I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, where nearby Lake Erie, and all the Great Lakes, ensured terrific radio reception. Especially after dark, terrestrial radio waves along the AM band would hitch a ride with the assistance of all that inland freshwater. I routinely pulled in signals from great distances, listening to stations to the east (from Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Toronto, Montreal, Boston, Philadelphia, and New York City) and west (from Detroit, Windsor, Ontario, Chicago, St. Louis, and Milwaukee). I got that sort of reception even from small transistor radios I would listen to in my bedroom at night.

Even when I lived in the White Mountains while attending Franconia College I was able to listen to Cleveland stations, listening to Cleveland Cavaliers basketball games, including when they won a playoff series against the Washington Bullets in 1976, with a buzzer-beater in the clinching game. In those days, I listened on a sturdy table radio with a good speaker.

When I moved to NYC in 1985, I lost contact with the stations to the west of Cleveland, though I could still listen to my old sports teams, especially Indians baseball games. On September 11, 2001, I had my AM-FM radio headset with me, and the confusion and fear of that tragic day was eased somewhat by being able to listen to local radio reports. In short, I’ve been a radio listener all my life.

In more recent years, with the advent of Apple devices such as the IPod Touch and the IPad, and apps that pull in stations via the Internet or a cellular data line, without any need to seek and find radio signals of old, I listen to radio stations from around the world, from New Zealand, South Africa, Cajun Country, the whole assortment of BBC stations, and the CBC from many different Canadian cities. There are many such apps, though I find one best of all. That is TuneIn Radio, a stable and reliable free service that offers easy browsing, favorite-tagging, and a sleep timer.

For music and stand-up comedy from the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival later this week and next, TuneIn Radio is making it very easy to stream live performances from Austin, via a Web page, Live from Austin. Here’s a screenshot of that page, as well.