I've died and gone to radio heaven

Technology::Radio

The other day I said some rather unkind things about radio in the United States. I meant them, too. So just now I was wandering around one of the Internets, looking for interesting stuff to waste time on and trying to find a station that would play My Word and My Music (a couple of highbrow quiz shows from the BBC) when I stumbled across the wonderful Public Radio Fan site.

It appears that some dedicated soul named Kevin Kelly has gone to the work of putting together a database of what's playing on streaming audio. Not just right now, but 24/7. Not just right here in the US, not just in North America, but all over the world. He has listings for the BBC, the CBC, for Deutsche Welle and Czech Radio and the Voice of Turkey which I haven't heard in about 30 years. I found a listing for ABC DIG radio, and wondered if Disney Internet Group (Disney owns the American Broadcasting Company here in the US) had finally gone into internet audio, only to find that it's a program put on by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

You can sort by music and non-music programs. You can sort by country. You can sort by language. You can sort by type of stream, for heaven's sake, so if you only want to listen to stations streaming in the Ogg format you can do that. He even has listings for podcasts.

Imagine a radio tuner using this database as a back end. You could listen in to your favorite show, or if you're bored you could see what's on the dial. I'm imagining it right now. It doesn't yet exist to the best of my knowledge, so I think I may have to write it.

If only I can find a way to link in the Mariners broadcasts I stream from Major League Baseball's site, it would be perfect. As it is I may never watch television again.