From...

November 2, 1999
Web posted at: 9:48 a.m. EST (1448 GMT)

by JoAnne Robb

(IDG) -- It's a familiar problem: Too many cords, too few outlets. You have the PC, the monitor, the printer--and, of course, the radio. You could buy batteries to play the radio while you're surfing the Web or typing. But if you're a public radio fan, now you can save yourself the trouble.

Northeast Public Radio has come up with a high-tech solution. At The Public Radio Station.com, the new site of National Public Radio affiliate WAMC in Albany, New York, you can listen to programming live on your computer and check out a selection of archived programs.

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The umbrella organization National Public Radio also maintains a Web site where you can listen to selected news and programs using a choice of broadcast tools, including RealNetworks RealPlayer, Apple QuickTime, and Microsoft Windows Media. In addition, the NPR site provides links to the sites of individual stations across the United States (including WAMC).

Easy listening

Setting up the listening tools is easy. You'll need RealPlayer G2; if you don't already have the plug-in, the site will link you directly to RealNetworks' Web site, where you can download it. Minimum system requirements aren't much of a reach, either: You'll need a 90-MHz Pentium and a 28.8-kilobits-per-second modem. Once RealPlayer G2 is running on your machine, all you have to do is click on the site's radio icon to listen to live programming.

Archived programming is equally easy to access: Just go to the site's archive and select the show you'd like to play. Currently, the archive includes such shows as Me and Mario, a political opinion show featuring Mario Cuomo, former governor of New York; The Book Show, offering interviews with authors of new books; and Word for the Wise, which provides interesting tidbits about words and word history.

For public radio enthusiasts, The Public Radio Station.com certainly provides easy access to quality programming--but fans will find some gaps.

First, the news program that you can pipe through your PC isn't the standard American, garden-variety broadcast--it's from Radio Netherlands. Second, the archive allows you to replay only a select handful of the programs, and it offers only one edition of each weekly show.

David Gallety, assistant executive director at WAMC, says The Public Radio Station.com already plans to fix some of these problems. The station will soon broadcast standard Associated Press news on the Web, and the archive will offer two weeks of programming.