Patty Winter wrote:

So is MP3. Flash is overkill for audio streaming.

MP3 however cannot for example also carry let's say a weather forecast or
allow a station to promote upcoming programming. I note that many public
radio stations with streaming via MP3 (m3u for example) don't always manage
to insert their reminder that streaming costs money and is paid for by the
contributors to the station without somehow not managing to provide the
content after the reminder. It can be really annoying if you have
contributed to that station but cannot get a reliable connection without
reconnecting several times.

Some commercial stations with flash also offer ads and if that helps offset
some of the cost of streaming, so be it. As much as I consider flash
players bloated and at times a security risk, flash has been reliable
delivering audio for me.