A few years ago I used to start every day with a bit of radio. Unfortunately with not many particularly good choices floating about in ye olde electromagnetic spectrum, this tended to be fairly crap little pop and dance tunes that I'd ultimately phase out, lest I go stark raving bonkers. Truth be told for sometime before this I used to have music playing before, during and after sleep, as turned down low enough it provided sufficient white noise to keep me from thinking too much, but would also let me sleep; such white noise isn't really in my best interests these days as it tends to allow me to sleep through alarms more easily, which isn't a very wise practice when I have morning lectures, or even worse, exams.
After this I progressed onto just listening to my own music collection, via MP3's (and these days AAC on my PowerBook or iPod); the slight problem with this method however is that is feels fairly bland first thing in the morning, of course this is probably just one of my own quirks and doesn't apply to anyone else, but even when using random shuffling I always felt as if the music from own collection felt too familiar when I got up first thing, and I'd miss hearing new stuff to interest me and wake me up.
This week however I've been using the perfect middle ground between the two mediums: internet radio. Of course I've been listening to netradio for years, especially during the high-days of DHBiT, when I'd stay up in the wee hours of the morning listening to interesting topics, humour, and maybe even some new tunes, with a bit of chat via IRC thrown in for good measure, but I've never really consumed it on a regular basis, mainly due to low quality streams which would cut out, and sometimes provide limited musical tastes/genres for perusal.
What's changed?
Broadband internet access, and wireless networking.
Apple's iTunes on my PowerBook makes listening to radio stations so incredibly easy and without bother that it's almost astounding compared to days of old, my 1mbit ADSL connection allows for sustained high quality streams, and the wireless network in my house allows me to take my PowerBook anywhere in the house, radio playing all the time, just like a regular radio (and of course have my PowerBook beside my bed in the morning for that aforementioned wake-up dose of soundwaves)..the nice selection of radio stations aggregated within iTunes helps with the whole tastes/genre issue as well.
I had considered buying a Digital Audio radio, but why bother with on demand online radio anywhere within the house? ;)