My Latest New Toy

I have been getting sick and tired of going to bed, turning on the radio and listening to Tony Delroy interviewing relationship specialists on getting along with workmates, financial advisors telling everyone about the GFC or others telling how to get the best from CentreLink! Over the weekend I can listen to country music or religious discussions. No wonder I fall asleep depressed and ready to slit my wrists!

When in Melbourne I can always tune in to SEN, the 24/7 sports radio station. To a certain degree I could do that with my new phone up here via the internet and my home wireless network. That was until yesterday when soon after lunch my new Internet Radio was delivered!

What a great invention this is! I have previously spoken on this blog about Internet Radio and the incredible range of stuff there is to listen to. There are in excess of 15,000 free internet radio stations out there.

Recently we had friends over for a meal and in the background I had Sky FM "Oldies" playing through my media player off the internet. About half way through the evening one of the guests remarked what great music was playing in the background! It was Sky FM "Oldies" playing 'off the internet!

This unit is sold by Kogan and usually retails for around $190 with another $20 delivery on top of that. I had bought a $200 Kogan voucher recently for $99 on one of those 'daily specials' websites. Add to this the $18.50 delivery charges I had to pay and now I have my Internet radio! It also plays 'Digital" radio, FM radio and you can plug your iPhone or any other auxiliary device and play music from it as well.

It is much more flexible to listen to internet radio than my phone as I can 'add' my own internet radio stations to what is already there. My ISP (Internode) has free radio it streams which does not come from your monthly internet bandwidth allocation. They have around 80 stations in their 'collection' including Australian ABC stations and all the Sky FM online stations. I can easily add these stations via the internet. I have already added a few of them and then added them to my favorites as a "Preset".

When I turn the unit on, it connects to my home wi-fi network, goes to its website and loads 'my' stations as well as heaps and heaps of others!

I now have as many stations to listen to as I want.

It comes with its own little remote control. I have programmed one of my Harmony Remotes to work the internet radio. The benefit of this is with just one click on the remote I can move from one of my 'favorite' stations to the next. The remote control's screen is illuminated allowing you see what you are doing in the dark!

Click on each photo for a larger view, then click on "Back" to return to this page. I'm off to listen to the radio and catch up with all the AFL news from Melbourne before this weekend's Grand Final.