In the last weeks of 2011, the question, “What is radio?” became only slightly less contentious, or less confounding, than, “Is there a loving, caring God?”

For much of 2011, it looked like the pureplays and AM/FM broadcasters were finally, cheerfully obscuring the line between “my preprogrammed radio station” and “your self-contained music collection.” CBS and Clear Channel allowed that even listeners to their terrestrial streams might occasionally want a customized station and the ability to skip songs. Pandora recognized that some of its listeners might occasionally want somebody to do more of the work and added format channels.

But 2011 ended with broadcast radio’s advocates newly determined to deny use of the term “radio” to anything that wasn’t hosted, wasn’t produced, wasn’t a shared experience, wasn’t local, wasn’t curated—forgetting perhaps that a lot of AM/FM stations couldn’t pass all those tests, and most of the multicast channels that cheerfully call themselves “HD Radio” barely pass any.

Then, Clear Channel Radio, whose CEO Bob Pittman had been one of the most energetic proponents for protecting the narrower definition of radio, changed its company name to Clear Channel Media And Entertainment. The change was validation for those who have long pushed broadcasters to consider themselves in the content business, not the transmitter business. It was less encouraging for those who had hoped that the hegemony of “radio” would continue by extending that brand to any pre-programmed audio entertainment on any platform.

Listeners don’t read the radio trades, and the “what is radio” debate was clearly for advertisers’ benefit, anyway. Consumers aren’t spending a lot of time on the yours/mine distinction. Radio, rather than trying to partition off “your music collection,” could be taking advantage of an unprecedented opportunity to provide that to listeners as well. (And, of course, none of those attempts to diminish user-generated stations were accompanied by major broadcasters choosing not to offer them anymore.)

There was enough intriguing radio from beyond the AM/FM dial to compel a part II of “The Most Intriguing Stations of 2011.” If there aren’t a lot of produced, curated, shared experiences below, it’s because the first priority for so many expanding broadcasters was seemingly to engage with the major pureplays on their own self-programmed turf. Even more than in previous years, there was a playlist, but not necessarily a radio genre, available for every need.

From a promotional standpoint, Clear Channel’s iHeartRadio clearly took great advantage of what its owner could do, relaunching in September with the ultimate radio station concert, going commercial-free for six months, and itself becoming the top-of-the-hour consumer brand for Clear Channel Radio. And iHeartRadio undeniably did the best job of “Taking Control Of The Infinite Dial,” announcing alliance after alliance with other broadcasters. In 2012, I’m hoping to hear some of that bigness on the online exclusive channels—and after a slew of big name appointments, there’s a better chance of it.

Elsewhere, among the Most Intriguing new offerings on new platforms:

Spotify – The European digital music service’s U.S. debut has been mostly out of the fray in the “what is radio” debate, but it’s done a lot in six months’ time to obliterate any “your/mine” distinction. I didn’t want it to organize my entire collection, stash it in a cloud, or announce what I was listening to on Facebook. And Spotify’s formatted- and user-driven stations, when they materialized late last fall, were a little eccentric, even by the standards of what else was available. But its extensive streaming music library was a great tool, particularly for staying current in this business (as opposed to wading into an electronics store’s ill-tended new releases bin to pay $9.99 for a CD that might be listened to once). And for anybody who was looking for one-stop shopping, the combination of cloud storage plus personalized radio plus an extensive lending library was pretty potent. With new variants of the listening experience emerging all the time, Spotify also demonstrated that anybody hoping to be the provider of audio entertainment was going to have to constantly add functionality.

Slacker also came into its own in 2012. Long a stealth favorite among terrestrial programmers, it continues to emerge as the best buffet table in online radio, recently adding American Public Media to a lineup that already included AOL Radio, The Weather Channel, ESPN, and ABC News. (There was also an alliance with the intriguing-unto-itself AARP Internet Radio. Slacker continued to unveil creatively themed channels that were informed just enough by a “real radio” aesthetic, rather than chained to or oblivious of it, including the new-release oriented “New 40,” which was tied for my favorite new channel with CBS Radio’s…

