A few months ago I wrote about radio stations online, so that you can tune in to your favorite frequency even if you don't have a regular broadcast radio receiver. I did an AM radio roundup and hope to do an FM radio roundup as a follow up.

Sometimes you miss the show you like entirely or want to go back to one that was on the air weeks or months ago. Maybe, just maybe, you want a heads-up to who will be on the air, what they are playing or what you might convince them to play if you sweet talk the suggestion line.

Here's some local radio shows, mostly music shows on the FM dial, that have a notable online Internet presence, with a special note to those who publish playlists or show archives.

WCBN playlists

Search WCBN playlists with this interactive database lookup tool. You can specify how far back to look, or look for things on a specific day.

WCBN has a wide range of shows not heard anywhere else on your dial, either broadcast from here in town or from other places in the world, so there are gems hidden here you won't find on typical radio. This makes keyword lookups fun; if you need a song about blood, sweat or tears to inspire you, chances are that this station has played it - well, chances are that they have played something similar to it.

WCBN is still seeking listener testimonials to help it move forward in its transmitter expansion plans. You can listen to WCBN online and review the program schedule to figure out just who it is that is responsible for what you are hearing.

WEMU playlists

The WEMU playlist and program guide is hosted on publicbroadcasting.net, which is a division of National Public Radio that provides hosting services for public radio stations. Unlike the WCBN playlist search tool that has a homegrown, slightly funky feel to it, the WEMU search is crisper and more polished. The search returns playlists, not individual tunes, so you get to see the whole set that matches.

WEMU's shows stay close to the "news, jazz and blues" that it promotes. Its Twitter account (@WEMUjazz) and their Facebook account are well-tended and often have a playlist up for shows.

Several hosts include show notes; this one from Linda Yohn's show of May 11 is notable: "Since we're all indoors at home, the office or in the vehicle today due to the heavy rain, I thought I'd open up the phones for requests for music to help you get through the day. You came through with some beauties. Thanks to your good taste in music, we heard Maynard Ferguson, Federico Britos, Django Reinhardt, Nnenna Freelon, John Coltrane and the late-great, legendary Lena Horne by suggestion. We also heard some excellent brand new additions to the WEMU stacks: music by Corey Christiansen, Ray Vega & Thomas Marriott and Joel Forrester with his group People Like Us. I hope you liked this morning's music and I thank you for spending this rainy day with 89.1."

The web page for listening to WEMU online presents a curious set of messages, warning of "Connection failures and skipping audio will occur when too many users are trying to connect at once." The recommended audio players include SoundJam for the Mac, which appears to have been taken off the market in 2001. It looks like a corner of the site that hasn't been brought up to date for a while, but despite all the warnings, the station tunes in fine for me over the Internet.

CBC Radio 2 playlists

CBC Radio 2 in Windsor (89.9 FM) gives U.S. listeners their recommended dose of Canadian content.

Radio 2 Drive, which runs from 3:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the area, is a favorite of commuters to Detroit who tune in to Rich Terfry's Canadian singer-songwriters, roots, and urban music. If you don't know what that means, a quick look at the playlist unearths an example: Vancouver, BC singer-songwriter Hannah Georgas.

A full set of CBC Radio 2 playlists cover all shows, all day long. The station also hosts a series of concerts on demand, featuring Canadian artists, with 594 productions on tap at this writing, plus podcasts of several current shows.

If you listened to CBC late at night, back in the day, you would have heard Brave New Waves. A set of Brave New Waves playlists is online, hosted who knows where. The show, hosted by Brent Bambury and then Patti Schmidt, ran for 23 years from 1984 to 2007 with alternative and indie music and culture. Much of the music was obscure enough not to be widely heard or distributed to commercial channels, and when CBC took the show off the air a lot of the ephemera disappeared with it. 

So you get people like Youtube listener mybikemybike with a playlist of 50 unknown pieces from Brave New Waves, taped off the air and uncredited with no evident way of tracking down who is responsible for these sounds of an era.

Edward Vielmetti listens to late night radio for AnnArbor.com. Contact him at edwardvielmetti@annarbor.com.