the price that resellers should list it at.
'Pricepoint' is something some douchebag economist invented to sound doucher.
DIY internet radio player (Score:4, Interesting)
You can always make your own [parallax.com]
It works great, only $75
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Not really seeing the market... (Score:3, Interesting)
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Re:Not really seeing the market... (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not really seeing the market for this.
That's because you are a tech weenie. For you, going to websites and downloading software patches comes as naturally as hair dye comes to a platinum blonde. But the truth is, downloading patches and setting up handler applications and all the other stuff that you have to do is... HARD for most people!
As a software engineer, I find over and over again that "possible" isn't the same as "easy" or "automatic" or even "useful".
Some years ago, I wrote a tool to keep paperwork in electronic format, at a tremendous savings to our client organizations. My first attempt was usable, but required significant training, and we got a few nibbles. My next revision was better, and we got some strong interest from previously cool clients. My most current revision is drop-dead simple to use, needing little more than a button click, and customers are practically lining up.
It can be very hard to do, but easy is, for most people, the difference between doable and not worth the bother. I've many times wanted to listen to KGO radio in San Francisco. I can sorta get it with an AM radio, but it's static-y and unpleasant. I can stream it online, but to do this, I have to get a big, relatively expensive computer, plug it into the Internet, turn it on, load the browser, go to the website, and click to start, then plug the speaker jack into my stereo.
So I end up with a pile of wires, and a laptop that likes to fall asleep every few hours of listening while burning about 60 watts. Ouch!
If only I could just hit the power switch, and then turn a knob to the "KGO" station... ? I'd be pretty likely to buy something like this.
Squeezebox RADIO (Score:3, Informative)
By posting this, I'm undoing some much-needed moderation I already did on this thread, but nobody's said anything about it so I gotta do it.
Squeezebox RADIO. No, not a Squeezebox, a Squeezebox RADIO.
http://www.logitechsqueezebox.com/products/squeezebox-radio.html [logitechsqueezebox.com]
Knobs. Buttons. A little display. Wired and wireless Ethernet. A powerful loudspeaker.
Quote: If only I could just hit the power switch, and then turn a knob to the "KGO" station... ? I'd be pretty likely to buy something like this.
And I did
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I'm not really seeing the market for this. So I want a device that plays internet radio, but don't want to just get an iPod dock, use a laptop/netbook and uses Wi-Fi so it isn't like your getting always available portable internet. If you have a home theater system, why wouldn't you just have a HTPC and just use VLC and connect to the internet radio that way, if you don't have a home theater system, why not just use an iPod or laptop?
I reject this argument for three very important reasons:
1) people have been predicting the death of radio ever since the invention of the TV, yet somehow, its still here. With the invention of the internet, people still predict the death of live media and live broadcast. They remain wrong. Internet radio will adapt to become as simple as the transistor radio is today.
2) I can play my internet radio station on an iPhone anywhere that 3G service is available. However, I would not purchase a $100 radio and
Re:Not really seeing the market... (Score:4, Interesting)
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I have no idea why you think PCs can't have speakers built in, or why you have to have the TV on.
A lot of people seem very confused about how a HTPC 'must' operate. There is absolutely nothing stopping an HTPC from operating without the screen on. There is nothing stopping them from having tiny LED displays for when the TV is off. There's nothing stopping them from having control buttons on the front.
In fact, plenty of them already fit all those qualifications.
If you want an internet radio device just do
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Why the fuck would you be using VLC on a HTPC?
Seriously, do you know what an HTPC is? It's a computer with an interface that's operated by remote control control, usually running a single application. It's a damn custom built 'Tivo', except many of them don't do any recording.
People who build HTPC use something like XBMC, which can, tada, be operated via HTTP requests, so it would be trivially easy to have it start doing anything at any time you wanted. If timing it's not built in it's easy enough to run
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The State of Multicast? (Score:2)
And on the other end(s) of the loudspeaker, is the idea of multicasting going anywhere? After radio more and more TV, eventually in HD, will be streamed and having a full 1-1 connection for every client seems terribly wasteful.
Is multicast tied too tighly to IPv6, already obsolete, can it be jury-rigged into IPv4 by the ISP and a smart enough router? I always feel bad when listening to a niche radio station for the bandwidth cost I incurr...
