Established in April 1999, GroundWaves is a commercial-free no-format internet radio station that is dedicated to unsigned and small-label bands that never get radio airplay in major markets and to listeners who are bored with the repetitive and unadventurous nature of corporate radio. GroundWaves is in the spirit of college and pirate radio, only more obscure by design. Unsigned bands from anywhere in the world and of any genre are encouraged to submit material to be played on the wire. GroundWaves has no playlists, no channels, and no favorites. If an artist has a recording, an artist can be broadcast on GroundWaves. Due to the lack of a full-time staff or a dedicated recording studio, GroundWaves does not currently broadcast live. Playlists are created at random by a logic-controlled script and streamed in MP3 format from a SHOUTcast server. The result is a compromise between live and on-demand. Unlike similar sites that include web areas, streaming video, online marketing and MP3 or RealAudio downloads for their artists, GroundWaves only aims to play music. As opposed to excellent sites like the now-defunct MP3.com that require the user to hunt down and play songs individually, GroundWaves offers push content via streaming audio. If you hear bands that you like on GroundWaves and want to hear more, direct links to their homepages on the web or web areas on other services are supplied for you to get more information. If an artist is being broadcast on GroundWaves but has a web site that is not linked, the artist is encouraged to e-mail the webmaster with the URL of the site. While there are no and will never be any advertisements included in GroundWaves broadcasts, banner advertisements may eventually be solicited for the web site. As an alternative, steps may be made to incorporate GroundWaves as a non-profit so that listeners will be able to make tax-deductible donations to GroundWaves. Funds from advertising and/or donations will defray equipment costs and overhead, and will hopefully build enough finances to broadcast live and eventually transmit via traditional radio in addition to continued multicasting.