I'm pretty sure it was about 1972 when I invented channel surfing.
This was before cable TV, and even if you had a television with a remote, surfing five whopping VHF stations (after all, my hometown of Chicago is a major market) was hardly rife with adventure. It was for this reason I focused my attention on my Panasonic portable radio featuring both amplitude and frequency modulated bands and (are you sitting down?) integrated circuitry.
Like a little ham radio buff, with my white plastic earphone inserted, I spent many a late-night hour in insomniastic meditation. Cranking the little, knurled plastic tuning dial to one end of the dial, I would, with exquisite precision and patience, slowly advance the little, vertical tuning marker from one end of the dial to the other.
Comparing myself to a SETI researcher operating a NASA radio telescope, I listened for intelligent signs of life in the universe. I searched for, and found, faint signals from distant places. Even when results were elusive and obscured by static, if I oriented my antenna properly, and held my mouth just right, my skilled 12-year-old digit could capture a clear signal.
Any clear channel station with 50,000 watts of power could be mine when the sunspots cooperated and stratosphere was reflecting just so. I was fascinated by disc jockeys with odd, regional accents, with weather forecasts for places I'd never heard of and by commercials for auto dealerships that sounded fictional.
A little later in life, first with family and then on my own, I translated this passion to the car radio. It was by maintaining a strong signal and periodically returning to local stations as we moved across country that I connected with the changing geography. This was as much a part of my sense of place as anything I might have glimpsed through the windshield of mom's Volvo wagon.
I got a cable modem about a year and a half ago, and one of the things that my new wealth of bandwidth made possible for me is the ability to stream high quality audio from the Net to my speakers. Once again, I'm a little kid, exploring sonic spaces from around the countryand beyond.
Audio formats
There are three areas of importance when it comes to surfing Internet radio. These are in no particular order, what audio format(s) is/are the station offering, what media player are you going to use to play their feed and how will you find what you're looking for?
There are three formats that are each quite popular, and depending on the quality of your system, all equally good in terms of sound quality a discussion of how many pinhead audiophiles can dance on their heads not withstanding. These are RealNetwork's RealAudio, Microsoft's Windows Media and the standardized MP3 format. Most of the players I've taken for a spin will play all three formats.
When it comes to finding stations to listen to, three of the players I looked at are stand-alone applications and don't rely on using a Web browser for any of their functions, including searching for music.
Windows Media Player 7, available at www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/en/default.asp, is a full-featured player that provides playback for both audio and video in a wide variety of formats, the use of "skins" (various looks and layouts for the application itself), a graphic equalizer, the option of displaying psychedelic visuals in time to the music and good search functions.
Like most Microsoft applications it has a habit of taking over everything it can, making itself the default player for every media type under the sun during installation. This can be controlled, but you have to pay attention. Windows Media Player doesn't play RealNetwork's RealAudio or RealVideo.
RealNetwork's RealPlayer 8, available at http://real.com, similarly won't play Microsoft's proprietary formats. Otherwise it's just about as useful, doing many of the same things the Windows Media Player will do, as well as offering quick access to affiliates' media streams from outfits like ABC News, CNN and Comedy Central. It doesn't utilize skins or way-out visual effects. RealPlayer 8 is free, but for a price you can upgrade to RealPlayer 8 Plus and get some extra features.
IM Network's Sonicbox software is an interesting player. Well-designed and very easy to use, this audio application only lacks a graphic equalizer and skins. It plays neither Microsoft's nor RealNetworks' proprietary formats.
IM's real claim to fame is its rather revolutionary hardware. These are devices that allow you to play Internet radio on any stereo system. It comes in two flavors: the basic unit, Sonicbox K.O., involves connecting a small device to your computer that transmits its signal over a wire to a tuning device, which in turn provides the audio signal to your stereo. With this distinctive blue tuner, you can tune in stations on the Net from your stereo. The fancy version of the hardware, IM Remote Tuner, is wireless and allows you to add on modules to send the signal to multiple stereo receivers. The two packages cost a modest $59.95 and $99.95 respectively.
In an upcoming column I'll be talking about a few individual radio stations of note, such as Lawrence's own KJHK, the very first radio station on the planet to continuously stream its signal around the world. I'll also delve into Web-only streams. Until then, raise your virtual antennae and happy surfing.
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