USA: Bill Mann: Internet radio brings the world to your home

By Bill Mann Columnist Posted: 09/24/2009 10:35:51 AM PDT Updated: 09/24/2009 10:35:52 AM PDT LIKE SOME OF YOU, I've listened to radio on the net for years. And also, popular free music service Pandora, where you can program your own customized radio station to play everything from Wilson Pickett to Haydn. But there's a convenient new twist: A net radio you can put on your nightstand or anyplace in your house — with radio preset buttons. It brings the world into your living room or bedroom at the touch of a button. I first saw one of these last year in Vancouver, where I was visiting my old pal "Mayor" Art Finley, the former KRON kiddie-show host and talk host at both KCBS and KGO. Finley had a Grace Internet radio pre-set to both KCBS and KGO. So here we were way up in B.C., listening to Bay Area radio. No more lugging a laptop around the house: I just had to get one, which I did for my birthday. They're not that expensive and look a lot like a regular radio. All you need is a wireless network and router in your house. Among the variety of stations and odd things I've found the past few months: # You can listen to Internet-streaming radio stations from any country in the world. I've heard a hip-hop station out of Oslo, and streaming stations from Barbados, France, Japan, and Australia. What is obvious is that American popular culture — music — washes over the entire world. It's impossible to find a country in which a large amount of rap/soul/R&B isn't a Advertisement staple — or dominant — on that nation's music stations. This Francophile had a hard time finding traditional, accordion-driven Parisian music amidst all the French urban music. I finally found one, Radio Bonheur. # The Grace model I got groups stations by genre as well as country. And even though all-Beatles stations long ago vanished in the U.S., I've got one pre-set locked into a Fab Four station — out of Moscow, of all places. Every four or five Beatles songs, an announcer breaks in and says something like, "Beatles "... vranya." Most-often-heard song? "Back in The USSR," of course. # I searched the Blues genre for a good station, and found a great one. No name, no announcers, but a very odd twist: Before the Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf sets begin, you hear a 30-second recruitment pitch for "... the CIA! I've found this CIA ad on other Net stations. Is the CIA an advertiser — or a net-station owner? Some reader may know the answer. # Talk about niche programming: I also found a net radio station that's all George Carlin, 24 hours a day. Uncensored bits by the irreverent late comic, with the occasional interview of Carlin by (he's never introduced) former Chronicle guy/comedy-book author Jerry Nachman, during which Carlin discusses his craft. Remember short wave radio? This is kinda like that — where you can hear radio stations from all over the world, which I used to do as a kid. The difference here is that with Net radio, there's no Soviet jamming — and no Soviet Union. Bill Mann can be reached at newsmann@mannpublications.org.