Ever since moving to the Central Coast I have been jonesing for KPCC. I became hooked on this Southern California public radio station a little over a year ago. It had been my constant companion while driving around town or puttering around the house. In Los Osos, I was still able to get my fix at home by listening over the internet but had to settle for KCBX while running errands in the car. KCBX does play some of the programs I enjoyed on KPCC but also plays a lot of jazz and classical music. Not very satisfying when you’re craving some “FM with IQ.”
Then I got my Sprint Treo 755p with its awesome EVDO wireless network. (CNET says that EVDO averages 300Kbps to 600Kbps while EDGE, GPRS and GSM average 90Kbps, 35Kbps and 9.6Kbps.) While I’ve been enjoying the high-speed Gmail and Google Maps access, it didn’t occur to me to stream media until I signed up for Big Brother 9 updates. The Treo comes with a cool little media player that launches when you click on a streaming link. Even then, I only played occassional videos.
A couple days ago it occurred to me to try playing internet radio on my phone instead of vainly searching out public radio stations with my car radio on the long, long drive to Los Angeles. The clouds opened up, the sun shined, angels sang. I had my beloved KPCC at last. And it works wherever there’s cell service! My lonely drives to and from Los Angeles and Los Osos are lonely no longer.
If only Free FM offered a stream URL instead of forcing you to use their Flash-based player … I’m still working on a way to get around that.
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