Reciva

Radio is a wonderful medium, of course, but before the Internet it was basically a local phenomenon.

There were networks of course, but typically they programmed only part of the day and the local station that was part of that networked produced local programming, and that was all we had access to.

In the 1970s, I had the occasion to drive from L.A., where I then lived, to Bakersfield. On the outskirts of the city to the north, I began hearing their radio stations and turned off the radio when I realized there weren't many stations and they were all playing hard rock or country. There's nothing wrong with those kinds of music if you like them, but I don't and there were no other choices, a situation very common at that time in towns across the U.S., and even worse in other parts of the world.

As the more educated among us might say, "Not No More."

Besides satellite radio for those of us who can afford it, many stations are available on the Internet, and there are some amazing resources now.

One of those is Reciva. You can access it at http://www.reciva.com, but before you go, let me tell you what you'll find. You can find stations from all over the world by location or by the type of station (genre) that it is. I've listened to talk stations in English from around the world and to jazz from Venezuela and Russia, among others.

They have broadcasts of every kind and from just about everywhere, including in other languages. I don't speak Russian (among numerous languages I don't speak), but it's kind of funny to listen to a jazz recording and hear the announcer afterward going on at length in Russian and inserting, for example, "Miles Davis" before going on in more gobbledy-gook (to my ears).

Some of the stations won't play on your computer, because they're dead links or require add-ons you might not have, but many of the stations play in Windows Media Player or Real Audio.

Take a listen. I think you'll enjoy it. If you'd like to share your experience, write to me at jbushman@gmail.com. If what you have to say might be interesting to other readers, I'll include it in another posting.

If you'd like to read my writing on other subjects you can try either: http://www.JeffOnPolitics.blogspot.com OR http://www.JeffOnHealth.blogspot.com.

Thanks for "tuning in."