This chapter has assembled many of the basic ingredients that will be involved when we think about putting together the century-old medium of radio and the newest medium of mass communication, the Internet. The point to emphasize is that web radio is still a very young, imperfect technology. We do not know yet what kind of a medium it will settle into. There is nothing automatic or predestined about that. It will depend on how listeners use it and above all on how enthusiasts shape its content. We can only compare this early stage in the evolution of web radio to its analogue parent. Terrestrial radio has evolved a set of characteristics which make it a unique form of communication, quite distinct in its uses from the competition, TV and the printed media. The Internet brings a whole range of supplementary facilities, some of which make it extremely attractive to radio practitioners. Most important among these are that it makes getting a station on air very easy, that it does not require a licence to transmit, that its range is local to global and that it has an inherently interactive, horizontal infrastructure. But the Internet is also very confusing in the wealth of media uses it brings together. This is a time for radio practitioners and fans to pause for reflection. It is vitally important for us to understand radio if we are to make a success of web radio. The next chapter places web radio in the context...