Where to listen online

I'd rather listen to the radio than CDs a lot of the time, because the radio plays unexpected music, while I already know my CDs. The radio stations in my area only play folk music a few hours a week, so I must turn to the internet. I usually prefer listening online to radio stations rather than just music streams, because the radio stations seem to have more personality.

• Weekday mornings, I listen to WMPG from Portland, Maine. I like that it's a community station that plays all sorts of music, especially folk and world. Not all shows are in line with my taste, but I think it's good for a radio station to be so diverse, even if it means I don't listen all the time.
• Weekday afternoons, WMPG tends to veer away from music I like, so I switch over to WUMB, a Boston station. WUMB is great in that it's a station devoted to folk music. I find their weekday programming a bit bland, but it's good nonetheless. I find some of their weekend shows more interesting, such as "Highway 61 Revisited," and "Midnight Special," except now "Midnight Special" is only on after my bedtime. They used to air it in the morning too.
• WMUD from Vermont certainly has personality, in the quirky recorded announcements they play, but they don't have DJs talking live on the air, which makes it less interesting to me.
• WKSU in Ohio offers a folk music stream called Folk Alley.
• WUMB also offers streams of particular types of folk music: contemporary, traditional, Celtic, French, love songs, and "X-stream" (modern, closer to rock/pop).
  
• General music streaming services such as Pandora, Last.fm, and Yahoo allow you to specify what kind of music you want to hear.