History

The first Internet "radio station", Internet Talk Radio, was developed by Carl Malamud in 1993. Malamud's station used a technology called MBONE (IP Multicast Backbone on the Internet). Later that year, Austin Arts BBS begin broadcasting pre-recorded information for members of the screenprinting community and artists from a Bulletin Board System in Austin, Texas. Austin Arts BBS, originally created in 1983 by Bill Hood was the first online screenprinting community. Hood created the first online radio presence for the screenprinting industry with Screenprinters Radio which featured interviews, stories, tips and tricks as well as music.

In February, 1995, the first full-time, Internet-only radio station, Radio HK, began broadcasting the music of independent bands. Radio HK was created by Norman Hajjar and the Hajjar/Kaufman New Media Lab, an advertising agency in Marina del Rey, California. Hajjar's method was to use a CU-SeeMe web conferencing reflector connected to a custom created audio CD in endless loop. Later, Radio HK converted to one of the original RealAudio servers. Today, Internet radio stations such as VoyagerRadio utilize the technologies of web services like Live365 to webcast 24 hours a day.

WXYC (89.3FM Chapel Hill, NC USA) was the first radio station to announce broadcasting on the Internet on November 7, 1994. WXYC used an FM radio connected to a system at SunSite, later known as Ibiblio, running CU-SeeMe. WXYC had begun test broadcasts and bandwidth testing as early as August, 1994. WREK (91.1FM, Atlanta, GA USA) also claims to have started streaming on November 7, using their own custom software called CyberRadio1, although the stream was not advertised until a later date.

KJHK 90.7FM in Lawrence, Kansas, began to stream its live broadcast using CU-SeeMe on December 3, 1994. KJHK was the first radio station to maintain a continuous, live signal over the Internet. This has been verified by the National Association of Broadcasters, Sports Illustrated, and CNN.

KPIG also began to transmit a live, 24/7 feed, in August 1995, first using Xing Streamworks and later switching to RealAudio. Bill Goldsmith, who was KPIG's Operations Manager & morning DJ at the time, and the one responsible for starting the webcast, now operates the popular Internet station Radio Paradise.

WUEV launched its live simulcast in January 1996, also using the Xing Streamworks technology at first, then adding RealAudio and moving from the Xing platform to Windows Media Technologies as equipment (and budget sizes) changed.

The first radio station to stream 24-hours a day in Europe was the UK's Virgin Radio, who started streaming a live simulcast using Real Networks in March 1996.

Tuning in to a broadcast like a traditional radio is not possible on internet, so finding different broadcasts has to be done with a search engine or a website that collects on-line radio broadcasts.

In 1996 GBS Radio Networks, founded by radio veteran Guy W. Giuliano, was one of the first to launch an internet radio programming service. The firm syndicated two commercial formats, hip-hop station BombRadio, and hard rock format LoudRadio. In 1998, GBS was purchased by the Emusic.com corporation in a highly publicized cash and stock deal. In 1999, LoudRadio.com became the first online radio station to be syndicated on a commercial broadcast station via KLOD-FM in Flagstaff, AZ.

In 1999, one of the first University/College stations to operate was in Antigonish, Nova Scotia at St. Francis Xavier University CFXU.

In 1999 a company called BMP released a tool that allowed anyone to Netcast in 10 minutes. The MyCaster tool was cleverly simple. It was basically a software MP3 player, similar to Winamp, that as the user listened to music it simultaneously sent a stream to the MyCaster Website. MyCaster then amplified the stream and listed it on its site for listeners to access. The free service allowed even people with little technical skill to easily go live with their own Internet radio station. Like many early Internet radio endeavors, MyCaster succumbed to the dot com bust in 2001.

Peercasting uses P2P technology. Its requirement of communicating a URI before transmission and the lack of a centralized repository of such addresses reduced peercasting's widespread adoption.

Mercora IMRadio, a combination of social networking and Internet radio, streams music in the Ogg Vorbis format. Mercora allows users to webcast music and pays royalties to the copyright collectives such as ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and SoundExchange.

RadioVague, in 2003, acquired a transportable satellite internet broadcast system and started broadcasting live shows from events and music festivals around Europe using only free and open source software, broadcasting in OGG/Vorbis format using Icecast and Icecast2 servers, their first event being the February 15, 2003 anti-war protest. Since then they have extended their distribution platform to allow both traditional FM radio stations and other internet radio stations to achieve a global audience.