Hey Pop, Did Internet Radio Always Suck This Badly?
By Dr. David Currie

"Well, honey, believe it or not, at one time we actually huddled around the computer to listen to the first live Internet broadcast of an execution.  Another time, your mother and I snuggled up on the living room sofa, pulled up a monitor with a big bowl of popcorn, and after having listened to a couple glorious hours of Internet radio, live on all of the best C&W channels that the great state of Texas had to offer, we watched our first bitstreamed movie.  It was "My Pal Trigger," starring Roy Rogers and Dale Evans.  From that day onwards, at least for a few years, bitstreaming quality, and that included Internet radio, did nothing but improve... more stations, faster and more reliable buffering and streaming, outstanding quality live radio broadcasts, any genre, night or day, rain or shine... those were the days!  We assumed that traditional radio would soon be a thing of the past.  Click once to open your Yahoo! Media Player, select radio, look at the long list of Internet radio stations, click on the genre and station of your choice, and voila, instant radio.  Changing stations meant a mouse click, followed by a brief period of buffering, and again, voila, more radio.  And, of course, you could listen while working on other programs!"

"So what went wrong Pop?"

"Well, several things went wrong, honey.  First of all, people could still listen to local radio, and so they did!  Very few people listened to Internet radio from distant locations.  That meant that Internet radio generated very little additional revenue for existing stations.  Meanwhile, the stations had to buy more equipment and hire more technicians to support Internet radio.  As smaller radio stations began hiring technicians to help them get on the air, a new cottage industry of "totally redundant bitstream player developers," was created.  Soon, we were dealing with at least four problems...

• Many Internet radio broadcasts were discontinued, leaving hundreds of broken, useless radio links on the Internet.  This made it increasing difficult to find functional Internet radio links amidst the ever growing fodder of broken radio links.

• Having found a functional Internet radio link, one is at the mercy of the bitstream player developers.  In other words, before we can listen to many Internet radio stations, we must register and download additional, redundant bitstream players.

• As Internet radio has not proven profitable, functional Internet radio stations may only broadcast a few selected profitable programs.  That means that you may now have filtered through an abundance of links to find a functional link, and having found a functional link you may have spent several minutes downloading a totally redundant bitstream player, only to find that the station you want to listen is not actually broadcasting anything right now."

"Gee, Pop, do you think Internet radio will ever get better?"

"Well, honey, it certainly can't get any worse!"

Dr. W. Dr. W. David Currie