November 2003
It's difficult to keep track of who owns who; this information may not be current.
No streaming media will be listed here unless it is sufficiently cross-platform to be accessible from a player available for OS/2 Warp 3. Additionally, streams must be accessible from a dial-up modem. Repeated tests from Juneau show that even with a 56k modem connecting at over 50kbps, streams of 32kbps or more cannot be streamed. Accordingly, streaming audio will not be listed here unless a stream slower than 32kbps is available.
It has become rather common for stations to only provide 'podcast' links: direct links to mp3 files to download for later playback. That's awfully inconvenient over dialup connections, where the download may take as long or longer than the playback. This can be remedied with the Mozilla Launchy extension, which is suitable for Mozilla, Seamonkey, Firefox, and Netscape. With this extension, you can right mouse click on a media link, select Launchy, and select any internet-aware player you have installed in Launchy. This lets the player itselrf handle the download. If the file's stream rate is 32 kilobits per second or less, even over dialup, you can listen live and dispense with the download step.
No downloadable audio will be listed here unless it is sufficiently cross-platform to be accessible from a player available for OS/2 Warp 3. The OGG format is similar to MP3 but is royalty-free, an important issue for commercial broadcasters, but most program archives are still MP3. While short clips download quickly, program archives may be several megabytes in size, and it might take many minutes to download them.
The independent media allows anyone to upload stories that comply with their editorial guidelines. Nonconforming stories are removed. The concept is similar to that of a moderated newsgroup. The independent media websites often carry audio clips in MP3 format. Some also have streaming MP3, but these may often be dead air. I only list the websites carrying english text here.