Internet Radio

One of the latest developments in radio is the ability to broadcast across the Internet. The technical aspects of broadcasting radio across the Internet differ greatly to that of a traditional AM/FM broadcast, therefore, Internet radio is referred to as webcasting, rather than broadcasting. There are many similarities between a traditional radio broadcast and an Internet one, for example, the broadcast is continuous and cannot be halted, the transmission is downloaded live, which means it is not stored and retrieved at a later date. An Internet radio transmission is commonly referred to as a 'stream'. The majority of large commercial radio stations have an Internet stream, such as, Capital FM and Talksport, the first commercial radio station to launch an online stream was Virgin. To access Internet radio, all you will need is a computer, broadband Internet access and a Web browser such as Internet Explorer or Firefox. The sound quality of the transmission will depend on the codec used by the webcaster, and the bit rate they transmit at.