Just a few years ago "radio" was whatever local stations you could pick up, or delving into the staticky world of shortwave.
Not so any more. Now essentially any traditional radio station in the world is available over the internet. In fact, many stations have more than one radio "stream" on the internet. It's become a necessity for any competitive radio station.
And it's not just traditional broadcast radio either. There are new forms of radio now. Some are like traditional but more specifically focused. For example, some internet stations exclusively broadcast radio dramas -- both old recordings and brand new.
A new kind of personally customized music broadcast has arrived in the forms of sites like "Pandora" and "Blip" and "Last.fm", These all let you create your own personalized music streams. Blip.fm even lets you be a DJ to create sharable streams of your own favorites.
This is all good for us - music fans, talk-show fans or just radio fans. There is an astonishingly rich and varied field of "radio", free for the listening, out there on the Internet.
How to receive Internet radio
This is the easy part. You can tune into Internet radio with any Internet-connected computer. The faster your Internet connection, the better, but even dial-up connections can be used in a pinch.
All computers actually come with the software that you need - "Media Player" on Windows and "iTunes" on Macs - but you can download all sorts of reputable alternatives too.
There are alternatives to using a computer too. Internet radio is also reachable with some smart phones, like the iPhone, or with some video game consoles, like Xbox or Play Station. Internet radio and video is becoming a common feature on new TV's and Blu-Ray players. They hook up to the Internet via your household WiFi network. There are even dedicated "Internet radios" - some with wonderful sound quality and even with pretty wood cabinets. Internet radios for cars are starting to enter the market.
Finding what you like to listen to
This is the harder part. Not because it's hard to find something that you like - that's actually quite easy - but to make a selection from the vastness of all that's out there. Even when narrowed to "what I like", the field is enormous.
Start by looking on the "Radio" link on your player of choice, or by searching the web for "Internet radio". You may find that, like listening to shortwave in the past, sorting through the signals to find some fascinating new thing to listen to is part of the fun. And, it's free!
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