Internet Radio at Work

Selecting a radio station I saved within "My Stations" previously, ChoiceRadio.com New Age in Windows Media Player, I am taken to a web page with many advertising sections, all fighting for my attention; on the top portion I see an option to become a member, which is not what I am used to do to listen to one radio channel; after a long time waiting for the 'Buffering' signal, I rather go to choose another radio. MSN Radio Plus on Windows Media Player, RadioPass on RealPlayer, and LaunchCast Plus in Yahoo!, are the paid options I can understand. I have seen paid subscriptions offered per individual radios, but it would be unreasonable to choose one station instead of a complete selection.

I liked listening to the RealPlayer radio, until recently when I selected several free stations in sequence, and waited for the introductory advertising, only to get the standard message that "this radio station has reach its maximum of its listeners capacity - please select another station" or something like that.

Yahoo! LAUNCHcast radio was my choice before their connectivity failed on my desktop. I still connect to LauchCast from home, where I don't have to deal with the firewall at work. I can still connect to Beethoven.com or "New Age Essentials" via Windows Media Player at work, but the selection of free stations is getting ridiculously small. Furthermore, using Windows Media Player or Yahoo! LaunchCast, once in a while I notice lower volume, or even complete silence, while the interface shows a song being played.