Internet Radio finally living up to its promise
high-fidelity audio finally reliable
I founded ElectriCiti, one of California's first ISPs in 1992. Since that time I have regularly monitored the progress of the Internet's capability to deliver high-fidelity audio programming reliably.Although the current crop of streaming media has severe technical limitations due to the Unicast architecture, we've finally arrived at a fortuitous technical plateau where you can reliably queue up 30-90 minute programs without too much strain if you have a good list of starting sources.
If don't live in a time zone that makes listening a live stream practical, there are now several good programs that allow you to automatically record RealAudio streams and store them in MP3 format, just like a VCR. The software is easy to use, reliable, and produces decent-quality recordings, approximately equal to FM broadcast.
Although most of the content available on RealAudio requires you to queue up each program manually, the 30-90 minute length of a typical program makes it much less tedious than assembling a few hours of music in 5-6 minute tracks. Since many of the programs are available on a regular program schedule, daily or weekly, it's simple enough to return to the URL using bookmarks or a "favorites" page.