
My Patreon page.
For personal reasons, my blog is on hiatus until further notice, but I’m not going away. If you’d like to read the latest on me, Como Audio, Internet radio, etc., you’ll find a lot of answers here which is also reproduced below.
If you’re a Como Audio customer, or you love Internet radio, consider joining my Patreon service.
If you love vintage music and audio gear, subscribe to my YouTube channel.
And if you want to listen to something different, fluff your duck.
Thank you for all of your support.
Enjoy the music,
Peter Skiera

What gave you the idea to write about Internet radio stations?
Peter: At the audio company I worked for prior to Como Audio, we had 5 or 6 people in the radio/music industry each pick a standout Internet radio station every month to recommend to our customers. The thinking was, there were so many Internet stations, this would steer customers to some great listening that they might not otherwise discover on their own. These people weren’t paid but we did have to “donate” an Internet radio to each of them. Part of my job was managing that team.
Soon after I joined Como Audio and was asked by our Marketing Manager to write for the website blog, I decided to include my own recommendations for great Internet radio stations. But instead of recommending one station every month, I recommended six stations every six months. According to the analytics, these articles became the most read on Como’s Tech Rap blog. Readers emailed me complaining that they didn’t want to have to wait 6 months to find out about new stations and asked me to recommend stations on a monthly basis. There was no way I could come up with six standout Internet stations every month.
When Como Audio’s sales began to decline and my salary was cut multiple times, I stopped writing for the blog and started writing one Recommended Station and one Hitchhiker Station (a strange station) on Patreon for $1/month hoping it would help make up for the lost income. It didn’t, but I kept it going anyway because I really enjoyed doing it and I liked the challenge.

How do you find your Recommended and Hitchhiker Stations?
Peter: It’s not easy! There are certainly plenty of Internet stations out there, but quantity shouldn’t be confused with quality. It requires sampling lots of stations on an almost daily basis. But it doesn’t end there. Once I find a potential candidate, I listen for weeks if not months to be sure the station is reliable and the programming is consistent.
Hitchhiker Stations are more difficult…like finding a needle in a haystack. It’s exciting when I discover one, and despite all of the weird stations I’ve uncovered over the years, I’m always surprised at what I find.
It’s a lot of pressure to deliver one Recommended Station and now two Hitchhiker Stations every month. I always worry that at some point I won’t have one. So far, that hasn’t happened, but it will probably happen one day.
Has AI changed the way you write your articles?
Peter: No. I don’t use AI for my articles. I did, however, use it to help me create some songs which I’ve posted on Bandcamp (link at the end).

What’s the most frustrating part of what you do?
Peter: Without a doubt, it’s trying to get Internet stations to respond to my Story Behind the Station questions. I’m very aggressive at trying get the answers because I think hearing directly from the stations themselves enhance the listening experience. You would think stations would embrace free promotion. In a lot of cases, my gmails get marked as spam and as a result, the stations never see my questions. In other cases, the stations think it’s a scam or that I want money in return for endorsing their station, neither of which is true, but I guess that’s the age we live in today.
The other very frustrating thing is when non-Patreon members email me for help with their Como music system. I help them out and then ask that they join my Patreon for a couple of months in return. They don’t. So, I won’t be doing that anymore. I can’t afford to work for free, and honestly, I don’t think I should have to.
What’s the best thing about what you do?
Peter: Getting an email from a member thanking me for turning them on to a great station.

Do you think your experience in radio broadcasting and consumer audio is helpful?
Peter: Definitely. I worked in radio. I sold radios. I helped manufacture radios. I own many radios. And of course, I listen to radio. This affords me a deeper insight and a unique perspective. Despite 100,000+ Internet stations and millions of Internet radio users, I’m the only person who does this, which is just fine by me.

