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Is Internet Radio "real" radio?

M

magpie

Guest
Your opinions, please. I keep seeing that more and more people (esp. the younger demo) are listening online (esp. on mobile.) I'm NOT putting down internet radio; in fact I have my own show online. I just want to know what y'all think and if there are any Internet stations/shows you especially like. Thanks.
 
To many, especially younger people, "radio" is any method that delivers non or semi personalized (like Pandora) audio to them. Also, most of that listening is via 3G/4G/Wifi making it wireless like "real" radio.
I think the line between AM/FM and online is already starting to blur, and will continue to.
 
I like 949coolfm.com its the Boxford Pirate playing oldies online. He says he will never go back on air as a pirate again. btw the fcc is now looking at streams as a way to bring in more money.
 
It's not radiated audio, so it's not "radio". Streaming audio should be given it's own name, like "streamio" or something like that (I have no idea how the word "streaming" originated). An on-line-only station, Like BostonFreeRadio.com is a "station" (a central location from which an activity is centered), and it does act like radio in every respect. So, it's a streamio station.
 
What bugs me is seeing people referring to any kind of radio or broadcast that isn't old-fashioned analog AM/FM radio as not being "terrestrial", including internet streams and local HD radio subchannels.

The word "terrestrial" literally means on the Earth. We are "terrestrial" beings, a space alien would be an "extra-terrestrial".

As far as I know, the only kind of radio that's not "terrestrial" is satellite radio, such as Sirius/XM, because the final signal (that we hear) is relayed from a satellite that's not on the Earth.

Internet radio is on the Earth (though there are some forms of wireless internet that are relayed via satellite), and HD radio stations transmit from the same antennas as their analog parent stations, on the Earth. I cringe whenever I see someone say that such-and-such internet station or HD subchannel should be on "terrestrial" radio . It already is!
 
Internet Radio can be considered "real" radio (read: "terrestrial" or over-the-air) if it's also broadcast over-the-air (even if it's an HD subchannel of an FM station).

If it's an online-only stream and not heard anywhere over the air, it's not "terrestrial", or over-the-air radio.
 
Joseph_Gallant said:
If it's an online-only stream and not heard anywhere over the air, it's not "terrestrial", or over-the-air radio.
Click to expand...

That's a narrow view that would make 1960s AM owners proud. So WJIB is a "real radio station" and Pandora isn't because it uses newer technology?
 
That may be overly simplistic. If (as I did today) I listen to Slacker on my phone in the car it arrives OTA, right?
Different frequency and transmission protocols but still wireless. So by your definition it IS radio.


Joseph_Gallant said:
Internet Radio can be considered "real" radio (read: "terrestrial" or over-the-air) if it's also broadcast over-the-air (even if it's an HD subchannel of an FM station).

If it's an online-only stream and not heard anywhere over the air, it's not "terrestrial", or over-the-air radio.
Click to expand...
 
Has anyone streamed IheartRadio through an iPhone and into your car stereo system? Curious as to the quality and what the data charges would be?
 
When I use Slacker it's about 100mb per hour. Quality is surprisingly good-much better than Sirius/XM.
I'm grandfathered in an unlimited data plan so I don't worry.
 
Joseph_Gallant said:
If it's an online-only stream and not heard anywhere over the air, it's not "terrestrial", or over-the-air radio.
Click to expand...

The definition of the word "terrestrial" is "on the Earth", not "over-the-air".

I believe that, per the definition, internet streams are terrestrial. With the exception of some certain satellite internet providers, the internet and its streams are on the Earth, not up in space.
 
No, it isn't.

An essential characteristic of radio is that it doesn't cost the broadcaster any more when 500,000 people tune in than it does when only 500 people listen. The amount of bandwidth required is the same.

In internet "radio", bandwidth requirements are proportional to the number of recipients. If you want to reach 500 people, you'll need to send out 500 streams. It is not broadcasting, but something more like newspaper publishing, where the cost of paper depends on how many subscribers you have.

There is no practical way to reach a mass audience with an Internet stream. The costs of bandwidth and music licensing will kill you.
 
I wish WJIB would stream so I could listen to it when I'm outside of the coverage area. It's the best thing on radio!!!!


BITNER BROADCASTING FOREVER!!!!!! :)
 
I'll vote for the distinction being rf distribution vs. other means.

If it's only in a wire, cable, or fiber optic, it's an audio service that's still looking for the right name.

I will not diminsh or demean the value, enjoyment, fun, usefulness of data-distributed audio.

But there's just nothing at all of the magic of radio in such methods. At least for me.
Radio engineering school was the most fun time in my life, and part of me has never left radio engineering school.

Building so many receivers and transmitters over years and striving for the utmost in AM fidelity
makes it hard for me see streaming audio as much more than a glorified one-way telephone call.
Again, not to diminsh the value, I longed for such a service 30 years ago.

I'll echo 4CX1000A's points and add the "always up" nature of the laws of physics as a major difference and advantage
over human-devised networks.

If/When data access to the network is acknowledged as a basic human right, and as free as the ether,
then it will be an equivalent to radio. This will require a lot more bandwidth, pipe, AND distribution points
than anyone wants to pay for now.

The magic of self-propogation and immediacy still won't be there.
For me, that is the heart OF radio; content and the business aspects are just "necessary" evils.
 
The content offered on internet streams is patterned on radio -- "radio" meaning the entertainment concept rather than the means of delivery. When people say things like "Howard Stern is great radio," they're not talking about modulation or transmission, they're talking about what they think is great audio-only entertainment. I don't see why people get so upset by references to streaming audio programming distributors as "radio." Would it somehow disappear or pose less of a threat to medium-wave and VHF delivery systems if it couldn't be called radio? When I listen to streaming stations like Dan Murphy's (ex-WCAS) Acoustic Outpost or Folk Radio UK, I consider myself as listening to radio online. What benefit would traditional over-the-air radio reap from my not thinking of streaming audio entertainment that way?
 
Very interesting answers. What I meant by the question originally was this: I tell someone I have a radio show. They say, "What station are you on?" I sheepishly say, "Well, it's on an internet radio station."

Need I be sheepish? I believe the show is of the quality you'd find on an AM or FM radio station.
 
Internet radio has been around much longer than HD. So... What numbers does internet radio post to show that it even exists? Name just one internet station that the general public listens to and is familiar with. Please keep in mind that many more people have access to internet programming than they do Sirius/XM.
 
I believe in the "concept" of internet radio.

But, I doubt its financial feasibility over the long term. Most of these stations make little, if any revenue and are largely "vanity" projects (i.e. "See how many songs I have in my CD collection??") by their owners.

1 billion people can own their own internet radio station now, if they choose. That doesn't mean a tenth of them, or 1/100th, or even 1/1000th of them will make a buck.

Unless and until that changes, we'll go on with these stations with "worldwide" potential reach, most of which have about 100 people listening at best...

I'm not saying there aren't exceptions to this...(and before you accuse me of being one-sided, I am involved with two such stations), but since you asked for my two cents....
 
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