Wow, I’m pumped. I haven’t forayed into Internet radio for quite a long time, ever since I bored myself to tears listening to the same stuff over and over with live365.com – which incidentally cost me $4.95 USD a month. Once I’d topped up on it to the point of overflow I went away from listening to music while I work altogether, except for the occasional listen to the righteously revolutionary National Public Radio in the US (I’m in Canada).

I got a note from John Chow today asking me to check out the new online radio offering: OnlineRadioStations.com. What the heck, I thought, I’ve got a few minutes and could use some new music to listen to.

20 minutes later I’ve got several favorites happening, my speakers are pumping, and I feel energized for the day of work ahead. I’m also happy to be learning about a service that can benefit my customers and readers… discovering a great new offering is always a high point in the day.

As an added incentive to check out ORS, John Chow dot Com, a blog that helps you make money is giving away more cash through another wild radio contest. They are giving away up to $4,000 cash! The contest is sponsored by OnlineRadioStations.com.

So what are my favorite stations after noodling around in the site as a member?

• Global Beats FM Ambient Music – high energy, great tempos
• DI FM Ambient Music out of NYC – mellower, very electronic and spacey
• 1 FM Chill Out Lounge Music out of the Southeast USA – great mix of electronic and classic instrumentation
• This is wild… my little hometown has a radio station listed in the International listings:  CVUE 105.9 Variety Radio
• I can listen to stations from all over Canada, in small cities and towns, like:  CKRW 96.1 Adult Contemporary (listening to a guy doing a radio ad for his honda generator for sale on ‘Trader Time’ in Whitehorse Yukon!
• Classic 102.7 Afrikaans.., from Johannesburg, South Africa

I have to stop myself from looking around now – work to be done. I thoroughly recommend OnlineRadioStations.com, not only for the incredible diversity of stations but also for the gorgeous design and useability of the site. It’s attractive, contemporary, and compelling.

My only criticism at this early point is that if I select a station to listen to and navigate away from the page, the music stops if I’m on the OR player. I keep looking for a button that says ‘play this on top’ or something similar. There’s also some icons at the top and if you pass your mouse over them they light up, but there’s no alt tags that I can see and I don’t know what half of them are.

Oh, and don’t forget this page – it’s like Gadget Smack.

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