Are you doing anything new for 2025?
Peter: Yes! This year I decided to shake things up a bit and try to put more of an emphasis on genres I normally don’t focus on, but without going off the rails. I’ll still feature more conventional genres here and there, but I wanted to take myself out of my comfort zone more often than I usually do.
The other new thing is that I officially launched a brand-new Internet radio station! I’ve been wanting to do this for the last 15 months but life got in the way. I’m very excited about it which is unusual for me because I normally have to take a pill to get excited. It’s called Fluffing a Duck Radio and it’s a very unique, mostly instrumental music station. I recently uploaded new jingles and more music so there’s now almost 800 tracks in the library. Please give it a listen (link at the end).
And as I mentioned, I’ve also released some custom music on Bandcamp which you can download for free.
The last new thing is a slight change. My bi-annual Station Directory which lists all of my Recommended Stations, will be available only to my Elite and Super Elite supporters going forward.

What Internet radio stations do you listen to regularly?
Peter: This may come across as shameful self-promotion, but if I answer honestly, I listen to my own Internet stations, Wind Chime Radio and Fluffing a Duck Radio. I listen to beautiful music station The Elegant Sound which I perform volunteer (i.e. non-paying) voice work for. And I also rotate amongst many of my Recommended Stations.
What’s one change you would make to the Internet radio menu if you could?
Peter:I’ve asked the radio station aggregator more than once to please add a “High quality” category to the Stations menu. For example, if you were to search under “Jazz” in this High-quality category, only those jazz stations that streamed above 128 kbps would be listed. For those listeners wanting the ultimate sound quality, it would make finding such stations much easier.
What was the first Internet radio model you managed as a Product Manager?
Peter: That would be NetWorks. It sounded very good but the display was pretty awful and the controls were on the back except for a multifunction wheel on the top. This resulted in a nice, clean design, but forced the user to use the remote control (there were no apps back then) unless they wanted to be driven insane by blindly working the controls on the rear while looking at the display on the front. I didn’t design it; I just managed the development. It was also stupid expensive. For all the development work we put into it, it wasn’t a strong seller due to the price and because a lot of consumers didn’t understand the technology back then.

What do you miss most about your job at Como Audio?
Peter: I miss many things, like the interaction with our office staff. We had a very small staff, but we got along well and it was a pleasure to work with everyone. I’m sad that we didn’t stay in touch, though I occasionally speak with the former CEO, the former Marketing Manager, and our former IT guy. I’m not an outgoing person and I don’t make friends easily so I tend to value the few relationships I make along the way. It’s unfortunate that you can work so closely with people for 7 years and then never hear from them again, but that’s the way it’s been with every job I’ve had. People move on with you or without you, but mostly without you, at least that’s been my experience.
I also miss working on new products. I miss communicating daily with our customers and our suppliers. Believe it or not, I even miss arriving on cold, snowy mornings to open our office in MA and make sure our parking lot was cleared and the entrance was salted and sanded.
“Despite 100,000+ Internet stations and millions of Internet radio users, I’m the only person who does this, which is just fine by me.”
Did you ever have any negative interactions with customers?
Peter: The vast majority of our customers were and are wonderful people. I have one customer who purchased a new Amico battery pack from Como’s going out of business sale. He said the new battery was dead when he received it. The company was gone at that point so there wasn’t anything we could do. He emails me every now and again out of the blue to remind me he got screwed. I’m not sure what he expects me to do but if his angry emails make him feel better then I’ll be his whipping boy. Of course, this citizen didn’t contribute to the GoFundMe campaign for the Frontier-Airable transition so he got his Internet radio and podcast service for free, but I guess in his mind that doesn’t count for anything.

However, my scariest experience wasn’t with a customer. There was a guy who, unbeknownst to us, posed as a journalist and crashed a couple of Como’s annual press events in New York which I was always present for. The PR firm we hired got wise to him and banned him from all future events. He sent us an angry email saying he was going to have to “teach us a lesson”. I remember those chilling words as if they were written yesterday. I had nightmares of him showing up at one of the conferences with an automatic weapon. Thank goodness, nothing ever happened, but it traumatized me for as long as we held those events.
What’s the latest regarding Como Audio’s Internet radio and podcast service?
Peter: We’re paid up with the station aggregator through October 2026. In about 15 months, give or take, I’ll post an update on Patreon for all Elite and Super Elite members about whatever the plan will be for the balance due for year #3 and any information I have about what happens after that. If you never contributed to the GoFundMe campaign and have been enjoying your service for free, it’s not too late to show your appreciation for my efforts via a contribution (links at the end).
Have you ever thought of starting your own company and designing your own audio products?
Peter: Absolutely! I have many audio product ideas swirling around in my brain. But one thing I learned at Como is that it takes a lot of money to run a company which is something I’ve been short of since being laid off. Como Audio’s CEO once told me- if you’re a billionaire and you’d rather be a millionaire, start your own audio company. What would be ideal is to be hired by an audio company to design products for them.
What’s the status of your petition on Change.org to promote Internet radio?
Peter: As of this writing, I have 809 “signatures”. I’m shooting for 1,000, so I have quite a way to go yet. If you’ve yet to sign, I hope you will (link at the bottom). There’s no cost and it’s easy to do. If you’ve already signed, thank you, and please pass the word on.

