The magic of internet radio and video sites

One of the biggest benefits of broadband is internet radio and video sites like Youtube and metacafe. No longer one (who has broadband) has to tune his radio on shortwave everyday to listen to BBC or VoA. For those who listen to such stations will recall the challenges of bad quality of reception and daily need to tune and fine tune. With a broadband connection, one can now listen to most well known radio stations without any of these hassles. And many of the shows are available on demand and can be heard at one’s convenience. One can also tune in to stations not available on short wave: Stations like KKSF (smooth jazz FM channel for Bay area) can be now accessed anywhere. Moreover, media players come with a Radio tuning feature wherein one can search a radio station by genre or other key words and then play it. Of course, this means that you can access information from any source that you feel worthy and also convenience of listening while you carry out your cooking, ironing or other household chores (that’s where radio beats reading a web page). Radio also beats many other programs because of its legacy issues. Also being cheaper than TV, many lesser heard voices can make themselves audible: There are many internet radio stations from Venezuela which tell you the other side of the story. Being considered a public service with lesser pressure for revenue generation and cost control; many of the stations like BBC, NPR etc. still have an unparalleled coverage and quality of programming. But it’s yet to be available on cars where FM radio still rules. Also, though the All India Radio site has displayed an internet radio link for over a year, it is yet to be active.

The other feature: video sites, are equally amazing. While mainstream TV stations show censored (self and often forced) versions of the outcome of Israel’s daring do at Lebanon; amateurs have uploaded hundreds of video clips at YouTube and Metacafe showing the real magnitude of ghastliness of Israeli attacks. And even if you are too elevated for global politics, there is enough stuff at these sites to draw your interest: music videos, comedy clips, yesteryears programs and material to satisfy basic urges. The only problem: it may get addictive. But as long as you have unlimited broadband connectivity, you shouldn’t mind.