Yahoo!Broadcast offers easy access to local, national radio, TV and more By JIM BROOKS As a youth, the bedroom I shared with my older brothers was home to an old tube-type radio that played continuously day and night. The radio gave us news, weather, music and more as we drifted off to sleep each night. The glow of the tubes cast a soft orange glow on the wall between my brother's bed and mine. Listening to the radio became a hobby; I enjoyed tuning the dial at night, hoping to hear distant stations from states far away. The Internet has made this trek for distant radio stations a lot easier, with the advent of the Yahoo!Broadcast Web site. If you've been an Internet user for three or four years, you've likely seen how rapidly the popular Yahoo! Web site has evolved from an online directory to full-blown portal and services site for businesses and consumers. One of Yahoo's many acquisitions over the past few years has been its purchase last year of Broadcast.com, now renamed Yahoo!Broadcast. Broadcast.com's humble beginnings started in a founder's garage. The site's mission was simple -- create a new distribution avenue for existing radio and TV stations' content. The new distribution channel was the Internet. Today, more than 145 million people "tune in" to content offered by Yahoo!Broadcast, which includes more than 500 radio stations and 65 television states, cable networks and game broadcasts and other content. The content available runs the full width and breadth of what you might expect. I enjoy talk radio, so I can tune into my market's stations, two of which are available at Yahoo!Broadcast. You can perform a search, browse by radio station call letters, or by content. For example, if you're interested in Oldies music, one click of the mouse will list all content providers carrying that type of content, along with the location of the station. There are online CD listening parties, a CD jukebox, as well as recorded books, interviews with musicians, and much, much more. There's music for everyone, from A to Z. For details, visit the site at www.broadcast.com. TREE & LEAVES. If you're a homeowner or nature lover, you'll want to visit this online resource provided by the Ohio Public Library Information Network and the Ohio Historical Society. "What Tree Is It?" is an excellent resource with a single mission -- to help you identify trees. Having owned several homes, I've learned how to identify the more common trees. But if you want to know the differences between a pin oak and a scarlet oak, this is the Web site to visit. The site allows you to identify trees following three separate paths. You can identify a tree by its fruit, leaves or browse a list of trees sorted by name. The site is specifically geared toward tree species found in Ohio, but most (if not all) of the species listed on the site are also found in nearby regions. You may not find every tree listed you find in your walk through the woods, but the site is a wonderful learning tool. If your kids are already getting bored this summer, how about taking them on a walk through the woods to collect fallen leaves? Then visit the "What Tree Is It?" Web site to see how many varieties you can identify. Visit the site at www.oplin.lib.oh.us/products/tree/. KRAZY STUFF. It's been almost 30 years since I first saw that strange TV commercial of the man with his hardhat cemented to the I-beam. Yes, that's the first I was introduced to that miraculous fix-all product, Krazy Glue. Since its early days, I've used many tubes of the stuff (and stuck nearly as many fingers together) to repair broken and damaged items in my car, home and garage. The stuff is legendary in its strength; I once used some as thread sealant on one of my cars. As you might imagine, Krazy Glue's promotional folks have created a humdinger of a Web site devoted to the product. It's an attractive site that entertains and informs; after all, you need to know how to unstick Krazy Glued fingers, right? The company also offers a newer product that includes "Skin Guard," which promises all the strength of regular crazy glue but it won't bond skin instantly. If there's something broken around your house, chances are there's a Krazy Glue product that will mend it. Visit www.krazyglue.com for more details. NO SALE. It looks as if the "Internet Shakeout of 2000" will continue to claim more victims as businesses on less-than-solid-footing either shore up their finances or abandon ship. The latest to fold is online auction house Boxlot.com. The site had been trying to diversify, acquiring other auction sites and working hard to develop its own software for sale to other auction sites. Ironically, the site's final bit of business will be to host its own going-out-of-business sale, with lists of the company's own furnishings -- office equipment, furniture, printers, etc., will go for sale online to the top bidder. With venture funding drying up, the company simply didn't have funds to keep operating. Boxlot.com's biggest asset remains its auction site software, Auction XL, which could bring millions -- which the company needs to pay creditors. THEY'RE HUMAN TOO. You only get a couple of notices in the mail. Miss them and wham! -- suddenly you find you're Web site is gone. That's what officials at JP Morgan discovered recently when their Web site, JPMorgan.com, was offline and nowhere to be found on the Internet. Someone in the international banking firm's organization had overlooked the $35 annual renewal fee for its domain name -- and Network Solutions deactivated the site. While JP Morgan quickly made good on the site, it just goes to show that everyone's human, even international bankers. Comments and questions about this column may be sent to jbrooks@myoldkentuckyhome.com, or visit www.myoldkentuckyhome.com on the World Wide Web. | HOME |