THE SOUL GUY

More Soul Than You Can Shake A Stick At!



The first Internet radio station, Internet Talk Radio, was developed by Carl Malamud in 1993, using a technology called MBONE (IP Multicast Backbone on the Internet). Later that year, Austin Arts BBS began providing (later netcasting) Screenprinters Radio, pre-recorded interviews, stories, tips and tricks and music for members of the Austin, Texas screenprinting BBS, founded in 1983 by Bill Hood. WXYC (89.3 FM Chapel Hill, NC USA) was the first radio station to announce broadcasting on the Internet on November 7, 1994. WXYC used an FM radio connected to a system at SunSite, later known as Ibiblio, running Cornell's CU-SeeMe software. WXYC had begun test broadcasts and bandwidth testing as early as August, 1994. WREK (91.1FM, Atlanta, GA USA) also claims to have started streaming on November 7, with no outside help and using their own custom software called CyberRadio1, although that was their beta launch date and the stream was not advertised until a later date.

In March, 1994, Nicholas Baltinos & Scott Truman of Sydney, Australia, commenced test netcasting of the then unamed NetFM. Tests took place from within the network facility of one of the leading ISPs where a small makeshift studio was constructed in a corner of the very cold server room. The test were limited to 5hrs live per week and CDs were loaded manually into two domestic CD players. The broadcast console was a basic Yamaha recording console not really designed for live broadcasting but it was forced to do the job. With over 4 years of development and testing, including the construction of a purpose built internet radio studio, NetFM was born. The first continuous broadcast from the new studio commenced on 13 November, 1998 with the first show being the Vinyl Lounge (http://www.vinyllounge.com), now the longest running netshow on the Internet. This first netcast was inducted into the Australia Sound and Film Archive. Today, NetFM is a flourishing Internet Radio Station with millions of listeners around the world.

In 1994, the Voice of America became the first broadcast news organization to offer continuously updated programming on the Internet.

KJHK 90.7FM in Lawrence, Kansas, began to stream its live broadcast using CU-SeeMe on December 3, 1994. KJHK was the first radio station to maintain a continuous, live signal over the Internet. This has been verified by the National Association of Broadcasters, Sports Illustrated, and CNN.

In 1994, Radio Television Hong Kong, RTHK, the free-to-air Hong Kong Government Public Broadcaster began streaming all radio programs on the Internet.

In February, 1995, the first full-time, Internet-only radio station, Radio HK, began broadcasting the music of independent bands. Radio HK was created by Norman Hajjar and the Hajjar/Kaufman New Media Lab, an advertising agency in Marina del Rey, California. Hajjar's method was to use a CU-SeeMe web conferencing reflector connected to a custom created audio CD in endless loop. Later, Radio HK converted to one of the original RealAudio servers.

KPIG also began to transmit a live, 24/7 feed, in August 1995, first using Xing Streamworks and later switching to RealAudio. Bill Goldsmith, who was KPIG's Operations Manager & morning DJ at the time, and the one responsible for starting the webcast, now operates the popular Internet station Radio Paradise.

NetRadio (Net.radio, NetRadio Network) founded by Scott Bourne and radio veteran Scot Combs in 1994. Netradio began the first all internet radio network using RealAudio 1.0 in November of 1995. Starting out with four formats and expanding to more than a dozen two years after. The radio network became so popular it was included as a preset in RealAudio (aka RealMedia) 2.0+ players. NetRadio was the first Internet Radio network to receive an experimental license from ASCAP which later became a standard license for all online radio stations. In July of 1996, NetRadio accomplished another first by offering the first weekly live internet only concert series hosted by NetRadio Webmaster Nathan Wright.

HardRadio The first .com Internet-only radio station debuted on New Year's Eve 1995 at HardRadio.com with its hard rock and heavy metal format utilizing Xing Streamworks technology. HardRadio.com remains the oldest surviving internet-only radio station. During its history, HardRadio.com was the first internet-only radio station licensed by both ASCAP and BMI, the first internet-only radio station with broadcast trade journal playlist reporting status, the first internet-only radio station serviced by the recording labels, the first internet-only radio station to feature world premieres of new artist releases, and the first internet-only radio station featured in Radio & Records Magazine.

