I’ve always been in love with the radio. When I was a kid I was convinced my dream job was to be a disc jockey of some sort. Of course when I realized most disc jockey’s make about the same amount of cash as a Denny’s waitress, I knew a career change was in order.
At Benson Polytechnic High School in Portland Oregon I was very fortunate to have radio broadcasting as my major. At Benson, each student chose a vocational major and was in that class for a large chunk of the day. Me, I was nestled in the radio station of KBPS and it was fun times.
After high school I helped Portland State University get their KPSU station set up on the AM dial as well. I hosted one of the first hip hop shows that actually played something other than west coast gangster rap in Portland. It was a blast.
For most of my life I’ve always listened to political talk radio as well. Thankfully I got wise and realized listening to that garbage was going to chunk away a few decades of my life if I kept it up.
So now I pretty much just listed to country radio, and Pandora. Pandora is a free internet radio station that is absolutely incredible. You gotta check it out. There are no strings, or any catches. It’s truly free internet radio. Of course you have to see ads pop up now and then, but big deal.
The cool thing about Pandora is that you list one of your favorite artists and they will build an entire radio station around that artist with similar types of music they think you will enjoy. And they are usually pretty spot on about picking things that you will like. You gotta give it a shot.
Here’s a quick look at the layout and a few of the radio stations I have set up. My first picks were The Grateful Dead, Jason Mraz, Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, Govt Mule, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones and more…
Another thing that is cool about Pandora is that when they select a particular artist or band, they also display a biography about that band so you can read about the band members and their history as the song plays along.
I definitely give it two thumbs up. You can check out Pandora at http://www.pandora.com
Cheers,
Jason
PS: O yeah, here’s another cool alternative for free radio online. I’m shocked at how many people didn’t know this existed either.
If you open up your iTunes you’ll notice there are tons of free radio stations as well. Everything from hip hop to jazz to comedy stations are at the touch of your finger tips. And there are plenty of options to choose from. All you have to do is look on the left hand column in the “Library” section and then click “Radio”. From there you will see a plethora of music types. Pick the one you like and over a dozen radio stations will pop up for you to select from. Give it a shot. You’ll be pleasantly surprised if you haven’t seen all that iTunes offers for free.
You have Jason Mraz radio too? Just tweeted about that station – it’s the best!
I saw you mention that. My lady loves him as well. Definitely falls into the category of easy listening music!
Dang. Just went to check it out but Pandora is only available in the U.S.
Oh that sucks man. I wonder if you can access it through some sort of proxy server in the US?
I’m sure that’s possible…I’m a bit of a tech dunce so I have no idea how to set that up.
I also can’t access sites like Hulu either because they’re only available to the US, so figuring out how to use a US proxy server would probably be useful.
Hey Shawn, try this one. Is real low tech. go to this url and enter the pandora url (or hulu) in the box.
http://hidemyass.com/
Hey Jason, thanks for this post…rock on!!!
I downloaded pandora for my droid and took it no further, well you just inspired me to set up on my computer and my droid.
Thanks Man,
Troy
Love Pandora. Especially cool to have on the iPad!
Probably not. Maybe if you send me some green beans I’ll consider it.