This article contains a few tiny pieces of the online radio iceberg. See this page for plenty more additional radio stations and networks.

I want radio to change: I demand more variety, better quality sound, and the ability to listen to more programming than I do commercials. Internet radio has these benefits, and in most cases, is free.

Some of our favorite radio stations duplicate their broadcast on the Internet, so visitors to the stations’ websites can use computers instead of radios to listen to programming. This is handy to an extent, but we’re still left with planned programming, limited variety, and no ability to pick and choose what we want to hear.

Sure, spinning the radio dial is an option. But even in a world with perfectly designed radios, relaxed FCC broadcasting rules and no electromagnetic interference, the FM radio band has the capability to support one hundred stations at any given time. Now look online. You’ll find comparing FM radio to Internet radio is like comparing Eddie Murphy’s “Party all the time” to Don McLean’s “American Pie”. To put it politely, one of these presents certain advantages over the other.

http://live365.com
Self-proclaimed as the “world’s largest Internet radio network”, free registration at Live365 will let you peruse about seventy categories of music and talk radio. Within those categories lie thousands (yes, thousands) of free online stations. This service is ad-supported, so turn on your pop-up blocker. You can get rid of all ads and have access to even more stations by paying up to $6 per month. Or pay $10 per month and broadcast your own station. You can use the listener-maintained rating system to easily find quality broadcasts. If you find you love what you’re hearing, a “Buy” button links you to a purchase site like Amazon.com.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio
The BBC Radio Player gives access to archived radio shows. You’re limited to the BBC’s selection, but there are a wide range of shows, plenty of variety, no ads, and you have the ability to “fast-forward” through shows if desired.

http://radiolovers.com
RadioLovers is pretty unique, as they offer a large archive of vintage radio shows from mid-1900s America. You can hear popular voices like Abbot and Costello and Vincent Price, or hear old radio serials from Roy Rogers to Buck Rogers. And who could forget “United States Postal Inspector”, containing dramatizations of case histories of “crimes against the mails”. Entertainment was different back then.

In 1940, FM radio was demonstrated to the FCC for the first time. From Rush Limbaugh to Howard Stern, from Abba to Frank Zappa, radio news and entertainment have changed the world. 65 years later, we’re entering a fascinating new stage. Listeners have increasingly more control over what’s broadcast and what they hear. What will happen to traditional radio and government decency standards? I look forward to hearing what comes next.