Web radio

The term Web radio refers to a radio re-broadcasting service one can log
into via the internet. Because the radio signal is relayed over the internet
through the World Wide Web, 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 'niche' interests that may not be
adequately catered for by their local radio stations (e.g., country music or
Christian music). Some of the web radio services available via the internet
offer news, sports, talkback, and various genres of music—everything
that is on the radio station being re-broadcast.

It is important to note that not every Web radio station has a corresponding
traditional radio station. Many web radio stations are completely
independent from traditional broadcast radio.

One of the most common ways to distribute Web radio is via streaming MP3
technology, which uses the well-known MP3 music format. The bits are
'streamed' over a TCP/IP connection, then reassembled and played within
about 2 seconds. Therefore, streaming MP3 radio has about a 2 second lag
time.

There are three major components to an MP3 stream:

  1. audio stream source
  2. audio stream repeater (server)
  3. audio stream playback

There are many methods for creating the audio stream source. One of the
easiest and most popular methods is to use Winamp and the SHOUTcast DSP
plugin. Other methods are open source and include Streamcast, stream-db and
IceS. Using open source stream source tools allows for interesting web
interface possibilities like phpStreamcast.

One of the most popular Web radio servers is Shoutcast. An open source
alternative is Icecast. Lists of broadcasts can be found at both sites.

The purpose of the server is to repeat the stream source to the audio
playback software.

Some sort of audio playback software, that is capable of reading HTTP data
streams, is needed to listen to streaming MP3 audio. Some popular MP3
players are Winamp for Windows, iTunes for Macintosh and XMMS on UNIX/Linux.

There are also a small number of web radio programs that allow users to rate
the songs they are listening to. The allows one users music listening
choices to be correlated against anothers, as with the program iRATE radio.

The first Internet "radio station", Internet Talk Radio, was developed by
Carl Malumud in 1993. Malumud's station used a technology called MBONE(IP
Multicast Backbone on the Internet). In February, 1995, the first full-time,
Internet-only radio station, Radio HK, began broadcasting the music of
independent bands. Radio HK was created by Norman Hajjar and the
Hajjar/Kaufman New Media Lab, an advertising agency in Marina del Rey,
California. Hajjar's method was to use a CU-SeeMe web conferencing reflector
connected to a custom created audio CD in endless loop. Later, Radio HK
coverted to one of the original RealAudio servers.