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If you weren't paying for it, you probably wouldn't be able to use it.
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Is multicast tied too tighly to IPv6, already obsolete, can it be jury-rigged into IPv4 by the ISP and a smart enough router? I always feel bad when listening to a niche radio station for the bandwidth cost I incurr...
You seem like a troll (because you say IPv6 is obsolete). Multicast was designed on IPv4.
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Is multicast tied too tighly to IPv6, already obsolete
You seem like a troll (because you say IPv6 is obsolete).
No, he was saying "Is multicast tied to tightly to IPv6, is multicast already obsolete, etc"
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Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity. (not saying whose)
Does it think too far ahead and thus has the same problems as IPv6? Does some other technology make it obsolete for carriers? Such as maybe the technology of deep packet inspection and bundling known internet streams into one.
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Multicast works just peachy over IPv4, and has for a long, long time. That's how we distribute much of our streaming media on campus and over Internet2. Also, many interior routing protocols such as OSPF use multicast, as do various other systems management protocols/tools.
Why ISPs like aren't using it for video and radio delivery is beyond me.
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Why ISPs like aren't using it for video and radio delivery is beyond me.
They do, but only the content they themselves provide. The whole point of the Internet is that you don't have to contact every ISP in the world when you set up a server.
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If it's implemented in ipv4, why is it that no broadcaster or p2p service gets to use it?
It works over LANs but not the Internet. As I understand it, this is because the backbone providers and the last-mile ISPs don't know how to bill for multicast traffic.
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As I understand it, this is because the backbone providers and the last-mile ISPs don't know how to bill for multicast traffic.
More likely it's because every multicast flow requires every router which touches it to keep state about that flow. Noone has invented a router which can keep track of millions of multicast flows, and anything less is going to be a problem on the open Internet.
Ipod Touch fulfills that function and many more (Score:5, Insightful)
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Why bother buying these one-purpose devices that usually cost almost as much
Better sound quality?
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Better sound quality?
Buh? An iPod is capable of providing higher quality audio than any of the internet radio streams offer, so what are you talking about?
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So then you agree? (Score:2)
SomaFM is offering its Groove Salad station in 128 kbps AAC.
And what is your point? The Touch can reproduce audio with a lot higher quality than a 128kbps stream offers... itunes by default now is 256k for music.
Really though, the question would be how well each device would do with audio output... I think either would be more than able to reproduce a 128k stream perfectly well, but as the original poster noted a Touch is more flexible.
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My understanding is that 128 kbps AAC is better than CD quality. What is the source material?
My point is just that nearly any device capable of decoding an AAC stream can produce extremely high quality music. Most headphone jacks, even very cheap ones, have a very flat frequency response and little noise, especially considering the final amplifier.
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Your understanding is totally wrong. How can a compressed version be better than the original?
After all, most of the source material are CD's.
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Actually, that was a totally screwed-up amalgam of two sentences. What I meant to say is that most people are getting their material from either iTunes or a similar service or torrents, which are not CD quality, and generally lower than 128 kbps. I fully realize that AAC is a 'lossy' compression and not as good as a CD, but the bast majority people are not buying CD's and then converting to FLAC and playing on their iTouch or what have you.
To tell you the truth, I've been totally disappointed with the mus
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Except for the ability to use YouTube on it. Or play J2ME games on it. Or make phone calls. Or make photos. Or install what you like. Or have infinite space trough a memory card slot. Etc, etc, etc. ;) (I’m not informed on the latest from Apple, so feel free to remove what is now available.) :)
I’m not saying you shouldn’t use what you like. Go ahead, have fun!
I’m just saying that my mobile phone does all of the above, and lots more, costs less, and the sound quality is great. I use a
Touch comes with YouTube. (Score:3, Insightful)
Except for the ability to use YouTube on it.
Dude, it ships with a YouTube app!
Or play J2ME games on it.
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA.
Wouldn't you rather play some of the literally 50k commercially produced games that are in fact written for the Touch??
I seriously cannot believe you are saying you'd rather buy a device that supports J2ME over a Touch for GAMES!!!
I'm just saying that my mobile phone does all of the above
Right, it "does" that in the same way a rock and a stream "does" laundry.
I use a Internet flat-rate
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Except for the ability to use YouTube on it.
