Here in Los Angeles, the only broadcast radio station worth listening to just went off the air. Indie 103.1 played tons of cool new music and featured DJs that were actually, brace yourself, into and knowlegable about music - shocking I know. Of course if you REALLY want to hear Panic! at the Crapsco or even more Jay-Zzzzz, you're still in luck. Plenty of commerical laden Top 40 stations crank that stuff out like it's, well like it's good. But don't rush out and buy that 5 year Sirius subscription pack just yet.
The good news is that the now defunct, super cool LA radio station is still available online - and there are many others just like it. We know what you're thinking, that's great for office dwellers, less than stellar for those who want to listen in the car.
But change is a-comin'. MiRoamer has teamed up with Blaupunkt to offer the first in-car internet radio head unit. The radio connects to your 3G/HSDPA/HSPA device via Bluetooth and uses the 3G phone as a sort of modem for internet connectivity. Once you set the connection up, accessing intenet radio is a easy a pressing a button on the head unit.
The MiRoamer web site gathers tens of thousands of internet radio stations and lets the user set preferences by genre, country of origin, popularity and even add new stations that might not be in the MiRoamer database. Even without a portable device you can listen to MiRoamer internet radio stations from your home or office computer.
The Blaupunkt radios will be on sale later in 2009 and prices will be in the $300-400 range. Pictured above is the feature rich New Jersey model.
A single DIN Hamburg
modle will be offered as well.
The only unknown in all this is sound quality and possible dropped connections but MiRoamer says buffering should reduce that risk.
Now that XM and Sirius have pretty much become one, there's a lot less choice when it comes to real alternatives to broadcast radio. Internet radio is shaping up to the be true alternative and Blaupunkt is running a tiny bit ahead of the curve at this point - What do you think, is this a passing fad or is internet radio the next big thing? Brian Moody, Senior Automotive Editor
compliance says:
01:43 PM, 01/28/09
Indie 103 was an Entravision and Clear Channel station. Giant radio conglomerates are the enemy of independent music. Good riddance to "indie" 103!
briancam says:
02:35 PM, 01/28/09
We'll take that as a "No" you don't think internet radio is a passing fad.
festiboi1 says:
02:54 PM, 01/28/09
I love this idea and have thought to myself in the past what a cool concept it would be to listen to live radio feeds on the internet while driving.
I could totally picture using it. There's a radio station from Melbourne, Australia that I adore and I listen to the live-feed everyday at home and work. It would be awesome to get it while driving and be able to have the nostalgia of hearing traffic reports from there while stuck on the 405 in LA, lol.
felonious says:
03:03 PM, 01/28/09
Better have a good airtime and data plan for that, eh?
albook says:
04:41 PM, 01/28/09
Hey! No one disses Jay-Z.
smokeonit says:
03:31 AM, 01/29/09
KCRW is the best radio station on LA...! music of all colors, and good NPR content;-)
briancam says:
07:46 AM, 01/29/09
I agree smoke - Morning becomes eclectic is an excellent show but after that, I don't want to hear a bunch of talk about how bad things are - international version = how bad things are in other countries. THis radio is for music lovers I'm sure - love the idea of hearing Aussie traffic reports though.
trackwrex says:
10:51 AM, 01/30/09
The single-DIN is nice, but I like the double-DIN version better. I think this is a fantastic idea. There's so much versatility with internet radio capabilities. My only concern is the quality of the signal. Think of it this way: if you guys can deal with AM radio and A2DP, then you'll be fine with this. Ciao!
umiami350z says:
01:22 PM, 01/30/09
Those radios look like they are the second coming of HAL 9000. Lets hope they don't go homicidal and crank the tunes in an effort to turn our brains into mush. My advice to anyone who buys one of these is to be careful what you say, HAL's watching haha