Online radio such as AOL Radio, Slacker, Pandora and Last.fm have gained popularity recently. In addition, many wireless products including cell phones support these platforms. Does this mean the end of conventional radio stations? I will take a look at the influence of streaming radio on the radio landscape.

Local radio seems to be having a hard time in today's radio landscape with competing satellite and online radio providers taking away listeners by offering commercial-free music and entertainment. The internet has allowed access to a practically indefinite number of online radio channels.

Many online radio providers such as Pandora are nowadays available on mobile devices such as cell phones and other wireless audio products via appropriate apps. This adds mobility to online radio which has still been the trump card of local radio stations.

AOL Radio which features 200 plus music channels of 25 genres utilizes CBS radio as its underlying platform. It also provides access to 150 national CBS radio stations. Listeners can also make their own customized radio stations at the CBS radio "play.it" website and save each track for playback on an iPod by using 3-rd party software iGetMusic.

Pandora and other online radio services have in the same way begun to offer customized music. The user can enter music-related information such as artist, track or album name. These channels will then select tracks which are similar to the information entered. On the other hand, most online radio broadcasters lack the ability to create fully customized radio stations such as the “play.it” platform.

Is the end of local radio near? The increase of competition from satellite and online radio has started to take away listeners from local radio stations. Traditional radio appears to have a hard time to halt this trend. Online radio is especially useful for niche broadcasters who have been unable to broadcast due to the high price and licensing of frequency space.

The large number of accessible stations is a big plus for online radio listeners. However, this is a problem for online broadcasters. This big number of stations is diluting the number of listeners. Consequently streaming radio broadcasters have found it difficult to be profitable. At the same time, on the other hand, there is less pressure to insert commercials due to the lower expenses of broadcasting compared with traditional stations. This has made online radio content more interesting than terrestrial radio.

One big plus of local stations however is local content including news or current events. So far the poor audio quality of FM radio has been a big disadvantage. However, new digital radio broadcasts are set to enhance the audio quality. One of these technologies is HD radio. Content and mobility will be vital in determining the destiny of online and local radio. Online radio offers a huge number of choices while local radio excels by providing local content. Both online and local broadcasts offer great mobility. For that reason it is difficult to predict a clear winner in this radio battle.

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