Internet radio has become a rage on the net, particularly among the younger generation. It has changed the way radio operates, to positive effects.

E-radio, also called Radio on Internet, adds another dimension to the treasure field of the web. A milestone in the continuing evolution of the Internet, e-radio has made the web more entertaining. E-mails made the web a medium of correspondence, e-commerce a platform for commercial transactions and e-radio has increased the entertainment quotient.

However, to term Internet radio to be a novel innovation would be far from the truth. Internet radio networks have been around for a while now. It came into being in the late 1990s and has been since used by the traditional radio broadcasters to simulcast their programming. The quick spread of Internet technology and faster connectivity has helped the Internet radio to become a rage, especially among youngsters. Today, it has become a prime medium of entertainment for many.

Today, a bevy of channels (or stations), catering to specific areas of interest are ever ready to serve the listener. This has become a standard feature of Internet radio networks that serve music online. The listener can tune into any of scores of channels covering diverse genres as Classic Rock, Alternative Rock, Indie Rock, Jazz, 80s music, 70s music, Oldies, Country, Latin, Euro, Ambient, New Age, Reggae, Lounge, Progressive, Techno and many more. One can enjoy hours and hours of uninterrupted music at no cost!

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A Different Approach to Radio Marketing. Traditionally if you wanted to carry out a spot of radio marketing for your product or service, you would call up a station and ask for their media pack. This pack would include statistics on how successful ads were when broadcast on their station.

The station sales team would make a big point out of their stats before hitting you with the huge cost of running ads with them.

Now think Richard Branson.

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Many networks in organisations suffer from a lack of time synchronisation between servers, workstations and other network components. This can lead to problems processing time critical information and transactions. However, a solution has been available for many years in the form of NTP, the Network Time Protocol. NTP can be used to synchronise network time clients to an accurate time reference, or NTP server. A stratum 1 NTP server synchronises to a precise external timing reference such as GPS or radio time & frequency transmissions and provides a precise timing resource to a local area network.

There are a number of accurate external timing references available, the most well known being GPS. However, many countries also provide a radio time and frequency reference that can be used for time synchronisation. In the UK, the MSF radio time signal is broadcast from Anthorn, Cumbria, at a frequency of 60 KHz. The German DCF-77 radio time transmissions are broadcast from Frankfurt at 77.5 KHz. The US WWVB radio time reference is transmitted from Boulder, Colorado, at 60 KHz. There are also a number of other countries that provide similar time references. Most broadcasts operate on different frequencies and encode data differently and thus require different tuned antennas and decoding firmware.

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