Radio.com’s Tomorrow’s Hits Today – Radio, having lost its monopoly on new music discovery, declared publicly that its new franchise would be culling the best new music on the audience’s behalf. But in 2011, only CHR and Country were effectively in the current music business, and CHR became a format of 16 consensus hits. That left a hole for “a second way to do CHR” and/or a more enthusiastic new music concierge. Sirius XM’s Hits 1 has always stepped up on that front (and ended up mentioned in this column year after year); Goom’s Just Hits, a hosted CHR channel that emphasized new music, didn’t last the year. Radio.com’s Tomorrow’s Hits Today, which spotlighted new music based on pre-release testing by SoundOut.com, was one of several intriguing stations unveiled as Radio.com replaced the AOL Radio channels. That said, both the Slacker and Radio.com channels were delivered song-by-song and mostly unhosted, when what I really wanted from this concept was a full-fledged, real-time radio station—hosted and with listener interaction.

Aupeo, Black Planet Radio – One was a four-year-old German pureplay, the other was Urban radio powerhouse Radio One’s new suite of addressable radio stations. Both of them were notable for a creative and seemingly endless variety of channels. It was Aupeo’s channel for runners and Black Planet’s channel emphasizing the jazzy/ambient side of ’70s funk that brought them into the pages of Ross On Radio in 2011, but it could have been multiple others.

AccuRadio Holiday Music Channels – When Radio-Info.com’s 25+ newsletter did its first Holiday Format Readers Poll, there wasn’t a category for “Best Suite of Holiday Music Stations,” but the breadth of longtime online broadcaster AccuRadio’s offerings—really a pureplay unto themselves—would have been hard to deny. And they’re still available after the holidays.

Absolute ’60s – British Rock AC Absolute Radio* continued to unveil digital channels this year. In a way that would be hard to imagine for an American HD-2 channel, it became a national consumer press story for its promise not to play Cliff Richard. (The veteran British hitmaker recognized the stunt as calculated outrage, but was still powerless to ignore it.) Beyond that, however, Absolute ’60s was an interesting rethink of Oldies for a younger audience—the sort that might have taken place here if the format’s mid-’00s decline had continued. Of all the channels cited here, the one with the most implications for current terrestrial formats.

Birmingham Mountain Radio – The big groups didn’t try to offer full-fledged, hosted radio stations online. Many of the specialist stations, including those from former terrestrial programmers, didn’t have the resources. So what this hosted online-only Triple-A station achieves is that much more impressive; online radio’s detractors would have a hard time judging it to be not “real radio.”

Pop Gold Radio, George Wilson’s Memory Tunes, Bobby’s B100 – Don Tandler’s broad Oldies play Pop Gold Radio was sometimes hosted by the proprietor/New Jersey radio veteran himself. Memory Tunes was a mostly Classic Country station from veteran programmer George Wilson that could also delve into ’60s/’70s soft pop/MOR, today’s Americana, or, as I write, zydeco. Bobby’s B100 was the very-much-active-on-the-terrestrial-side PD Bobby Rich reviving the B100/San Diego brand he helped make famous in the ’70s and ’80s.

Sirius XM Studio 54, TSOP Soul Radio – Two very different takes on a similar body of classic R&B and dance music that showed up around the same time last year. TSOP Soul Radio was the online home of legendary producers Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff.

Third Rock Radio – Indie-leaning Alternative formats, a disappearing breed on the FM dial last year, have no shortage of homes on the Web. But Third Rock Radio—a NASA-themed station aimed at recruiting young scientists—had an undeniable hook, as well as veteran PD Cruze.

WAPS Akron, Ohio’s Rock + Recovery – The HD-4 channel of Akron’s noncomm Triple-A. The encouragement-themed rock station was exactly the sort of channel that belongs on an infinite dial—the kind of service for which a sustainable audience obviously exists, but can only be found on a national basis.

Clearly, this is only a smattering of what was available beyond AM/FM in 2011. I’ve tried to limit the sins of omission by focusing on new or recently revamped offerings, but please post a comment about the radio on new platforms you found intriguing in 2011.

Read Part I of “The Most Intriguing Stations Of 2011”.

Disclosure – My other employer, Edison Research, works with Pandora, although I do not. Edison also works with several of the radio groups named here, but not directly with the online stations cited.