Traditional Radio (credit: zirconicusso from www.freedigitalphotos.net)

During the 70s, 80s, and even 90s, FM and AM radios were prevalent.  People used them regularly to listen to music.  There were many type of radio stations–with each station specializing on a genre of music.  People used to turn to radio stations for their preferred music.  If you were within reception range of  your type of music, you are in luck.    This means you can listen to music you like.  However, if you only had a couple of radio stations within reach, more likely than not, it  wasn’t your type of music, and probably had to purchase a few albums or CDs to listen to your favorites.

I was one of the lucky ones, but I was at the mercy of the radio station’s programming.

Fast forward to 2012.  Today people listen to their music everywhere!  Thanks to a development called MP3 player which were later popularized by Apple through their line of iPod devices.  Of course this is still not the same.  You still had to purchase music, thought not as expensive as before.

I too own an iPod player–specifically an iPod Nano.  I use it to listen to podcasts and music during my long runs.  That’s not quite the same radio experience though where everyone in the room can hear the type of music they enjoy from various artists they like without first purchasing the music.

Just last year, I realized what had replaced the radio in my life–Internet radio, specifically through services like Pandora.com.  What makes this experience similar to a radio is the emergence of tablet computers.  I know you can do this through laptops, but that seems overkill.  With tablet computers, you can play the type of music you like simply by having an account with Pandora.com and entering the name of the artist or song you like.  From there, Pandora does the rest.  You can even  fine tune it to the point where you click the thumbs up or thumbs down button in Pandora to help it determine your music preferences.

I started using my tablet computer like a radio last year just after Thanksgiving.  We used to tune into a radio station which played Christmas music from the day after Thanksgiving, all the way to Christmas.  They played it 24×7.  A few months earlier my wife bought me a tablet computer, and I decided to use Pandora.com to play the music she liked to hear.  From that point on, we were hooked.

Today and on most weekends, I use my tablet computer to play a certain kind of music that everyone in the family likes.  I leave it on during lunch while everyone enjoys their meal.  The beauty of using the tablet computer as a radio is its battery life.  My tablet can run for over 8 hours without a recharge!  It is certainly better than a laptop computer.

Bottom line is that the traditional radio is obsolete, especially for playing music in the house.  In my house, the radio has transformed into Internet radio on a tablet computer.