Oh, a YouTube App. Why, on an iPod Touch, that takes several seconds to launch!
Or play J2ME games on it.
You can play J2ME games on your internet radio hardware? Weird.
Or make phone calls.
You can make phone calls on your internet radio hardware? What, using Skype?
Or make photos.
You can make photos on your internet radio hardware? Isn't it awkward having to get everyone in the right room in the right place? Can't your cell phone just take a picture where
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Nokia E75 [nokia.com] (S60 platform) does Internet streaming over wifi rather nicely. I bought it to listen to my beloved WOXY [woxy.com], but alas, they are dead right now.
-l
older palm tops work well too (Score:2)
Older palm tops like my Nokia 770 work well too. I have an old P75 with Debian and Darwin Streaming Server installed, plays my mp3 collection non stop on a few different play lists, I use the Nokia as a radio while mowing the lawn.
Streaming media is a crock (Score:1, Informative)
Internet radio can't be cheap as long as unreasonable download caps exist, as are common, at least in Canada. Broadcast radio costs effectively nothing, leave the radio on 24/7 if you want. If you try that with your net connection you'll be paying for surplus usage long before the month end.
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Internet radio can't be cheap as long as unreasonable download caps exist, as are common, at least in Canada. Broadcast radio costs effectively nothing, leave the radio on 24/7 if you want. If you try that with your net connection you'll be paying for surplus usage long before the month end.
Maybe for Canada, for USAians, we typically have "unlimited" service which is quite reasonable. Now, if you start running servers or doing a lot of bittorrent, you'll get temporarily capped or even booted off for running a server against your TOS, because upstream bandwidth is rationed, but downloading a radio stream at 128kbps? No problem.
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Not sure where you live in Canada...
I live in Saskatchewan. The provincial gov't owned Sasktel does not impose any caps that I am aware of (well, at least they don't enforce them, if they do define them in the ToS).
I would consider myself a heavy internet user in the sense that I download a lot (various sources, and mostly legal). I used to run a web server for development and testing but now rent a very cheap VPS after my hardware died. My wife watches and listens to streaming media daily while I'm at work
Software radio=better. (Score:2)
Internet radio? What if the internet goes down? Now software radio on the other hand can be useful in all sorts of situations whether you use the internet or not.
So who need Internet Radio? (Score:1)
What is the point?
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Maybe you should get out more.
Nowadays, few people are born, grow up, settle down, marry, get children, grow old and die in the same little village.
There is a whole world out there with hundreds of countries and thousands of states, with thousands of radio stations, that you cannot receive over the air in your little burg.
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I was going to post something about that statement maybe being valid in North America and Western Europe, but not for the bulk of the world's population, but it turns out that a few minutes' Googling hasn't given me anything to back my position up with...go figure.
Useless "review" (Score:2)
The entire review is apparently predicated on the idea that you'll control the thing from an iPod Touch or iPhone.
If you have an iPod Touch or iPhone, what the hell do you need this thing for?
Tell us what it's like to actually use the device itself.
Convergent device (Score:1)
One more vote for Squeezebox (Score:2, Informative)
It's worth a bit more but worth it. The cumulative benefit of the system is great, considering you can add nodes easily once its in place and sync or not sync. Especially awesome when combined with MusicIP.
TFA looks like a troll. There are actually a lot of devices out there which meet the criteria.
If you're conscious about price and have lax wireless security get find a linksys wmls11b on line. For $30-40 it can't be beat!
Mod whole story "slashvertisement". (Score:1)
Seriously.
$100 isn't that big a deal for an Internet Radio (Score:1)
I've had a freecom Internet Radio[1] for about 2 years now which cost about $100 (GBP 60).
Its a flexible unit with WLAN, Ethernet etc.
Andy
[1] http://www.freecom.com/product.asp?CatID=1148017
Slashvertisement (Score:2)
This is a veiled slashvertisement for Parallax Propellor.
In related news, each of my WiFi internet radios cost under $150.
We're almost there already.
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I was wondering if I was the only one the slasdot posting struck as straight ad copy, for a product that's not particularly new, unique or cheap.
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The original article just completely changed to something else that doesn't even mention the Propellor. You have to love the journalistic integrity around here.
I just broadcast in FM (Score:2)
Sometimes people over think things.
