Use Your Cell Phone
At Fred Jackson's blog, tuner2.blogspot.com, he writes how he was able to use his cell phone to put Internet streams on his car radio.
Using a Samsung SPH-A920 phone, he was able to connect to his (believe it or not) cassette deck:
I needed an adapter to go from the 2.5mm stereo/mic jack to a common 3.5mm (1/8") stereo jack. Sprint didn't carry them at the time, but luckily I was able to pick one up from the local Cingular store.Adapter in hand, I connected the phone to the car, typed the Groove Salad url into my media player, and blammo, I had high-quality, untethered, Internet radio right in my car! The quality was even better than most XM Radio channels and I didn't have to pay an extra subscription.
Jackson isn't the only person to turn his cell phone into an Internet Radio provider. At sampublishing.com, Kulvir Singh Bhogal "...shows you how to set up your Treo 600 or Treo 650 smartphone to tune into those deathless Internet radio broadcasts."
Use Your Laptop
Dade Moore, the owner of www.rockandroll.fm wrote to say:
I have been listening to internet radio in the car for 4 years. Easy to do. Go get a laptop and get an air card from many cell phone companys. Then put an mp3 or fm modulator and transmit it to an fm channel that is not being used. A lot of people tune them to the end of the dial. People are acting like this is something new. Many of us have been doing it as far back as 1999. Need to get the big car companies to install into the new cars on the passenger side of the car or the dash board. Think about it. The internet, internet radio and a gps all in one.
What About the Future? There is no doubt that the stable companies with the time and money to invest in the technology will bring Internet Radio to automobiles with the ease you can now hear AM, FM, and Satellite Radio.
According to kurthanson.com:
"..Pandora Media Inc., one of the biggest players with seven million registered users, announced it is working with Sprint Nextel Corp. to make its service available on mobile phones."
"...Internet radio 'will sweep into the car, and the traditional station is going to have to think about how they reprogram to compete,' says Jonathan Jacoby, an analyst at Banc of America Securities..."
But, until then, a big thanks to the inventive folks who are pushing the current technology and new configurations further ahead than many thought it could go at this time.
(Have a automobile Internet Radio success story or related product? Tell me: radio.guide@about.com)
