Portable, Widespread Internet Radio: New Opportunities and Voices (and more music, of course)

The thing we know as "radio" started in the late 1800s. AM and shortwave became mainstream in the 1920s, with FM making its big debut in the 1950s. The radio scene stayed pretty much the same through the early 1990s.

Then 1993 came. One move that would start a revolution. A revolution that has built up the biggest tool for democracy and ideas in history.

Internet radio.

It started with Carl Malamud, who started Internet Talk Radio in 1993. The number of Internet radio stations increased slowly but steadily through the last part of the 1990s. Conventional AM/FM stations started streaming, and many Net-only stations appeared.

Internet radio exploded in popularity around 2001, and now there are an estimated 100,000+ internet-only stations. That does not even include the AM/FM stations streaming.

More radio revolutions arrived with satellite radio around 2000 and podcasting around 2003.

I, personally, am a huge internet radio fan. I listen to the vast majority of my talk radio over the internet, both internet-only and AM/FM station streams. I also give a listen to internet music stations from time to time. Internet radio, along with podcasting, are great mediums for alternative media. Anyone with a few pieces of equipment and an internet connection can start their own internet radio show or internet radio station. It is really awesome.

One big hindrance, however, to this great medium is the fact that internet radio, unlike AM and FM radio, is not very portable. Cities with city-wide Wi-Fi are few and far between, and in order to stream e-radio one must be connected to a Wi-Fi access point. I, personally, use the wireless signal from my router to listen to internet radio on my PSP around the house and yard, but I cannot strap it to my belt and go for a bike ride listening to my favorite internet streams, though.
There is a solution.

There is long-range Wi-Fi called WiMAX. The gov't should set up WiMAX towers (which have about the same range as cell towers) around the nation, and make it free-to-use. Then, companies will start making WiMAX-capable products at a fast(er) rate, including internet radios, which would come as car stereos, Internet radio "Walkmans", tabletop radios, etc. That would give internet radio that "shot in the arm" that it needs to become a more widespread, versatile, broadcasting medium.