Stitcher Radio

Stitcher is an on-demand internet radio service that focuses on news and information radio and podcasts. It provides free online streaming through the website and via native mobile applications such as the Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, and Palm webOS. The company was founded in 2008 and is privately held and venture backed.

Stitcher aggregates content from thousands of content providers and organizes the content into "stations" that listeners can browse and listen to. Audio content is delivered from large media providers such as AP, BBC, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, NPR, TechCrunch, and thousands of smaller providers. Content is kept continually up to date via Stitcher's proprietary back-end application, allowing listeners to have access to fresh content while on the go without having to sync their mobile device. However, this access may require costly usage of mobile data in contrast to true podcasts which can be synced through WiFi Internet access and listened to "on the go".

Radio

Radio is the use of radio waves is to carry information, such as sound, by systematically modulating some property of electromagnetic energy waves transmitted through space, such as their amplitude, frequency, phase, or pulse width. When radio waves strike an electrical conductor, the oscillating fields induce an alternating current in the conductor. The information in the waves can be extracted and transformed back into its original form.

Radio systems need a transmitter to modulate (change) some property of the energy produced to impress a signal on it, for example using amplitude modulation or angle modulation (which can be frequency modulation or phase modulation). Radio systems also need an antenna to convert electric currents into radio waves, and vice versa. An antenna can be used for both transmitting and receiving. The electrical resonance of tuned circuits in radios allow individual stations to be selected. The electromagnetic wave is intercepted by a tuned receiving antenna. A radio receiver receives its input from an antenna and converts it into a form usable for the consumer, such as sound, pictures, digital data, measurement values, navigational positions, etc. Radio frequencies occupy the range from a 3 kHz to 300 GHz, although commercially important uses of radio use only a small part of this spectrum.

Internet radio

Internet radio (also web radio, net radio, streaming radio, e-radio, online radio, webcasting) is an audio service transmitted via the Internet. Broadcasting on the Internet is usually referred to as webcasting since it is not transmitted broadly through wireless means.

Internet radio involves streaming media, presenting listeners with a continuous stream of audio that typically cannot be paused or replayed, much like traditional broadcast media; in this respect, it is distinct from on-demand file serving. Internet radio is also distinct from podcasting, which involves downloading rather than streaming.

Internet radio services offer news, sports, talk, and various genres of music—every format that is available on traditional broadcast radio stations. Many Internet radio services are associated with a corresponding traditional (terrestrial) radio station or radio network, although low start-up and ongoing costs have allowed a substantial proliferation of independent Internet-only radio stations.