Um...how is this better than AirTunes/PandoraJam? (Score:2)
What am I missing here?
Ok, I run wifi via an Airport Extreme and Optimum Boost [custhelp.com] (30mbps down, $10 a month extra.)
I have four Airport Expresses [apple.com] with AirTunes and PandoraJam [bitcartel.com] sending either "radio" (AirTunes) or Pandora to each Express, each hooked up to its own stereo/wireless speakers.
I can send different content to each Express, which I don't think a Roku/Grace device can do. So what's the advantage? Serious question, not being rhetorical....
No thanks. (Score:1)
Streamtuner (Score:2)
ARIR-205 (Score:2)
83 dollars including shipping and also comes with a wireless access point.
http://www.amazon.com/R [amazon.com]
Revos (Score:2)
NN
Internet radio is great, but... (Score:2)
I bought a refurbished Revo Blik a few months back, and it's fantastic! The only problem is if I go to bed having queued up three or four files on BitTorrent it's impossible to listen to it as you fall asleep - you get five seconds of sound, ten seconds of silence repeated until the BT download finishes.
slashvertisement fail (Score:2)
http://www.gracedigitalaudio.com/solo-wireless-radio-media-streamer-p-94.html [gracedigitalaudio.com]
145 Table './gracedig_gracedigital/zen_gda2_whos_online' is marked as crashed and should be repaired
in:
[delete from zen_gda2_whos_online where time_last_click '1273407072']
Don't these incompetents know that you have to prepare for heavy traffic when you purchase a slashvertisement?
$100 is about two times too much for this; when you can get HD video for $99, paying $99 to stream internet radio seems retarded. You could buy a used P
Logik IR100 broke the ground first (Score:2)
Misused Jargon Alert (Score:3, Insightful)
A price point is an economic term. It refers to a theoretical optimum on a price curve. The word for the actual price of something is (drum roll please) "price."
Yeah, I know, this sort of semantic nitpicking is obnoxious. But I can't help myself, because people keep giving me money when I do it. Hence the name of my website.
$100 and hackable (Score:2)
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***When it gets affordable, I'll still be happy with analog***
1. If analog has the programming you want, it is almost certainly a superior way to get it. No synchronization delay. No glitches. I listen to a bunch of NPR programs most Saturday mornings. I can get them either via the Internet or Over The Air. I tried the Internet for a while. I found OTR to be much more reliable.
2. The failure/refusal of internet content providers to settle on a single open format for Internet Radio (or anything else)
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Back in the day, I used to have a set of cron jobs that would record programs from NPR over an antenna. It worked very well. Things would get recorded as PCM, which would get encoded as VBR MP3 once the program had finished. I ran it on a K6-2 350, which was nowhere near fast enough to encode with my settings in real time, and would sometimes have 3 or 4 nice'd encoder processes running at once... Not that FreeBSD gave a shit about that. :)
It was absurdly reliable, and with NTP, the timing was eerily d
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Original Xbox with Linux + XMBC
Kind of sad that original Xbox is more useful than any current console offering.
God bless open source.
Most people can pick one up for 20$ these days
The bonus is the ease of use, plug and play
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I'm sure that Xbox looks totally sweet sitting there on your nightstand with its monitor. It's totally the exact same thing as the Squeezebox only way cheaper, without the monitor.
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The innards of the xbox can easily fit into a cheap home theater PC case. It also happily produces sound without a monitor.
I (and room mates) would never even be listening to internet radio without the xbox. It was just a natural fit since in Northern Ontario radio stations are pretty repetitive for ambience. Turned all of us onto music we would absolutely never be exposed to otherwise.
Most people have a few spare xbox's kicking around. I know I do, might as well hack the shit out of them and put them to wo
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Most people have a few spare xbox's kicking around.
May I suggest a walk outside. The fresh air is lovely.
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***May I suggest a walk outside. The fresh air is lovely.***
Maybe where you are. Where I am, the wind is howling and it is snowing. If you could give me an IP where I can pick up a stream of weather a bit warmer and without the wind, it would be appreciated.
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The innards of the xbox can easily fit into a cheap home theater PC case. It also happily produces sound without a monitor.
Having a home theater PC case on my nightstand would be even better. I stand corrected.
Re:don't forget squeezebox (Score:4, Interesting)
I've got to admit that I get a lot of use out of iHeart Radio.