WUEV launched its live simulcast in January 1996, also using the Xing Streamworks technology at first, then adding RealAudio and moving from the Xing platform to Windows Media Technologies as equipment (and budget sizes) changed.

The first radio station to stream 24-hours a day in Europe was the UK's Virgin Radio, who started streaming a live simulcast using Real Networks in March 1996.

Tuning in to a broadcast like a traditional radio is not possible on internet, so finding different broadcasts has to be done with a search engine or a website that collects on-line radio broadcasts.

In 1996 GBS Radio Networks, founded by radio veteran Guy W. Giuliano, was one of the first to launch an internet radio programming service. The firm syndicated two commercial formats, hip-hop station BombRadio, and hard rock format LoudRadio. In 1998, GBS was purchased by Kent Kiefer's eMusic corporation in a highly publicized cash and stock deal. In 1999, LoudRadio.com became the first online radio station to be syndicated on a commercial broadcast station via KLOD-FM in Flagstaff, AZ.

In 1997 the first women's internet radio channel was created and broadcast as Amazon City Radio from the community and business portal amazoncity.com.

All India Radio started live on the internet service on 25th February 1998. Millions of the listeners were able to listen AIR programmes.

In 1998, Australia's first internet radio station NetFM commenced continuous netcasting after many years of test broadcasting since 1994. Initially broadcasting with Real Audio format, NetFM found that Windows Media Format delivered a better quality sound, so in 1999, NetFM signed an agreement with Microsoft to exclusively use Windows Media Technology. NetFM's first show was The Vinyl Lounge, which has been netcasting continuously until the present day making it the longest running internet radio show in the world. Today, NetFM is listened to by millions of people worldwide and in 2001 was the first Internet Station in the world to deploy a microsite (http://www.netfm.net/mobile) for access by mobile and other wireless devices.

In 1999, one of the first University/College stations to operate was in Antigonish, Nova Scotia at St. Francis Xavier University CFXU.

In 1999 Scour.com released the Mycaster software tool and website, that allowed users to simply operate their own internet radio stations. The MyCaster MP3 player (like Winamp) streamed the user's local music files to the Mycaster.com website which listed the stream and reflected it to listeners using webbrowsers or local stream-playing software. MyCaster succumbed during the dot com bust, shutting down in May, 2001.

Peercasting uses P2P technology. Its requirement of communicating a URI before transmission and the lack of a centralized repository of such addresses reduced peercasting's widespread adoption.

Mercora IMRadio, a combination of social networking and Internet radio, streams music in the Ogg Vorbis format. Mercora allows users to webcast music and pays royalties to the copyright collectives such as ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and SoundExchange.

RadioVague, in 2003, acquired a transportable satellite internet broadcast system and started broadcasting live shows from events and music festivals around Europe using only free and open source software, broadcasting in OGG/Vorbis format using Icecast and Icecast2 servers, their first event being the February 15, 2003 anti-war protest. Since then they have extended their distribution platform to allow both traditional FM radio stations and other internet radio stations to achieve a global audience.

In 2004, one of the more popular torrent websites, SuprNova, partnered with an amateur internet radio group and formed SuprNova Radio. The radio station was operated by an amateur DJ staff, which usually consisted of converted listeners, who worked on a voluntary basis. Much of the content played on the station was gathered from pirated material.

2006 World's first Malayalam Internet radio for Malayalees all over the world Radio Dum Dum started from Kerala. Radio Dum Dum is first of its kind. Its unique desktop standalone player is designed by a team of young developers in association with bruhi. It caters the thirst for malayale music lovers all over the world.

In the end of 2006 Radio Art, the first non profit internet station, started broadcasting live from Athens it is also the first internet music station that plays music based on poetry.

2007 Internet Radio made further strides in becoming a viable mobile option, as DHTML code specifically created for Windows Mobile Internet Explorer is made available . This code allows others to create their own Mobile Internet Explorer website, so that they may enjoy Internet Radio through their Windows Mobile Phones via Internet Explorer.