In recent weeks, a lot of the “First Listen” reviews of new radio stations have been streaming radio—whether it’s the slew of new workout-oriented online channels or the recently repackaged iHeartRadio Website and app. Perhaps there’s a new conservatism among broadcasters when it comes to their FM stations. Maybe Sports and simulcast News or Talk stations are getting all the new FM slots. And certainly, there’s a lot of shuffling and jockeying for position among Webcasters—terrestrial and pureplays—that explains their heavy representation here recently.

A few months ago, AOLRadio announced that its suite of online music stations would move from the CBS Radio portal, Radio.com, to Slacker Radio. AOL’s stations are still on Radio.com as of Monday, Oct. 3. But Radio.com has unveiled a new suite of more than 45 “new exclusive stations,” including two that particularly rate a First Listen, the self-explanatory "Party Time!" and “Tomorrow’s Hits Today.”

“Tomorrow’s Hits Today” is a partnership with SoundOut, the U.K.-based company that does pre-release online music testing and is working to create an expanded footprint in the U.S. SoundOut has been making its U.S. data available to the industry recently. Its “top of the page” records are often more pop-oriented than what’s on Mainstream CHR these days; the top four in last Friday’s research were Daughtry’s “Crawling Back To You,” Taylor Swift’s “Sparks Fly,” Rascal Flatts & Natasha Bedingfield’s “Easy” and Jessie J’s “Domino.” The Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga remake of “The Lady Is A Tramp” is tied for No. 5.

Last week’s SoundOut research also showed good numbers for JTX’s “Love In America,” a big record on Sirius XM’s Top 40 channels that hasn’t spread elsewhere yet. JTX and another Sirius Hits 1 signature record, Rockmafia’s “The Big Bang” are both heard on the Tomorrow’s Hits Today channel. While their success in SoundOut might be a reflection of their existing national exposure, not just raw potential, it’s interesting to see Sirius XM’s maverick take on Top 40 confirmed either way.

We’ve noted before that a certain type of CHR new music discovery isn’t as easily found on the Web as one might think. Internet radio is often surprisingly conservative, differing from major-market mainstream FM radio more in the depth of its gold library than in its willingness to find currents. Tomorrow’s Hits Today isn’t the only new music channel available—AOL Radio offers New Pop First and some other portals have comparable stations—but it does have an interesting twist of curation that puts it somewhere between a narrow major-market CHR and a new music channel with less programmers’ logic.

Here’s the Tomorrow’s Hits Today stream as heard on Friday, Sept. 30:

Jennifer Lopez, “Papi”
Owl City, “Deer In The Headlights”
Kelly Clarkson, “Mr. Know It All”
Adele, “Set Fire To The Rain”
JTX, “Love In America”
Simple Plan, “Jet Lag”
Young The Giant, “My Body”
Beyonce, “I Was Here”
Christina Perri, “Miles”
KDrew, “Body & Soul (She Got Control)”
The Band Perry, “All Your Life”
Parachute, “Kiss Me Slowly”
Rockmafia, “The Big Bang”
Jojo, “Disaster”
Onedirection, “What Makes You Beautiful” (current U.K. hit)
Avalanche City, “Love Love Love”
Lil Wayne w/Bruno Mars, “Mirror”
Nicole Scherzinger, “Don’t Hold Your Breath”

PARTY TIME

We’ve also noted the increased number of tempo-driven variety stations available lately, both on FM and online. The party format was one of the first formats to emerge in the pre-satellite/Internet era of music on cable TV, but I still particularly enjoyed “Party Time,” which was rhythmic, but not entirely so, and had some genuine “oh wow” titles. Here’s “Party Time!” as heard on Sunday, October 2:

No Doubt, “Just A Girl”
Shaggy f/Janet, “Luv Me, Luv Me”
Kurtis Blow, “The Breaks”
3 Doors Down, “Kryptonite”
Pussycat Dolls, “Don’t Cha”
Wyclef Jean, “We Tryin’ To Stay Alive”
Timbaland, “The Way I Are”
Beastie Boys, “Fight For Your Right (To Party)”
Jennifer Lopez f/Pitbull, “On The Floor”
September, “Cry For You”
Janet Jackson, “If”
Beyoncé, “Baby Boy”