Bill writes about his misgivings with Internet radio:
If all you care about is sound quality, Internet Radio can be your new Superadio. However, it is not a Superadio in several ways. The following occur to me:
It is true Internet Radio doesn't need any wires or outside antennas... except of course you need the whole blasted Internet. You need either a wired, WiFi, or cellular data connection to the Internet for it to work at all. Hard as it may be for those of you who are urbanized to understand, there are places not far from you where these signals are just not available.
That's without adding in power failures, cell system slowdowns, disasters, emergencies, or just simple holidays when the cell system is overloaded, and so on. The Superadio continues to work fine however many other people are trying to tune into the same signal. The same can't be said for internet radio.
The Superadio is a buy-and-forget solution. Once you've bought your radio you have no ongoing expenses except batteries or line electricity to power it. Streaming Internet Radio requires an ongoing Internet connection, which costs money. Granted you probably have this anyway. In my case, though, for pure portable operation I have to fall back on a cell phone whose data is, effectively, limited. Heavy audio streaming is going to eat up my data. Radio won't.
For the tinfoil hat crowd, it is harder for The Man to know what you're listening to with a radio, or that you're listening to anything at all. It can still be done but Internet Radio leaves footprints all over the place, showing what streams you heard. That might be a serious non-paranoid concern for some people, I suppose.
(I find a radio easier when I just want to tune something in casually, without having to work at it or decide in advance just what I want to hear. That's just a matter of taste, though, so it doesn't really count as an advantage.)
Bill is right on. I also believe there's an "adventure" component to the DX hobby----that is, tuning in different weather conditions, different times of year, different times of day---using different locations in or around your house, trying new antennas, etc.----to push the performance of your radios and enjoy the technical aspect of the hobby as well as the programming itself. I have internet radios and love them----but there's something very sterile about punching in call letters and getting the signal over wifi---as opposed to finding mystery stations and waiting for station IDs to see how far away your conventional radio is reaching. In some ways, it's apples and oranges----not quite as dramatic as a concert vs. a compact disk----but something like that. And it can't be overstated that a good battery powered radio is an emergency essential----as with power failures, the internet becomes useless.
Posted by: Angelo | June 30, 2014 at 10:01 AM
It's fishing versus eating fish; I do enjoy fishing, but I eventually want to eat the fish (and a lot of it.) Given a finite amount of free time, the choice between listening to some mindful and inspiring content as opposed to trying to dig out a legible signal from noise is not so fair a comparison.
Posted by: StarHalo | June 30, 2014 at 12:04 PM
Fishing vs. eating fish is a good analogy. Two different activities.
Posted by: Angelo | June 30, 2014 at 06:35 PM
I feel the need to bring baseball into the conversation. While I understand it's not for everyone, it is the main reason I listen to AM. And while it's all there for the listening on the internet, it doesn't come free. On the flip-side, listening to a west-coast game (here in the northeast) late at night is truly a gift from the radio gods. Especially when I'm sitting next to the fire with a few cold ones.
Posted by: Dave P. | June 30, 2014 at 07:35 PM
Agreed, getting an out-of-state game on terrestrial radio is the life, I have AM night-only presets on my car radio for when I'm in a game mood and want to dial around. But know that the MLB.tv audio-only package is $20 for the entire year with no blackouts - every broadcast of every game plus full stats and video highlights for a buck and change a month. Sometimes when I'm out and about I'll play a live game on my cell and then put it in my pocket and get some shopping done; lots of surprised looks from folks wondering how I get perfect reception in a store from what appears to be a pocket radio..
Posted by: StarHalo | June 30, 2014 at 08:06 PM
Hmmmmm, to be honest, I wasn't aware the MLB audio package was that inexpensive. Was is always that way? I guess I just haven't looked into it in a few years....oops. I do take advantage of the daily 'free game' every once in a while. I don't have a smart phone, so I may have to shop for a cheap tablet and give the MLB package a try. There's nothing worse that being out back for a late one and having no games to listen to. Although there's always the Old Time Radio Shows from CHML.......(they can be fun once in a while).
Posted by: Dave P. | July 01, 2014 at 06:07 PM
MLB audio was a whopping $2/mo when I subscribed, so the price has actually gone down. And you can listen in with whatever you're reading this on; it works in a web browser as well as apps.
I'll sometimes listen to the old time shows during the winter on KBRW, broadcasting from beautiful downtown Barrow, Alaska. Nothing like getting a weather update during the break to find out it'll be -35 degrees overnight..
Posted by: StarHalo | July 01, 2014 at 08:00 PM