Tune In to Tomorrow

It may seem like backsliding to harness the vast power of 21st century technology to get access to something so last-millennium as radio, but if the tyranny of the Top 40 is getting you down, nothing beats going online to catch a better wave. Live radio on the Internet allows listeners to indulge their passions for Icelandic pop, the sports of other nations or The Archers, Britain's long-running radio soap opera — and almost nothing else can connect you so instantly, even dramatically, with the far-flung corners of the real world. The Internet, says Ken Mueller, curator of radio for...