You'll want to add this one to your "favorites". It's a website called Radio Roku (http://www.radioroku.com/) and it contains more than 4,000 Internet radio stations from around the world. I tried it this morning and at the risk of repeating myself, read my first sentence. I sampled Virgin Radio in London, WRKO in Boston and KGO San Francisco within seconds. I listened on my PC and the quality was surprisingly good...
Roku founder and chairman Anthony Wood adds, "We've created an easy and intuitive way to connect consumers with a world of Internet radio that was once too vast to navigate." What's in it for Roku is selling their SoundBridge players but you can just listen on your PC if you choose, like I did. Roku has several new features or widgets in techspeak, which include: a listing of songs currently being played, a display of the most listened to stations, by format, location or natively spoken language, a station search, alphabetical listing of stations and volunteer center which enables users to participate in the development of the database...
Roku caught my attention thanks to a mention by Larry Shannon in his RadioDailyNews post and there was one other item worth mentioning. Sean Ross, VP of music and programming for Edison Media Research told the LA Daily News "there are a lot more Internet stations. There are a lot more former professionals doing Internet stations. It's gotten easier to do as far as the technology." Edison Media Research and Arbitron recently announced that while the 232 million radio listeners per week still far outnumber Web listeners, there are 29 million Internet radio listeners a week and that's up from 20 million three years ago...
10 Timeline Memories:
- 1678] The Bronx is up (for sale, that is): Native Americans sell the Bronx to Jonas Bronck for 400 beads and box seats to Yankees games. The least Bronck could have thrown in were a dozen bagels and loaf of seedless rye...
- 1854] Where in the world is Walden?: Henry David Thoreau publishes "Walden" which describes his experiences of living near Walden Pond (MA)...
- 1930] Debuted on this date: Betty Boop flashes those peepers for the 1st time in "Dizzy Dishes", created by Max Fleischer. Here's a clip from an early Fleischer cartoon from the 30s: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBKAG0ut9Ds ...
- 1945] Dropping A Bomb: The U.S. drops an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, 3 days after Hiroshima. About 74,000 are killed and Japan will surrender on August 14...
- 1969] L.A. blood bath: Sharon Tate and 4 others are found murdered at Tate's residence in Los Angeles. Charles Manson and several members of his cult are later convicted of the horrific murders...
- 1974] Nixon's the one: Richard Milhous Nixon waves goodbye to the White House. He is replaced as president by Gerald Ford...
- 1975] Sooper: The New Orleans Superdome opens with an NFL pre-season game. 72,000 root for the hometown Saints who lose to Houston 13-7...
- 1995] "Happy Trails": Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead, dies of a heart attack at 53...2003] Gregory Hines is a victim of liver cancer at 57...
- 1997] Not New York's finest: Haitian immigrant Abner Louima is brutalized by NYPD officers after he's arrested following a brawl outside a Brooklyn nightclub. Eventually the city settles with Louima for $8.7 million in the largest police brutality settlement in New York City history...
- 2002] Make it 600: Barry Bonds becomes the 4th major leaguer to reach 600 home runs...
Music Memories:
- 1965] #1 on this date: "I Got You Babe" - Sonny & Cher (introduced by Sammy Davis Jr.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVtbFXm2E6Q ...1978] "Three Times A Lady" - Lionel Richie...
- 1969] Released on this date: "Hot Fun In The Summertime" - Sly and Family Stone. Here they are with "Hot Fun" and a medley of their hits: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKzwbKhRvD8 ...1969] "Easy To Be Hard" - Three Dog Night...[To ensure accuracy of dates and content, multiple reference sources are used in each timeline]...
Commentary...
"Happy Trails" to Lee Hazlewood who wrote and produced "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'" for Nancy Sinatra. Hazlewood died on Saturday night of kidney cancer, first diagnosed in 2005. I remember reading an article about Lee one year ago in which he said he stopped all his medication and was prepared to meet his death unaided. It takes a special man to do that. Hazlewood was 78...Yesterday I received the following e-mail on my mention of donimus.org at the end of July: "I'm concerned that you gave the impression that donimus.org speaks for Don Imus and I feel that is misleading. I would appreciate it if you could post a correction on your blog. Thank you very much, Erik Marsters, donimus.org...Sorry if I misled folks Erik...
"Happy Birthday...happy birthday":
Gillian Anderson (39), Whitney Houston (44), Melanie Griffith (50), Barbara Mason (60), Ken Norton (64), David Steinberg (65), Rod Laver (69), Bob Cousy (79) and Ralph Houk (88)...
Timeline Dateline: 25 days until Labor Day and 28 days until the NFL opener...
