Radio Paradise is by far my favorite online station. They seem to be thriving via voluntary listener support, but I don't know that that's a model that will work for most stations. RP offers a truly unique brand of programming - many different genres skillfully mixed together by a master DJ - that is very, very difficult to pull off.
I did a regular radio show for 3 years in college (UCSC) and I know first-hand just how much talent & skill it takes to do what Bill at RP does.
I think that the *voluntary* nature of RP's support system is also important. If I hadn't had the chance to fall in love with the station via listening for several months to their high-fidelity stream I doubt that I'd be a supporter.
Speaking of high fidelity, RP is by far the finest-sounding stream online. It blows away the sound quality of not only FM but XM & Sirius as well (especially Sirius). If you have a high-quality set of speakers, give it a shot.
WOXY's "CD Quality" streams were 64kbps Windows Media last time I listened. Not dreadful on desktop computer speakers, but a LONG way from pristine. The Windows Media codec is just horrible on most types of music, including hard rock (or anything else with a lot of natural high frequency content such as cymbals, distorted guitars, etc.)
Well-encoded MP3 streams at 128kbps, or AACPlus at 64kbps are about as low as you can go and still deliver listenable audio. XM's streams, for example, are 64kbps AACPlus.
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Radio Paradise is by far my favorite online station. They seem to be thriving via voluntary listener support, but I don't know that that's a model that will work for most stations. RP offers a truly unique brand of programming - many different genres skillfully mixed together by a master DJ - that is very, very difficult to pull off. I did a regular radio show for 3 years in college (UCSC) and I know first-hand just how much talent & skill it takes to do what Bill at RP does. I think that the *voluntary* nature of RP's support system is also important. If I hadn't had the chance to fall in love with the station via listening for several months to their high-fidelity stream I doubt that I'd be a supporter. Speaking of high fidelity, RP is by far the finest-sounding stream online. It blows away the sound quality of not only FM but XM & Sirius as well (especially Sirius). If you have a high-quality set of speakers, give it a shot.
WOXY's "CD Quality" streams were 64kbps Windows Media last time I listened. Not dreadful on desktop computer speakers, but a LONG way from pristine. The Windows Media codec is just horrible on most types of music, including hard rock (or anything else with a lot of natural high frequency content such as cymbals, distorted guitars, etc.)
Well-encoded MP3 streams at 128kbps, or AACPlus at 64kbps are about as low as you can go and still deliver listenable audio. XM's streams, for example, are 64kbps AACPlus.