I still won't pay for radio, though. I buy a lot of music that I hear on radio, so I figure it's a good enough promotional mechanism for music that it should be free. As far as "talk" radio, no thanks. I don't need any more voices in my head telling me what to think. I'm happy with the occasional podcast (some of which I'll subscribe to, such as Red Ice Radio from Sweden or Mysterious Universe from Australia).
The player or "internet radio" is a different matter though. I don't see why it should ever cost more than a regular radio plus a $10 wireless adapter. And I'll either plug it into my existing speakers or a pair of headphones. I guess I'm old fashioned but listening to radio via 3G feels wrong, like why should I take up bandwidth to hear music that I can get otherwise. I know it doesn't make sense because iPhone and iPad users don't seem to worry about it, but that's the kind of hairpin I am.
And, depending upon where I'm at, the "regular" radio is plenty good for me. Like if I'm near Monterrey, CA, there's a great station that plays Hawaiian music 24/7 and in New York there's a half-dozen stations that play great rock, jazz or classical music with minimal commercials. Things have been a little rougher here in Chicago ever since the public station WBEZ stopped playing jazz all night. Still, there's enough good stuff on there that I keep my car radio glued there just like the middle eastern cabdrivers. When I walk the dog, I take the mp3 player, which has an FM radio. Except for sports, AM radio is a total waste of the spectrum. Everybody is hollering about how Obama is black and doesn't have a birth certificate or how the mexicans are taking over, interspersed with commercials for erectile dysfunction (which leads me to believe that conservativism and E.D. go together somehow, though it seems they don't have any trouble getting it up for their 18 year-old rentboys).
One more thing that I like radio for is sports. For some reason, probably dating back to my childhood, I'd rather listen to a White Sox game on the radio than watch it on TV. With a good announcer (like Bob Elston when I was a kid and Ed Farmer now), my brain does a better job of creating the visuals than television cameras ever could. Oh, I also like the Bears and Blackhawks on WGN. The announcers are all homers, just like it should be. I don't listen to the Cubs, ever, because they suck dick and anyone who likes them sucks dick (you can look it up).
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Hell yeah. Back in the day we used to crowd around the muted TV, watching the game while we listened to it on the radio.
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Because apparently we're retarded.
Oh, wait, it's just you.
Why do you think that people need to turn on TVs or monitors to listen to streaming radio on an HTPC?
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As far as "talk" radio, no thanks. I don't need any more voices in my head telling me what to think.
I completely agree...which is why my radio at work is always set to C-SPAN Radio (I work in Rockville, MD, about 40 minutes from DC, so I can pick up the non-HD terrestrial signal). The portions where they have people call in during the early morning and late afternoon shows suck, but it doesn't get more unbiased then a direct audio feed from Congress and the Senate :-)
Internet radio and Jazz in NYC? (Score:2)
Jazz? On which station? There used to be one, but they dropped the Jazz format about a year ago. Unbelievably, they dropped it and became YET *ANOTHER* rock station... a real waste, because there are already about 20 of those on my radio! (I kid you not!) No jazz, anymore. None.
Internet "radio" certainly has its place, but with the hands of the Music MAFIAA reaching pretty deeply into so many pockets, it's not easy to make it FREE. Even Pandora cuts you off after a certain number of hours per month, now...
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Where is that? Around here all the rock stations are turning to dance/hip-hop stations.
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We cannot hear WBGO in this area. Here is their coverage map:
http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WBGO&service=FM&status=L&hours=U [radio-locator.com]
My workplace is in Norwalk, CT. The Jazz station that changed format used to reach well past Fairfield.
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I hate it when a good station changes format. Chicago used to have real jazz all night every night on WBEZ, now it's international news.
There is a new AM signal that's religious programming during the day, but after dark turns into some very cool jazz. I was walking the dog the other week and switched around after the Hawks game. In one set, I heard Johnny Hartman and John Coltrane do My One and Only Love, Ornette Coleman's Soapsuds Soapsuds and an duet of Blossom Dearie and Bob Dorough singing Too Much
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Streaming sources like Pandora and Last.FM are free and legal. I don't have to search for music I like, and I don't have to worry about running out of storage space.
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Yes, if you don't count any country besides the US, UK and Germany.
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