Oh no – this is not good news for me. For years I have been a subscriber to Yahoo! LaunchCast Plus Radio. As a subscriber you receive commercial free radio stations and you can even build your own station based on your favorite bands. I had not checked my Yahoo email account for a while, but now just noticed the message that came in a few days ago. On February 12 LaunchCast Plus will cease to exist. The free version will be transferred to CBS Radio, but that will include tons of advertisements. 
So, I think that will mean I will have to look for a new Internet Radio service. I already looked at Sirius Internet Radio, but for $12.99 per month that is quite a difference compared to the $36/year I had to pay for LaunchCast Plus. Ok, $36/year was dirt cheap, but even if they would have raised their prices it would have still been a great deal. Too bad Yahoo! in general has no clue how to run a solid business. Their overall decline in marketshare for search and paid advertising is clearly a sign they just don’t get it.
Anyone know of any alternatives for commercial free radio that offers access to classic rock music? Please leave a comment. I would highly appreciate it.
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How about “slacker.com” or “www.play.it ” Both let you create a station. Pay a bit and commercials go away.
Thanks for the suggestions. I will check those out.
I am as upset as you are about this if not more. It was such an amazing value… The quality was truly kick-ass. I loved premium, and aside from no ads, UNLIMITED SKIPPING. I used (abused?) the hell out of that feature… This is truly sad… Sirius sucks because it’s expensive as hell and you can’t personalize your own station… seriously… what were they smoking? Handing this over to CBS? Awful.
I feel the same. Big disappointment. I haven’t used it for several days and noticed it’s still working today, 2/15/09. Did they possibly have a change of heart or just didn’t pull the switch yet?
I did not work for me on 2/13 but worked last night (2/14). It’s probably not change of heart, but rather technical problems to cut over. The ads on Friday were announced, but did not play (and music did not play either).
I think it won’t be transitioned until Jan 19th… so we won’t know what mess we’re in for until then… Heh… It still sucks horribly.