A pioneer of internet radio has relaunched its web site to mark a collaboration with one of the UK's biggest internet service providers.

Fresh from broadcasting the Glastonbury music festival in association with Radio Avalon, Cable Radio has joined Freeserve to provide online music for listeners around the world.

Visitors to the music section of Freeserve's broadband channel will find a link to Cable Radio's web site where they can listen to a range of music from the past four decades during the day and specialist music shows throughout the night.

The station broadcasts 24 hours a day and attracts about 100,000 listeners a month.

Listeners include people using a broadband connection, who can hear the shows in near-CD quality, and users with a standard modem, who hear a similar quality stream to medium-wave signals.

Cable Radio was established in 1999 as a community radio service for Worthing using a short-term licence from the Radio Authority.

When the licence ended, the station's only choice was to broadcast on the internet and via the NTL digital television network.

Station manager Duncan Lethbridge said: "It was always our intention to bid for Worthing licence and we used new media to continue broadcasting.

"But our online activity has far outstripped our offline activity. We've had to form another company, WorthFM, to bid for the Worthing FM licence so we can concentrate on our online activities."

Mr Lethbridge said the new site encouraged listeners to feedback to Cable Radio.

He said: "We wanted to develop an interface between DJs in the studio and the outside world.

There's someone here 16 to 18 hours a day and listeners can email and text the presenters, who can send their responses back through the web site."

The station is also preparing for the next phase of its development, which will emphasise the importance of outside broadcasting.

It could also embrace other transmission technologies, like WAP (wireless access protocol), to stay ahead of the competition.

Mr Lethbridge said: "We are a radio company first and foremost. The internet is one channel among many."

www.cable.co.uk
www.freeserve.com