The Comeback of Radio — Online

Listening to radio in the old days was a family event with programs such as Little Orphan Annie and The Lone Ranger. With the invention of television, those days ceased and radio lost its intrigue, and more importantly, its usefulness. It was only recently that the Internet dug up and revived radio in our society.

While regular radio stations from all over the world can be listened to with a simple search on http://radio.broadcast.com, other sites have specialized stations. Some sites will even let you create your own station to be listened to by anyone. Here's a rundown of the best sites to get radio stations that play what you want to hear whenever you want it.

www.sonicnet.com

Here you can listen to singles from current popular artists and some not-so-popular ones. While offering the ability to listen to anything from rap to oldies to jazz, Sonicnet's most popular feature is the ability to create your own station. You pick the genre of music you want or only the artists you want to hear. Once it's set up, e-mail the link to your friends and they can listen to your radio station.

www.live365.com

Live365 provides the same features as Sonicnet. On top of this, it offers is the ability to have your own live broadcast (some downloading and light reading required). Once you've gone through the basics, you will have the chance to have your own live radio show. You can play the music you want or even have people call in and request.

www.shoutcast.com

Shoutcast has a very simple interface. There aren't a lot of superfluous ads, just bare bone links to streaming music. This site offers the ability to be your own broadcaster on the Internet.

www.netradio.com

Selling albums is what these guys want to do. Expect a lot of ads as you listen to music. You can choose from different styles of music, while not as obscure, this is more of a mainstream artist site. One nice feature is while you listen you have the ability to check out some band biographies and information.

www.internetradiolist.com

This is the best search engine for Web and regular radio stations. Consider it the portal that will bring you anywhere you want to go regarding Web radio. It has lots of links to the sites I've mentioned, plus many more.