''Musical Starstreams'' (also known as ''Starstreams'') is a terrestrial and internet radio program that first aired in the

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

bay area in December 1981. Originally known as ''Music for Your Inner Space'', it has been produced, programmed and hosted by Forest, originally in

Mill Valley Mill Valley is a city in Marin County, California, United States, located about north of San Francisco via the Golden Gate Bridge and from Napa Valley. The population was 14,231 at the 2020 census. Mill Valley is located on the western and ...

and now from

Maui The island of Maui (; Hawaiian: ) is the second-largest of the islands of the state of Hawaii at 727.2 square miles (1,883 km2) and is the 17th largest island in the United States. Maui is the largest of Maui County's four islands, which ...

, for its entire forty year history, except for a twelve-month period from mid-2002, when Madison Cole hosted the show. In 1983 the two-hour weekly show began syndication on commercial terrestrial radio, and in 1985 was picked up for distribution outside the US. It has been heard on over 200 noncommercial and commercial

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

cable Cable may refer to: Mechanical * Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof * Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...

systems, the

internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

, XM

satellite radio Satellite radio is defined by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)'s ITU Radio Regulations (RR) as a ''broadcasting-satellite service''. The satellite's signals are broadcast nationwide, across a much wider geographical area than ter ...

channels and

DirecTV DirecTV (trademarked as DIRECTV) is an American multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital satellite service serving the United States. It ...

. Although initially scoring good ratings nationwide, the show peaked in numbers of terrestrial stations in 1991, the same year it was nominated for ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' magazine's 'Adult Syndicated Program of the Year.' With the volatile nature of commercial radio stations continually changing formats, terrestrial station coverage has significantly declined to a point where by their own website's count, they list around a dozen

s which they attribute to the decline in terrestrial station listening and the increased popularity of the internet where more listeners have chosen to listen online to the program in its current form. A more music intensive version of Starstreams can currently be heard online on

Mixcloud Mixcloud is a popular British online music streaming service that allows for the listening and distribution of radio shows, DJ mixes and podcasts, which are crowdsourced by its registered users. In April 2018, Mixcloud announced that it raised $ ...

and

iHeart Media iHeartMedia, Inc., formerly CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc. (formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc.), a company fou ...

. Back in the 1980s the show played a mix of

electronic Electronic may refer to: *Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductor * ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal *Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device *Electronic co ...

, new-age and a small amount of

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

, Today, it has more of a Chill music core, sometimes characterized as mid- to down-tempo "exotic electronica".Scire, Dawn E. "'Far out' musical sojourns are missed", ''

Sarasota Herald-Tribune The ''Sarasota Herald-Tribune'' is a daily newspaper, located in Sarasota, Florida, founded in 1925 as the ''Sarasota Herald''. History The newspaper was owned by The New York Times Company from 1982 to 2012. It was then owned by Halifax Media ...

'', 2002-06-03, p. E4. Back in the early days it was also sometimes described as "Marin County hot-tub music" a tongue in cheek reference to its former home just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco.Stredicke, Victor. "Instrumental oasis heats the dial", ''

Seattle Times ''The Seattle Times'' is a daily newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded in 1891 and has been owned by the Blethen family since 1896. ''The Seattle Times'' has the largest circulation of any newspaper in Washington st ...

'', 1987-04-26, p. L5.

References

External links

* {{official American music radio programs

See also

References

External links