MISSISSIPPI STATE -- A new Internet radio network is up and running, and offers programming from Mississippi State University specialists on a wide variety of topics.

RadioSource.net is a portal website posting audio programming that can be downloaded for rebroadcast or streamed for consumer use. It is provided through the cooperation of MSU and 11 other participating institutions.

Topics available in audio form include gardening, health and nutrition, environmental news, agribusiness, agronomy, animal science, plant pathology, microbiology, human ecology, rural sociology and veterinary medicine. This information is available online at www.radiosource.net.

Tyson Gair, senior editor-broadcast with MSU's Office of Agricultural Communications, is coordinating the project for MSU. Since last October, he has posted "Southern Gardening" and "Better Farming," two MSU Extension Service radio programs, online.

"Mississippi State was the first to provide audio programming to this site, but since its inception, other land-grant universities have recognized the value of this project and have joined the effort," Gair said.

For over a year, MSU has worked in partnership with four southern states and with funding from Agricultural Distance Education Consortium to develop web-based radio. Today, it is partially funded by a grant from the Agricultural Telecommunications Program within the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

RadioSource is a partnership between MSU, the University of Arkansas, the University of Florida, the University of Georgia, Kansas State University, the University of Kentucky, Louisiana State University, Texas A&M, Virginia Tech, the University of Illinois, South Dakota State University and the University of Tennessee.

"We're happy to be part of this virtual radio network that shares Mississippi State's resources with a broader audience," Gair said.

Kathy Sohar, RadioSource project director, works with the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Communication Services at the University of Florida.

"Projects such as RadioSource.net represent a new way of communicating with the public, and help us to serve audiences that have traditionally been marginalized in the educational system," Sohar said.

She said that making Extension and research programming available online is an effective way to get information to the public. It also supports the land-grant mission by helping to improve the quality of life for families and communities.

"RadioSource.net connects the knowledge base of land-grant universities directly with the public," Sohar said. "Site users can choose the information they want to hear and can search for topics relevant to their needs and interests."