MORE COOL INTERNET RADIO

From Wikipedia:

Internet radio is a broadcasting service transmitted via the Internet. Not every internet "radio station" has a corresponding traditional radio station. Many internet radio stations are completely independent from traditional ("terrestrial") radio stations and broadcast only on the Internet. Broadcasting on the Internet is usually referred to as streaming.

Because the radio signal is relayed over the Internet, it is possible to access the stations from anywhere in the world—for example, to listen to an Australian radio station from Europe or America. This makes it a popular service for expatriates and for people who have interests that may not be adequately catered for by their local radio stations (such as progressive rock). Some of the internet radio services offer news, sports, talkback, and various genres of music—everything that is on the radio station being re-broadcast.

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You may have noticed down in the links column to the left the Internet Radio section. For several years now pretty much every time I sit at my computer I boot one of those stations up and listen to a cool stream of music that I wouldn't necessarily have programmed for myself while I futz away at whatever task I'm doing. At home or work, I'm always grooving to better stations than I can actually find on the radio, which isn't surprising, given the corporate consolidation of the industry, which has resulted in ever more bland niche marketing--how many stations does the far right-wing Clear Channel company own in your town? Probably three or four, at least.

Because great radio while I work or play strikes me as such a no-brainer, it surprises me that I appear to be the only person I know who takes advantage of it. In the office where I work at LSU, I've been asked several times if I'm playing a CD; when I explain that I'm actually listening to a station on the internet, the response is either puzzlement or disinterest. What's up with that? These people don't know what they're missing.

Anyway, the point to this little rant is that I've discovered more cool internet radio.

Mike over at This is not a compliment turned me onto Pandora, which takes the concept of computer radio a couple of steps further than all the rest. That is, one is allowed to submit musical parameters into one's own internet radio station which then programs itself. For instance, I've put together a little jazz station for myself, Ron's Good Jazz: I simply told the web based program that I like Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner, George Benson, Dave Brubeck, Bill Evans, Freddie Hubbard, Louis Armstrong, Chet Baker, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, and, well, you get the idea; I've keyed in about twenty or so of my favorite jazz artists. The result ended up being near perfect. My jazz station plays all of those musicians, as you might well expect, but it also programs in others who are musically similar, often people who are completely unknown to me. I've had to strike very few players and bands. Another of my Pandora stations with which I've had great success is Down Home with Mr. Reeder, country music as I think it ought to be. Down Home riffs on Jerry Reed, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Patsy Cline, Willie Nelson, Buck Owens, Waylon Jennings, Jerry Jeff Walker, Flatt and Scruggs, Dwight Yoakam, Hank Williams, George Jones, Merle Haggard, and on and on--I've probably pumped in just about as many artists here as with Ron's Good Jazz. I'm not sure how the linking works exactly, but I think you'll probably get access to some of my stations that I'm not quite ready to announce to the world, like Art Rock with Ron, or Ron's Ethereal House-Hop--they're still works in progress, I think, but, what the hell, you may like them anyway. Go check it out.

ALSO, I was in the Big Easy earlier today and discovered that my favorite New Orleans jazz outlet, public station WWOZ FM, has been streaming over the internet for quite a while now. Indeed, when the station's staff was in exile following Katrina, they started streaming from New Jersey pretty darned quickly, just to show the city's will to survive. Anyway, they're great. I heard the best blues radio show I've ever encountered earlier this evening, better than the old Blue Monday show on KUT in Austin, better than San Francisco's KCSM blues show, better than Texas Southern University's KTSU blues show; it fucking rocked! Go check 'em out.

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