Eastern Region Public Media's Executive Director, Georgette Bronfman, was (if you'll excuse the expression) flashing around Aluratek's tiny "internet radio" in a thumb drive at the NPR board meeting last week. I had to get one, of course, so ordered it from Amazon. Turns out there's no radio at all in it. It's just a small flash drive containing exe and autorun files that you plug into your computer's USB port while your computer is connected to the internet. The exe file accesses a database of station streaming feeds (public radio is one category) and seems to access them pretty quickly when in use. Visuals include a pretty light on the thumb drive and ads for other Aluratek products (including a real internet radio) on the control panel. There are many other options for accessing public radio streams, including the excellent and free publicradiofan.com, but if you'd like an easy access point providing a large number of commercial radio streams, it's probably worth the $33 + shipping.
It would be a simple programming task for someone to make an exe dedicated to your stations feeds and archives and, of course, adding a link to npr.org. Put it in a small commodity thumb drive and you have a pretty nifty premium.
Not all public radio stations are in the database and those that are may not be described the way you want yours branded. This is a good reminder that we need to find a way to stay on top of listings in the increasing array of databases such as this one and the one on Nokia FM-capable phones that I use regularly. --Dennis
that is really good post and good information
Posted by: Internet Usb Phone | Friday, 23 October 2009 at 16:29
Interesting, i will try it.
Posted by: Maria | Saturday, 29 August 2009 at 07:28