Back in 1895, when Italian physicist Guglielmo Marconi invented radio, sending sound across the airwaves was the height of high tech. Marconi couldn't have imagined that 100 years later the same sound would be streamed into PCs, laptops, and PDAs.

Despite all the modern telecommunications equipment of today, radio remains a staple of the daily media diet.

Internet radio, which involves streaming audio live over the Net, seems to have unlimited potential. It doesn't require huge radio towers or much infrastructure. In fact, you can now operate your own radio channel from home. The ease of use means it's possible to tailor an infinite number of channels to what listeners want.

While some traditional stations have embraced change and launched Internet radio initiatives, not everyone believes that the Internet is the future of radio.

Steve DiNardo, general manager for Alice 97.7 and Live 105.3 -- San Francisco's best-known alternative sounds -- doesn't see a pressing business need to have an Internet counterpart.

"We don't believe we are missing an opportunity," Dinardo said in an exclusive interview with TechTV. "There's been no conclusive evidence that ratings go up by being online. If I thought that ratings would go up, then I'd do it."

DiNardo's stations have not completely ignored the Internet, however. In fact, he said, live station-sponsored concerts were streamed through Yahoo! when the advertising dollars were right.

"We are not acting Pollyana-ish or bullish," said DiNardo, who maintains that his stations are run as businesses, not tech companies. "We are realistic. We are not going to follow a business model that doesn't work."

Giga Information Group analyst James Grady says some of radio's recent inertia comes from its rapidly changing listener population.

Grady sees a different kind of radio in the future. "There's a romance to radio that's probably always going to be there," he told TechTV. "But now the opportunity to form chat rooms opens up another avenue of contact and improves the experience, especially for a core group of listeners."

Thanks to user-friendly online radio stations, computer users are breathing new life into an industry that lost its punch in the '80s and '90s after music-only channels like MTV and VH1 stole the spotlight. But radio does have advocates among industry analysts.

According to Craig Sender, communications manager of research group eMarketer, 63 percent of multimedia PC owners now listen to Net radio on their home computers, compared with just 33 percent who tuned in last year. While that still amounts to only a quarter of the nation, radio's revival is encouraging to those who are trying to build radio-based businesses.

"Internet radio is a godsend for the displaced sports fan," said Sender who added that he personally bypasses local radio for more accurate and entertaining online programming.

Currently, more than 5,000 on-the-dial and Internet-only radio stations are streaming content on the Web -- and their signals are not falling on deaf ears. Additionally, Sender said, 45 percent of 18-to-34-year-olds tune in to Internet radio on their computers at work.

Unlike traditional radio, where nine out of 10 listeners tune in during their commute, eRadio fans are not saddled with the three-ton stereo parked out back. All they need is a pair of headphones and an audio jack on their computer.

"As the technology improves, I think more and more people will embrace Internet radio," Sender added. "Advertisers will start realizing [that radio] is an untapped resource with boundless potential."