Online radio such as AOL Radio, Slacker, Pandora and Last.fm have gained popularity recently. Furthermore, a lot of cordless devices like cell phones support these platforms. Does this mean the end of traditional radio stations? I will look at the impact of online radio on the radio landscape.

I seems that local radio stations are on their way to become extinct. They are being threatened by the development of online and satellite radio. These competing services commonly offer hundreds of music and entertainment channels. A number of the channels are even commercial-free. There is virtually an infinite number of online radio channels available.

Pandora and other online radio providers have become available on wireless audio transmitter and portable products by installing the appropriate app. This raises convenience and mobility of online radio. Mobility has to this point been the biggest plus of local radio.

AOL Radio utilizes CBS radio as its broadcasting platform. It comes with more than 200 music channels. Additionally it provides access to more than 150 local CBS radio stations. The underlying CBS radio platform "play.it" also allows listeners to create their own customized music channels. This is done by entering the names of albums, tracks or artists. The tracks played on each music channels can also be stored on an iPod for later playback by using 3-rd party tool iGetMusic.

Users can also create customized radio on other online music services by entering the artist and album names and these providers will play songs based on that information. Other services, on the other hand, fail to offer fully customized music channels.

Are conventional radio stations destined to become extinct by the continuous reduction of market share due to online radio? Online radio is especially useful for niche broadcasters who have been unable to broadcast due to the high price and licensing of frequency space.

Online radio broadcasters have found it hard to be profitable. The main cause is the huge number of competiting channels which is diluting listeners. At the same time, however, there is less pressure to insert commercials due to the lower expenses of broadcasting in comparison with traditional stations. This has made online radio content more interesting than terrestrial radio.

However, local radio has one big benefit over satellite and online radio. That is local content such as local news and events. Thus far the poor audio quality of FM radio has been a big downside. Nonetheless, newest digital radio broadcasts are set to enhance the audio quality. One of these technologies is HD radio. It is difficult to predict a clear winner in the battle between online and local radio because both offer their own exclusive content and high mobility which are the crucial factors that will decide the destiny of each service.


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