Radio Paradise is a popular Internet radio station that defines itself as "eclectic online rock radio". The channel differs from most FM channels and other Internet stations in that the music played is not limited to any specific genre but instead represents great variety. Radio Paradise mostly plays different styles of pop and rock music, but occasionally also everything from jazz to classical to electronic music and world music. All of the styles are DJ-mixed. The station has no commercials, and is instead financially supported by its listeners through donations and purchases via on-line stores. Internet radio is a broadcasting service transmitted via the Internet. ... Eclecticism is an approach to thought that does not hold rigidly to a single paradigm or set of assumptions or conclusions, but instead draws upon multiple theories to gain complementary insights into phenomena, or applies only certain theories in particular cases. ... FM radio is a broadcast technology invented by Edwin Howard Armstrong that uses frequency modulation to provide high-fidelity broadcast radio sound. ... Music is a form of expression in the medium of time using the structures of tones and silence. ... For Popular music (music that is popular, rather than of a specific genre or style), see Popular music. ... Rock is a form of popular music, usually featuring vocals (often with vocal harmony), electric guitars, a bass guitar, and a strong back beat; other instruments, such as keyboards (organ, piano synthesizers) and horns (saxophone, trumpet, trombone) are common in some styles, however, horns have been omitted from newer subgenres... Jazz is an original American musical art form originating around the start of the 20th century in New Orleans, rooted in Western music technique and theory, and is marked by the profound cultural contributions of African Americans. ... Classical music is a broad, somewhat imprecise term, referring to music produced in, or rooted in the traditions of, European art, ecclesiastical and concert music, encompassing a broad period from roughly 1000 to the present day. ... Electronic music is a term for music created using electronic devices. ... World music is, most generally, all the music in the world (Bohlman 2002, Nidel 2004, p. ...

The current Radio Paradise logo, designed by Melissa Shown.

Radio Paradise streams are available in MP3, HE-AAC (AAC+), WMA and RealAudio in various bitrates, and can be accessed through Apple's iTunes radio tuner service as well as the Shoutcast Radio search feature available in the Winamp player and the Shoutcast web site. The record number of concurrent listeners (as of January 2006) has passed the 10,000 mark. Image File history File links RP_header. ... Image File history File links RP_header. ... Streaming media is media that is consumed (read, heard, viewed) while it is being delivered. ... MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a popular digital audio encoding and lossy compression format, designed to greatly reduce the amount of data required to represent audio, yet still sound like a faithful reproduction of the original uncompressed audio to most listeners. ... MPEG-4 Part 3 (formally ISO/IEC 14496-3) is, as the name suggests, the third part of the ISO/IEC MPEG-4 international standard. ... Windows Media Audio (WMA) is a proprietary compressed audio file format developed by Microsoft. ... RealAudio is a proprietary audio format developed by RealNetworks. ... iTunes is a proprietary digital media player application, launched by Apple Computer on January 9, 2001, for playing and organizing digital music and video files. ... SHOUTcast is a multiplatform freeware audio streaming technology, developed by Nullsoft. ... Winamp is a multimedia player made by Nullsoft and eventually acquired by America Online. ...

The web site offers listeners the ability to rate and comment on individual songs on the playlist, as well as songs on the Listener Review Channel, which consists of songs uploaded by listeners to be considered for airplay.

Aside from providing a varied selection of music, Radio Paradise also has a lively on-line community via its song comments, forums, journals, comments section and contests (through donations) on the web site. More than 30,000 users have registered from various parts of the world, and the community is growing daily.

The web site uses customized open-source software components for most of its sections. Some of the technologies used include PHP and BBCode. Open source software refers to computer software available with its source code and under an open source license. ... PHP is an open-source, reflective programming language used mainly for producing dynamic web content and server-side applications. ... BBCode is an abbreviation for Bulletin Board Code, the markup language used to format posts in many message boards. ...

History

The station was started in February 2000 by Bill Goldsmith and his wife Rebecca Goldsmith. It derives its name and is operated from Paradise, California. Bill has been a DJ at various stations (including KPIG, KFAT, KLRB, WCAS, and KPOI) since 1971, as well as working as a radio station manager, and a radio & TV engineer. Paradise is a city located in Butte County, in the north of Californias Central Valley, some 15 miles (24 km) northeast of Chico and 100 miles (160 km) north of Sacramento. ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Area  Ranked 3rd  - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²)  - Width 250 miles (400 km)  - Length 770 miles (1,240 km)  - % water 4. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

Radio Paradise was featured in a TIME magazine article of April 19, 2004 on the future of radio through an interview with Bill. (Clockwise from upper left) Notable Time magazine covers from the dates May 7, 1945; July 25, 1969; December 31, 1999; September 14, 2001; and April 21, 2003. ... April 19 is the 109th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (110th in leap years). ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

As of March 2006 a higher quality 192 kbit/s (test) mp3 stream is available.

April 2006 introduced the new Listeners World Map, showing the numbers and locations of listeners across the world.

In June 2006 Radio Paradise started a test with a new stream delivery method using Octoshape. Peer to Peer MEDIA STREAMING By Stephen Alstrup and Theis Rauhe The popularity of live streaming over the Internet is growing. ...

External links

• Radio Paradise
• Radio Paradise current song
• Time Magazine article (subscription required)
• Interview with Bill on Planet Geek!
• Paradise Around The World
• And Now For Some *Real* Radio: The death of corporate rock radio. Readers extol glorious alternatives. Listen up!
• Community Google map
• Community Flickr Photo Pool
• How to post a picture on RP