I am a sucker for Radio. And of late I am totally addicted to AOL Radio. Maybe its a Freudian thing about growing up in the non-TV era, but I love radio. What I like about it is the unpredictability of music that’s ahead, letting you discover new music. Yes, you have more control of what you want to listen with a CD or iPod. And can shut out crappy music on most radio stations. But if the music is varied and generally matches your taste, I find the experience cool. As a kid, I used to fiddle around with our GEC radio, with its manual tuner. My bro would tune it to Radio Australia for its cricket coverage at 5.30 am with instructions nobody should touch the radio for the next 7 hours! And thanks to Vividbharati’s Jayamala and SLBC’s Binaca Sangeet Mala, I can still rattle off the lyrics of Hindi songs I must last heard some 20 years ago!
I have been using the Mac version of AOL Radio for a while now and the new version, AOL Radio 2.0 is vastly superior to the earlier versions. Thankfully, unlike the iPhone app of AOL Radio, this one works outside the US. Yes, there are many online radio stations and applications available, but I find this one particularly addictive. This has stations sorted by genre and now with it being ‘powered by CBS Radio’ there are 150+ US radio stations. And I like listening to mashed up genres (80s Black Music, All Dave Matthews, Brit Pop) and obscure radio stations (WYCD HD2 The Wolf, Wolf Country Detroit).
Sites like Raaga.com have attempted to offer popular Indian music on the net, but such sits are usually Mac-unfriendly and crash my browser. There are options like Live 365 whose Hindi channels cater largely to the NRI population in US/UK and Canada.
Any thoughts on radio and online music stations? Do comment.
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