i love internet radio!

I finally broke down and got myself a big iPod, so I don't use i-radio as often as I used to. Still, for a change or for those who don't have 80gb of music to wade through, commercial radio can't touch the variety and good ol' weirdness available online. (There's also 'normal' music, if you're so inclined.) Many stations have remarkable sound quality, assuming you have broadband. Some have few or no ads. Nothing is permanently downloaded, so it's legal and ethical.

I only list sites which approximate the radio experience, although there's an infinite variety of fixed-length podcasts, programs or mixes as well, or songs to (legally or illegally) download. Most really require a broadband connection. Most give you a readout of what's playing, and the best are 'randomcasts', which allow you to pause and skip songs. Apologies in advance if any of the links don't work. They change a lot.

Start by finding your favorites here:

• Live365.com is the great facilitator of Internet radio; I haven't counted, but they once claimed 26,719 stations, all created by individuals even more geeked out on music than I; create and save a list of favorites; pay $5/mo. to skip ads and popups;
• Shoutcast.com is the Winamp e-radio directory (I love the .pls format);
• VirtualTuner.com
• Google's Internet Radio List

The "custom radio" services ROCK. Once you get used to these, you'll never go back to conventional radio, satellite radio, anything.

• If you Yahoo, you can Launchcast; it allows you to rate artists, their albums, and even their songs (if you're really nuts) on a 1-10 scale, and it will play those and suggest others; pause and skip; nice interface with links to bios, record info, etc.; free service has ads; you can pay $4/mo. for higher sound quality and no ads (I do); lacks some essential older albums but excellent for most modern stuff; IE/Win Media only (and balky sometimes) but highly recommended anyway;
• Pandora is somewhat similar, a bit less detailed and specific but an interesting concept, also excellent and with more obscure bands; slick browser based interface; ads are almost nonexistent as of 3/06 but that will undoubtedly change;

Other favorites include:

• Weirdsville Radio (**No Ads!**) randomcasts six streams, including the essential Moog Radio and the truly wack side of exotica; it is extremely useful to be able to skip excessively weird songs; highly recommended;
• Rightonscales.com would rather sell you a gram scale (can't imagine what for) but will play reggae and dub for you (with a great interface; you can request songs and they come up quick) anyway; highly recommended;
• Epitonic Radio (**No Ads!**) allows you to choose quantity and genres of quite obscure songs; it will create a playlist and you can skip to any one you want; myriad advanced features abound;
• Excellent Online has a great, diverse, good sounding stream, and lots of news about all your favorites;
• Radio IUMA features primarily unsigned artists and has a wide variety of randomcasts (pick the MP3 option on the player);
• I double-dare you to listen to Porn Music Radio from Fluffertrax;
• Philosomatika is one of the best of about ten thousand trance/psych electronica stations;
• SomaFM (**No Ads!**) has some cool streams, including Secret Agent, "the soundtrack for your stylish, mysterious, dangerous life"; they have modem-speed streams available.
• 3WK has documented the indiepop scene for years now; they have added a pay-only fast stream;
• We L.A. expatriates simulate home with the KCRW All-Music Channel, plus there are all those great Morning Becomes Eclectic shows. Or stream KCRW live.

This Flash Primal Scream site isn't really radio, but it's very cool.

R.I.P.: SonicNet (now replaced/bettered by Launchcast), GoGaGa, Rare Music Radio from Grand Royal Records, AudioHighway, and probably some on this page I haven't visited in a while..