Besides Internet radio, another of your interests is horror films?
Peter: Yes. I love horror movies. The Shining with Jack Nicholson is one of my all-time favorites, but I especially enjoy classic slasher films like Halloween, Black Christmas, My Bloody Valentine, Friday the 13th, etc. I’ve visited the actual camp where 80% of Friday the 13th was filmed and I’ve met several of the actors and the director. I’m not into especially violent horror films like Terrifier. A good horror film shouldn’t aim for shock value. I watch horror films to be scared not to toss my cookies.

What horror films have you seen recently?
Peter: The last horror film I saw in an actual movie theater was Clown In A Cornfield, which I saw last month. I liked it but the very end was disappointing. The most recent horror film I saw on cable TV was Late Night With The Devil which blew my mind. I recently had the great pleasure of meeting the star of the film, David Dastmalchian, who couldn’t have been nicer.

Last month I also saw Carrie the Musical. Yes, they made a musical from the Steven King horror novel. It was actually really good. Bullies beware.

You’ve started your own YouTube channel. How’s that going?
Peter: I was very reluctant to get into it at first because I’m not a video or social media person and I don’t look like George Clooney. My videos are starting to get a little bit of traction but I have a very long way to go. I think my videos take my subjects (mostly vintage audio) to a new level and at the same time, they let me have a little fun. I think it also demonstrates my passion for audio and brings out my personality and sense of humor. Please check them out (link at the end), and most importantly, subscribe and share them. I’m also hoping my videos will help promote my service on Patreon as well as encourage BuyMeACoffee and PayPal donations so I can keep going.
How has the job hunt been going since Como Audio closed?
Peter: Sixteen months ago, I became my elderly father’s full-time caregiver and that’s become my full-time job. It’s a lot of work and very stressful. I have newfound respect for all caregivers. I don’t have any siblings and all of his siblings have passed away, so I’m alone on this journey. I’ve done a little (emphasis on “little”) independent contract work and hope to do more, but it’s not something steady I can rely on.
If there’s one thing you could ask people reading this, what would it be?
Peter: To please spread the word about my Patreon campaign, especially to Como Audio customers. It’s very difficult trying to grow my base.
Any final thoughts?
Peter: I’m so grateful for my Patreon subscribers, and for that matter, my YouTube subscribers. They give me a reason to get up every day when I can find many reasons not to. It’s a gift in my life. I hope everyone gets as much out of it as I do.
Trivia: I interned at legendary Boston rock station WBCN-FM and my first full time radio job was at WPRO-AM in Providence, R.I. I also worked at WHDH-AM in Boston, The Talk America Radio Network in Marlboro, MA, WBACH-FM/WQEZ-FM in Kennebunkport, Maine, The Peak in Norh Conway, NH, and WLNH-FM/WBHG-FM/WEMJ-AM in Gilford, New Hampshire, just to name a few. Some of those stations no longer exist or have changed format (not my fault!).
Links:
Fluffing a Duck Radio: https://fluffingaduckradio.com/
Wind Chime Radio: https://soloist.ai/windchimeradio
RS YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@RecommendedStations
RS on Bandcamp: https://stationsguy.bandcamp.com
BuyMeACoffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/StationsGuy
PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=45U6HE8HF4MHU
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/RecommendedStations/membership
Change.org: https://chng.it/R9rFYRjp69