I too listen to Live356 and my “Yahoo Radio” streams at work. However I also use streaming to listen to conventional Radio while at work, just not LOCAL radio. I doubt I am alone in this.
Thanks to streaming I can listen to radio stations from all over the country, or even all over the world. Although I now live in Texas, over the years I’ve lived in Florida, Kansas, New Mexico, and Arizona. If I want to see how things are going in my old hometown, or at my old college, or if I am just feeling a tad nostalgic, I can google up the radio station I used to listen to “back in the day” and listen to it from my desktop. My favorite classical station is still KHFM, and I don’t mind the fact my local Smooth Jazz station is gone, because I still have WSJT.
In this respect streaming media is a lot like the shortwave radio my Dad had when I was a kid. Then I could listen to Radio Australia, several different services of the BBC, or even Radio Moscow. Yesterday I was listening to a classical music stream from Greece.
However, given that most American talk radio stations now draw much, if not all, of their programing from the same dozen or so national shows, (WMAL and KKOB AM are interchangable for much, if not most, of the broadcast day, for example) there is, at least as far as streaming is concerned, a decreased need for talk radio stations. It matters not to me if I hear Hugh Hewett on KNTH or KRLA or WGKA. One assumes it matters to the managment of those stations, at least it should, but from where I sit, there is literally no difference at all.
In that respect Mr.Feinburg is right on target. When you are dealing with over the air radio the physical limits of what a transmitter can do means you must have dozens, or hundreds, of stations if you want to have nationwide reach. With streaming media, all you need is one website.
