In February, 1995, the first full-time, Internet-only radio station, Radio HK, began broadcasting the music of independent bands. Radio HK was created by Norman Hajjar and the Hajjar/Kaufman New Media Lab, an advertising agency in Marina del Rey, California. Hajjar's method was to use a CU-SeeMe web conferencing reflector connected to a custom created audio CD in endless loop. Later, Radio HK converted to one of the original RealAudio servers.

WXYC (89.3FM Chapel Hill, NC USA) was the first radio station to announce broadcasting on the Internet on November 7, 1994. WXYC used an FM radio connected to a system at SunSite, later known as Ibiblio, running CU-SeeMe. WXYC had begun test broadcasts and bandwidth testing as early as August, 1994. WREK (91.1FM, Atlanta, GA USA) also claims to have started streaming on November 7, using their own custom software called CyberRadio1, although the stream was not advertised until a later date.

KJHK 90.7FM in Lawrence, Kansas, began to stream its live broadcast using CU-SeeMe on December 3, 1994. KJHK was the first radio station to maintain a continuous, live signal over the Internet. This has been verified by the National Association of Broadcasters, Sports Illustrated, and CNN.

KPIG also began to transmit a live, 24/7 feed, in August 1995, first using Xing Streamworks and later switching to RealAudio. Bill Goldsmith, who was KPIG's Operations Manager & morning DJ at the time, and the one responsible for starting the webcast, now operates the popular Internet station Radio Paradise.

WUEV launched its live simulcast in January 1996, also using the Xing Streamworks technology at first, then adding RealAudio and moving from the Xing platform to Windows Media Technologies as equipment (and budget sizes) changed.

The first radio station to stream 24-hours a day in Europe was the UK's Virgin Radio, who started streaming a live simulcast using Real Networks in March 1996.

Tuning in to a broadcast like a traditional radio is not possible on internet, so finding different broadcasts has to be done with a search engine or a website that collects on-line radio broadcasts.

In 1996 GBS Radio Networks, founded by radio veteran Guy W. Giuliano, was one of the first to launch an internet radio programming service. The firm syndicated two commercial formats, hip-hop station BombRadio, and hard rock format LoudRadio. In 1998, GBS was purchased by Kent Kiefer's eMusic corporation in a highly publicized cash and stock deal. In 1999, LoudRadio.com became the first online radio station to be syndicated on a commercial broadcast station via KLOD-FM in Flagstaff, AZ.

In 1999, one of the first University/College stations to operate was in Antigonish, Nova Scotia at St. Francis Xavier University CFXU.

In 1999 a company called BMP released a tool, the MyCaster, that allowed people without much technical knowledge to operate their own internet radio stations. The MyCaster was a software MP3 player, similar to Winamp, which streamed the music that a person was listening to, utilizing the Mycaster website to list the stream. Like many early Internet radio endeavors, MyCaster succumbed to the dot com bust in 2001.

Peercasting uses P2P technology. Its requirement of communicating a URI before transmission and the lack of a centralized repository of such addresses reduced peercasting's widespread adoption.

Mercora IMRadio, a combination of social networking and Internet radio, streams music in the Ogg Vorbis format. Mercora allows users to webcast music and pays royalties to the copyright collectives such as ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and SoundExchange.

RadioVague, in 2003, acquired a transportable satellite internet broadcast system and started broadcasting live shows from events and music festivals around Europe using only free and open source software, broadcasting in OGG/Vorbis format using Icecast and Icecast2 servers, their first event being the February 15, 2003 anti-war protest. Since then they have extended their distribution platform to allow both traditional FM radio stations and other internet radio stations to achieve a global audience.

In 2004, one of the more popular torrent websites, SuprNova, partnered with an amateur internet radio group and formed SuprNova Radio.[1]The radio station was operated by an amateur DJ staff, which usually consisted of converted listeners, who worked on a voluntary basis. Much of the content played on the station was gathered from pirated material.